Springfield Museums Quadrangle

A good deal for Springfield residents (free), but pricey ($ 18) for anyone else… considering the two mediocre art museums. I did not go into the science museum. The café has good prices.

It’s an ok museum. Just ok. While I do like their traveling exhibits, I think every thing else in there hasn’t changed since they’ve opened. It’d be so nice of them to put something fresh and new as a permanent exhibit and switch something out. The animals in the aquarium part of the museum were there since I’ve been going on field trips in the 90’s.
While I do like the gingerbread exhibit in the winter, it’s very predictable.

In the D’Amour Fine Art building tell Mo Murphy (security) to take a chill pill.
Serious artists that want to study and get into a painting will not be able to with Mo walking by you ever few minutes. I’d go somewhere else for a fine art experience.
Bummed that I didn’t get to have my ‘experience.’ This was the first time I’ve been able to go alone without my son.

This is a very cool place. 3 museum and a library inside and a Dr Seuss’ sculpture garden outside. Really, something for everyone. You get to the area and can find street parking fairy easily, at least on a weekday.
You can then enter the gardens for free and just walk among the sculptures, which really are pretty nice. Made by the storytellers’ daughter and installed in the last decade I think, they look great.
Then there are the three museums around the quad.
One caters to those looking for fine art, one to the collection of George Vincent Walter Smith (Chinese cloisonné), the Science museum. The fourth side of the quad is a public library.
YOu can buy a ticket for a single museum or buy a «all access» pass. I forget the pricing, but Id dot he all access pass again as none of thse bmuseums is too large, so you wont get overwhelemdd.

While touring Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine and New Hampshire — we made an overnight stop in Springfield, MA. «Oh, the places you’ll go»…
Aside from the Basketball Hall of Fame Museum, I couldn’t think of any other places to visit in Springfield. I did my research and found the Dr. Seuss Memorial was there. It makes sense since Dr. Seuss was born in Springfield.
Known as the Quadrangle, this is a cluster of museums, a garden and a library. It was raining when we went but that didn’t stop us. I really enjoyed the installations and sculptures. It’s a nice place to expose kids to art and take lots of pictures.

We were driving through and saw that there was a Dr. Seuss outdoor sculpture garden! Cute photo ops here. Points for creativity.

Two days ago, I spent a delightful day perusing fine paintings at the Damour Art Museum, the fine arts segment of this educational complex. Painters with especially ffine paintings included;Spinello Aretino, Lazaro da Jacopo Bastiani, Goswyn Vander Weyden, Valerio Castello, Emanuel de Witte, Ferdinand Bol, Giovanni Paolo Pannini, Gustave Courbet, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Maximillian Luce, Erastus Field, George Bellows, and Georgia O’Keefe, among others. My top 4 paintings were;Spinello Aretino. s“Madonna and Child with Saints”, Emanuel de Witte’s“Church Interior”, Giovanni Pannini’s“Arch of Titus”, and Maximillian Luce’s“The Seine”.The painter represented the most in this fine, cozy art museum was American, Erastus Field. I also relished their fine Contemporary works by Lisa Hoke, Helen Frankenthaler, and Joseph Grillo. Things in this art museum are well-​labelled and assiduously explained. So enjoy this fine, less discovered art museum.

Drugs, bugs, and ho’s (and of course, their pimps…)
My family and I arrived at this museum quadrangle with much anticipation — my children being HUGE Dr. Seuss fans. We visited two years back, and this past trip was to be the highlight of a cross country road trip. The garden itself is pretty amazing, with bronze statues of all the most famous Seuss characters. That said, it was a Monday, and true to other reviews most of the museums were closed. While the Dr. Seuss statues were there as we remembered, the rest of the experience was far different than before…
First downside — the quad was SATURATED with gnats and bugs… In our hair, in our mouths, everywhere we went the gnats swarmed us, making the stop very unpleasant. We found ourselves running from statue to statue trying unsuccessfully to outwit them. Horrible. On the «up» side, bugs might be the fault of nature rather than man, though the groundskeepers could have done much more to prevent.
Second downside — the DEGENERATE crowd. While visiting, no joke, we found ourselves in the middle of a heated battle between two pimps, a hooker, and another presumed hooker friend. The were obviously high, and full of swear words, violence, and weapons (saw a gun and a knife). We ever so carefully tried to make our way back to our car before becoming a victim. The quad security was present, but did NOTHING — apparently these losers are always present, and rather than to get involved they choose to let them take over and ruin what would otherwise be a magical experience.
I meant what I said, and I said what I meant — the danger is present, 100 percent!!! Bottom line, unless you plan to sacrifice your life for a few bronze exhibits, skip this stop and remember Seuss through his books.

I really enjoyed all the Dr. Seuss statues. As for the rest of it, it was okay. Some fish, snakes, space rocks, etc. They had a part of the museum where it was extra admission but it was pretty cool. It was called Grossology, It was all interactive body stuff. Got a discount for being a student which was great. Cute gift shop.

There are three world-​class museums here: 1.) The Fine Arts Museum, which features a huge Impressionist and Post-​Impressionist collection, e.g. Monet, Degas, and Gauguin, plus a large American collection, e.g. Springfield’s Whistler and Boston’s Copley. 2.) The George Vincent Walter Smith Museum, known worldwide for featuring the world’s largest collection of Chinese cloisonné outside of China, and a lot of old Asian armor, and 3.) The Springfield Museum of Science, which features the United States’ first planetarium (1937,) and a big dinosaur exhibit.
The two regional museums are the excellent, new Museum of Springfield History — which is fascinating whether you know little or a lot about the city. Springfielders invented the first gasoline-​powered car, motorcycle, and modern fire engine – not to mention the first American dictionary, interchangeable parts in manufacturing, and vulcanized rubber (Charles Goodyear.) If Springfield was a more populous city, it’d be considered one of the most important in US history, in my opinion.
The final museum is the Connecticut River Valley Historical Museum, which displays the history of the Knowledge Corridor from pre-​European settlements to Hartford’s and Springfield’s settlement in 1635 and 1636, respectively, to the fighting over Springfield between Connecticut and Massachusetts, to everything having to do with the river.
A MUST-​SEE for anyone interested in culture. There are very large few cities that possess a cultural heart like Springfield’s Quadrangle, nevermind any mid-​sized cities that do.
The Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden is whimsical conglomeration of life-​sized sculptures that kids (and kids at heart) will likely enjoy.
The Springfield City Library is palatial, featuring grandeur similar to Boston’s. Springfield features the 2^nd largest circulation in New England, behind Boston’s.

I have been aware of the museum/​library quad for years and finally had the chance to go for a visit. The newest building focuses on Springfield history and the grassy expanse of the Quad is home to the National Dr. Seuss Memorial (The Lorax is my favorite). Of the museums I visited, the one that made an impression was the art museum. The early 20^th century interior is memorable… gorgeous tile and nice architectural details. Much of what I saw on display were of Chinese and Japanese origin. The way the objects were displayed was VERY old fashioned. There was a preponderance of dark wood cases, objects that probably date to the opening of the building. Very archaic yet, with most museums opting for modern cases, the galleries had this cool vibe. I half expected to see Henry James and Edith Wharton wandering the galleries. I look forward to returning with my honey and exploring more of the Springfield museums.

A great museum for a two and a half year old. Admission was free since it was covered under the Association of Science and Technology Center reciprocal program (we have a pass from out of state). The campus had a nice small feeling to it and it was the right size for our daughter. Yes, the TRex dinosaur was a model but she oddly enjoyed it a bit more than all the fossils we have been showing her at museums in Chicago and the Harvard Museum… She lasted ten minutes through the planetarium show and enjoyed the dioramas (although I’ve always found it a bit creepy to see dead baby animals).
It was nice for the same admission to be able to see their fine arts museum with a beautiful Monet painting from the haystack series and some other beautiful Italian and Belgian works… =)

This was a special trip out on our Anniversary to get a preview look at the new Indian Motorcycle exhibit, that will be open in October. Well, my gosh, was it impressive! Motorcycle Porn!
The exhibit is going in a building that hilights businesses from the Springfield area. I know, bore. However, the Indian exhibit is mostly done, and it is incredible. Tons of spectacular bikes, laid out nicely, with terrific backstories, and graphics… The docent on duty was really informative, as well.
We poked through some of the other halls, and buildings, and of course, checked out the Dr. Seuss National Site. Pretty impressive for a small city museum complex. Fine Arts, Dinos, a pretty impressive collection of Japanese armor, neat old buildings… I dug it.

This is a really nice place to visit with it’s cluster of museums. A couple of the museums were closed for renovation at the time, but I didn’t feel like I missed anything as I had plenty to do. The Dr. Seuss statues are lovely to walk around and view as well! They had lovely decorated benches in the gardens as well which were unique. I drove an hour to get here and have to say it was worth the drive and would visit again.