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Isabella Stewart Gardner was an avid
traveler, a wife, mother and philanthropist and a fan of horse
races and the Red Sox, and her Museum unveils a great deal
about her life and inspiration for her creation.
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The Isabella Stewart
Gardner Museum's more than 2,500 artworks - paintings, sculpture,
furniture, textiles, drawings, silver, ceramics, illuminated
manuscripts, rare books, photographs and letters - include
masterworks by Titian, Raphael, Botticelli, Whistler and Sargent.
Much of her collection was amassed as a result of extensive
travels around the world and with the help of art advisors
and friends, including Bernard Berenson.
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Isabella Stewart Gardner's will stipulates that
the Museum permanently display her complete collection, exactly
as she installed it. In the mid-1990s, the Museum installed
a state-of-the-art climate control system to preserve and
protect newly-conserved objects from the collection. Today,
a team of ten full-time conservators counteract thehus contributing
to substantial wear on the collection.
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Each year, the
Museum welcomes between four and six working contemporary artists
to live, think and create among the collection and archives
of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Artists-in-Residence
often collaborate with neighboring schools and return to display
or perform resulting works. |
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| Sunday concerts
at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum began 75 years ago under
the Museum's first director Morris Carter. Since, the program
has grown to be one of the most renowned in the country. |
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Designed to appeal
to visitors of all ages, Museum public programs include historic
and contemporary lectures, performance art pieces and community
events. In 2002, the Museum launched the new "Saturdays
at the Gardner," a series of music, education, contemporary
and historic art. 2002 also piloted annual "Neighborhood
Nights" free community celebrations of art and culture.
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Education and family
programs at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum focuses on building
lifelong relationships with art. New monthly "Family Fun"
activities engage young children in gallery activities and School
Partnership students learn to look at art through sustained
visits to the Museum and related classroom activities. |
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| Isabella Stewart
Gardner loved flowers and today, Museum horticulturalists continue
to design and cultivate a changing portfolio of seasonal flowers
and greenery in the Museum's central courtyard and exterior
gardens. |
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