Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is at 600 Main St. Founded in 1842, it is said to be the nation's oldest continuously operated public art museum. The collection encompasses 50,000 objects spanning 5,000 years of artistic expression, including Hudson River School landscapes, European Old Master paintings, four centuries of American art, American and European decorative arts, Meissen and Sèvres porcelain, costumes and textiles, and modern and contemporary masterpieces.

Included are works by Thomas Cole, Frederic Edwin Church, Caravaggio, Salvador Dali, Eugène Delacroix, Frans Hals, Claude Lorrain, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Georgia O'Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, and Andrew Wyeth. The Amistad Center for Art & Culture curates 7,000 works of art, artifacts and archives representing more than 300 years of African American heritage in America.

Guided tours are available. Food is available. Time: Allow 1 hour minimum.