Preservation And Protection:

Conservation Of Art At Weir Farm

WILTON and RIDGEFIELD — Weir Farm National Historic Site has opened an exhibition of recently conserved, historic artwork from its collection by J. Alden Weir, his father Robert Walter Weir, Mahonri Young and Weir’s daughters Caroline Weir Ely and Dorothy Weir Young.

The exhibition, “Preservation And Protection: Conservation of Art at Weir Farm National Historic Site,” will be on display in the Visitor Center Gallery until February 1. Most of the 12 works on paper in the exhibition have come into the park’s collection through generous donations by Weir descendents, the Weir Farm Art Center, and Doris and Sperry Andrews.  Several have never been exhibited before, including a J. Alden Weir watercolor of his Branchville home painted before his first of two expansions.

Also in the exhibition is a large pastel drawing, a study for one of four allegorical figures J. Alden Weir executed for the World’s Columbian Exposition murals at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Weir’s murals, in oil, were on the plaster ceiling of the Manufacturers and Liberal Arts building.  After the fair, all the buildings were torn down and the murals, approximately 25 feet in diameter, were destroyed.

It is a little-known fact that the National Park Service manages the world’s largest system of museums with more than 115 million objects, documents, specimens, and images nationwide. The items that make up the museum collection of a national park are uniquely important to the individual site and support its mission, mandates, history and themes.

Weir Farm National Historic Site has a collection of over 8,000 historic objects, 20,000 archeological objects, and 113 linear feet of archival material. Among the park’s historic objects is a small but treasured collection of artwork that has come to it through donation.

(Ironically, as the only National Park Service site dedicated to American painting, and one of only two devoted to the visual arts, Weir Farm National Historic Site is unable to purchase art with funds from its budget. The period preceding its designation in 1990 was one of controversy over the use of federal money to acquire art. It was expedient to write into the Congressional law that created the park that no federal funds would be used for this purpose. Weir Farm National Historic Site can, however, purchase art with donated funds.)

Weir Farm National Historic Site, Connecticut’s only National Park Service site, preserves the 19th Century home and workplace of American painter Julian Alden Weir, a leading figure in American art and the development of American Impressionism.  Today, the National Park Service preserves and maintains the site, as well as offers programs and tours for the public.

The grounds and parking lot of Weir Farm National Historic Site are open to the public year round from dawn to dusk. The Visitor Center is open May through October, Wednesday through Sunday, from 9 am to 5 pm and November through April, Thursday through Sunday, from 10 am to 4 pm.

Other activities include walking, hiking, bird watching, photography, and as always, painting and sketching. Maps and brochures are always available on the porch of the visitor center.

The main entrance for the property is at 735 Nod Hill Road in Wilton, and the expanse of property extends into Ridgefield. For more information about Weir Farm National Historic Site, call 203-834-1896 or visit www.nps.gov/wefa.

For more information about the programs and events of Weir Farm Art Center, a private non-profit organization, call 203-761-9945 extension 1 or visit www.WeirFarmArtCenter.org.