Wistariahurst Museum

This exhibit looks at the behind-the-scenes life of the Skinner Family, who at times had live-in housekeepers, a dozen gardners, a chauffer on 24-hour call, and an entire cooking staff. A Million Things to Get Done is based on an oral history project of former Skinner staff.

Holyoke Street Railway has an interesting history in Holyoke and beyond. This online exhibit, developed by Jeremy Smith, will take you through various decades of the railway's history. 

Belle and Katharine Skinner provided a place for female workers of Holyoke's silk mills to eat a small and inexpensive meal, as well as learn basic sewing skills, English, cooking and child-care. For recreation, this Skinner Coffee House held weekly Friday night dances.

Though he grew up in Holyoke, Joseph Allen Skinner spent most of his time in South Hadley, MA, where he built a golf course for his daughter, Elisabeth, who eventually became a skilled golfer herself. This exhibit examines the history of The Orchards Golf Course. It was originally installed for the 2004 LPGA tour, held at The Orchards.

The story of the Skinner Family cannot be told without looking at what made their family prominent in Holyoke: the silk mills. Though William Skinner began his career in silk dyeing, he became a well known silk baron throughout the world. This exhibit looks at the process of making silk threads, the labor force which made Skinner products, and how the family grew the business.

Wistariahurst's historical exhibits and programming in the years 2006 and 2007 will focus on Holyoke as a gateway city for immigrants and migrants, beginning in the 1840s to just fifty years ago. There were many stresses and aspirations that drove immigrants and migrants to America and they are still at work today, including poverty, religious and political oppression, the desire for education, and a better life. However, there is no typical immigrant or migrant. Each group of people who emigrated to Holyoke varies in the country of origin, time of coming, age, sex, health and class. These individual stories make up Holyoke's mosaic identity

For the project, YouthBuild students in Holyoke, Massachusetts will work with the Wistariahurst Museum to explore the history of the Puerto Rican community in Holyoke. Students will interview Puerto Rican residents of all ages to showcase the contribution of Latinos (who make up about 49% of the community's population) in Holyoke and their larger relationship to the community and nation. Students will contribute to the creation of a new exhibit dedicated to Latino culture within the museum by providing oral histories, documents, photographs, artwork and music. The opening of the exhibit will be incorporated into a month long celebration of the project, with events focusing on a different aspect of Latino culture like cuisine, music and art.

Exhibit explored the world of Trump Indicators, their history and their unique addition to the game of bridge. Joan Schepps, a resident of Holyoke, and Silver Life Master bridge player, is the foremost collector of trump indicators in the United States. A selection of250 trump indicators and bridge memorabilia will be on display. The exhibit will also highlight the history of bridge in Holyoke.

This exhibit is meant to reflect and express the cultural identity of the local Latino community.

Works specifically designed for the Wistariahurst Music Room by internationally know Robert Kushner. Kushner has completed several major public commissions. He has exhibited his work widely and is represented in the collections of The Brooklyn Museum, Los Angeles County Museum, The Metropolitan Museum, NY, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Tate Gallery, London, The Whitney Museum, NY and others. In 1997 Hudson Hills Press published the monograph, "Robert Kushner: Gardens of Earthly Delight" by Alexandra Anderson-Spivey. The New Jersey Center for Visual Arts mounted the survey exhibition "Robert Kushner: 25 Years of Making Art" in 1998.

An exhibition of works by artist Mary Frank entitled "At This Moment" will open for display on Saturday, September 30 at 4 p.m. at Wistariahurst Museum. One of America's leading contemporary sculptors, painters, printmakers and illustrators, Mark Frank will feature her works in the gallery at Wistariahurst Museum in conjunction with MIFA (Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts). Born in London, Mary Frank moved to New York when she was eight and was initially involved in the arts through dance before progressing to the study of the visual arts. Her first one-woman exhibition took place in New York in 1961. Since that time her art has been the subject of exhibitions throughout the United States and in France and Germany. Mary Frank's work is included in major collections such as the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of Art, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. She has also illustrated several books including Shadows of Africa, The Mature Poetry of Emily Dickinson, Skies in Blossom and Desert quartet: An Erotic Landscape.

Artist David Barclay will show paintings of instruments from Belle Skinner's music collection. Although the scale is altered, the paintings capture the striking beauty of the instruments themselves and the enormous craftsmanship of their makers.

Included in the works shown by Michael Powers are exterior views of present-day industrial Holyoke and surrounding landscapes shot in black and white and illuminated with existing light.

At At once hyper-real and impressionistic, Denis Luzuriaga’s objective dreamscapes span a broad emotional space from the deadpan to the whimsical to the sinister, as what seem at first glance to be mundane scenes pulse undeniably with tension and urgency.