Visiting the Bennington Museum and Clark Art Institute After Months of COVID

This past weekend, I visited my two local museums. The Bennington Museum in Bennington, Vt., about ten miles from my home, is the state’s best museum of Vermont art and history. It’s the perfect New England experience. Grandma Moses, Robert Frost, and Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys were all locals. Their heritage is a big part of the museum’s art and storytelling. Frost and his family are horizontal in the old cemetery hugging the museum building. It dates from Vermont’s earliest days and is next to one of New England’s prettiest old churches.

The Clark Art Institute is unique and far fancier. It’s in Williamstown in northwestern Massachusetts, about 20 miles from me. With 35 Renoirs, ten paintings by Winslow Homer, and 14 Sargents, among many other great things, it’s a temple of art surrounded by woods, pasture, and mountains. I was curious to see how both looked and felt after this annus horribilis.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

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

This past weekend, I visited my two local museums. The Bennington Museum in Bennington, Vt., about ten miles from my home, is the state’s best museum of Vermont art and history. It’s the perfect New England experience. Grandma Moses, Robert Frost, and Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys were all locals. Their heritage is a big part of the museum’s art and storytelling. Frost and his family are horizontal in the old cemetery hugging the museum building. It dates from Vermont’s earliest days and is next to one of New England’s prettiest old churches.

The Clark Art Institute is unique and far fancier. It’s in Williamstown in northwestern Massachusetts, about 20 miles from me. With 35 Renoirs, ten paintings by Winslow Homer, and 14 Sargents, among many other great things, it’s a temple of art surrounded by woods, pasture, and mountains. I was curious to see how both looked and felt after this annus horribilis.