NewLondon

Lyman Allyn Art Museum Opens Two New Whaling Exhibitions

For Immediate Release

Lyman Allyn Art Museum Opens Two New Whaling Exhibitions

September 10, 2013
Lyman Allyn Art Museum
Press Contact: Carrie Ermler, Director of Development
860.443.2545 x136

Lyman Allyn Art Museum announces two new exhibitions to celebrate the year of the Charles W. Morgan. Greasy Luck: The Whaling World of the Charles W. Morgan and Milloff’s Melville: An Artist Renders the Whale open with a reception for the public on Saturday, September 21, 2013.

Greasy Luck: The Whaling World of the Charles W. Morgan

Greasy Luck is an academic year-long exhibition designed to support the K-12 public school curriculum standards while celebrating how whaling—its myths and reality, risk and reward—left its mark on Connecticut and American identity. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced that the academic year beginning in September 2013 will be dedicated to the Charles W. Morgan, the world’s last wooden whaleship, which was recently restored by the master craftsmen of Mystic Seaport Museum. During the 2013-to-2014 academic year, Connecticut students will learn more about the state’s whaling history and its historical ties with the sea. [Read more…]

Greasy Luck: The Whaling World of the Charles W. Morgan

On view: September 22, 2013 – June 8, 2014

Harpooning a Whale, 1924, Thomas F. Petersen

In celebration of the relaunching of the last surviving wooden whaleship, Lyman Allyn presents Greasy Luck! The Whaling World of the Charles W. Morgan. The exhibition, which runs from September 21 through June 8, 2014, will look at how whaling—its myths and reality, risk and reward—left its mark on Connecticut and American identity.

In the 1800s, friends and family gathered on the docks to wish “greasy luck” for a successful voyage to departing whaleships. To most people, whales were mysterious creatures. Yet whaling was big business. The thousands of barrels of oil the whalers brought home made ports like New London and Mystic some of the wealthiest places in the young nation, supporting a wide array of dockside occupations.

America @ Work: New Deal Murals in New London and Beyond

March 8 – June 9, 2012

Inspired by New London’s local treasures—the 1938 Post Office murals by Thomas La Farge—America @ Work: New Deal Murals in New London and Beyond features mural studies by La Farge (from the museum’s permanent collection) and other artists working on Roosevelt’s New Deal art projects across the country. Countering the stark realities of life during the Great Depression, the artists express pride in American ingenuity and a belief that economic woes could be overcome through hard work. These works resonate with today’s economic climate as Americans face comparable challenges.

Guest Curated by Barbara Zabel, Professor Emeritus of Art History at Connecticut College.