Bellarmine Museum of Art Named New Member of the Connecticut Art Trail

NORWICH, CT, March 13, 2013

The Connecticut Art Trail is pleased to announce a new member, the Bellarmine Museum of Art, bringing its membership to 16 museums across the state. The Bellarmine Museum, which opened at Fairfield University in October 2010, is dedicated to preserving, studying and exhibiting those objects entrusted to its care, while also promoting art education. The museum takes pride in three elements: Docere, Delectare, Movere - to teach, to delight, and to move.

As part of the Art Trail, the Bellarmine Museum of Art will now be included in the Trail's Art Pass, which gives pass-holders free one-day admission to each of the 16 museums along the Trail over the course of a year. The Bellarmine Museum of Art will offer Pass holders increased value and the Museum will also be able to partner with nearby museums and businesses to offer travel packages and discounts at other local attractions through their new association with the Art Trail.
Since the Bellarmine Museum of Art opened in the University's signature Tudor and Gothic style Bellarmine Hall on October 25, 2010, the Museum has grown tremendously, and the Connecticut Art Trail is very excited to add the Museum as a new member this year.

Collections at the Bellarmine include painting, sculpture and decorative art objects, including ten paintings by master Italian Renaissance and Baroque painters gifted to the University by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation via Bridgeport's Discovery Museum. The Bellarmine Museum of Art also maintains many historic plaster casts of important works from ancient Greece and Rome, including eight donated by the Acropolis Museum in Athens, as well as many non-Western art objects. Currently, the Museum also holds twenty objects on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art/The Cloisters Museum.

The Bellarmine Museum of Art mounts four temporary exhibitions each year. These shows, which embrace a wide range of subjects and disciplines, are intended to enhance the museum's permanent collection by examining cultural artifacts from a multitude of viewpoints and perspectives. The Bellarmine's next exhibition, "Excavation: Recent Photographs by Stanley Greenberg," opens with a free, public reception for the artist on April 12th (6-8 p.m.) and runs through June 14th. The museum also offers a robust schedule of outreach and educational programming, including a dynamic range of events designed to complement each of its special exhibitions and (free) Family Days on the second Saturday of most months.

The Bellarmine Museum of Art is located in Bellarmine Hall on the campus of Fairfield University at 1073 N. Benson Road in Fairfield, Connecticut. The museum is open Monday through Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm, as well as on select Saturdays. For more information, visit fairfield.edu/museum or call 203-254-4046.

About the Connecticut Art Trail
The Connecticut Art Trail is a nationally recognized partnership between sixteen world-class museums and historic sites, created to promote Connecticut's rich cultural assets as part of a travel experience.

The Trail was launched in 1995 as the Connecticut Impressionist Art Trail, celebrating Connecticut's 10 museums and historic sites that highlighted American Impressionism. In 2005, the member museums voted to expand the Trail's membership beyond Impressionism to include even more quality museums and historic sites, increasing the membership to 15 today. This strategic initiative was accomplished in order to reach a broader audience and showcase the diversity of collections within the state.

The Connecticut Art Trail also offers the Art Pass, granting visitors one-day access to each museum along the trail for a small fee. For more information vist arttrail.org or follow the Art Trail on social media, facebook.com/ctarttrail and twitter.com/ctarttrail.