Art Review: New Britain, Conn., Packs a Punch: Industry, Politics, and Art

Last week I was in Norwich in Connecticut for a memorial service. On the way home, we stopped in New Britain, a city of about 75,000 people, to visit the New Britain Museum of American Art. Among the art set, it’s well known as the local museum, but it’s also much loved in New Britain and the tony suburbs west of Hartford. I hadn’t been there in a few years.

It’s not a glitzy, fancy place, and it doesn’t seem ever to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown, as does its neighbor, the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford. Rather, the New Britain Museum has a wonderful collection and gets to the business of art with dispatch and intelligence.

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Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

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Last week I was in Norwich in Connecticut for a memorial service. On the way home, we stopped in New Britain, a city of about 75,000 people, to visit the New Britain Museum of American Art. Among the art set, it’s well known as the local museum, but it’s also much loved in New Britain and the tony suburbs west of Hartford. I hadn’t been there in a few years.

It’s not a glitzy, fancy place, and it doesn’t seem ever to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown, as does its neighbor, the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford. Rather, the New Britain Museum has a wonderful collection and gets to the business of art with dispatch and intelligence.