Mystic Museum of Art Celebrates 10 Years as a Museum and More Than a Century of Art in Mystic

Mystic Museum of Art Celebrates 10 Years as a Museum and More Than a Century of Art in Mystic on Saturday, Sept. 26, with an evening of free art, hands-on activities, refreshments, and a sunset concert along the Mystic River.

The celebration runs from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at the museum’s waterfront home on Water Street. It marks a milestone that requires a little explanation: Mystic Museum of Art is turning 10, but the organization behind it is actually more than a century old.

Founded by a group of artists in 1913, it spent generations as the Mystic Art Association and later the Mystic Arts Center before taking the name Mystic Museum of Art in 2016.

Ten years later, the museum is celebrating that transformation while looking back at roots that stretch to Mystic’s early 20th-century artists.

From an Artists’ Colony to a Museum

Mystic was attracting artists long before the museum existed.

By the late 1800s and early 1900s, painters were being drawn to the southeastern Connecticut shoreline, where fishing villages, farms, boats and changing coastal light provided subject matter for artists working in traditions including Tonalism and American Impressionism.

In 1913, artists including Charles Harold Davis, Frances Darby Davis, George Albert Thompson, Lorinda Dudley, Dr. G.S.B. Leonard, Mary Williams Reed Leonard, Elizabeth Tift Mallory and Rev. Albert Earnshaw came together to establish the organization that eventually became today’s museum.

Their ambitions extended beyond simply finding somewhere to hang paintings.

The organization envisioned an art museum that would exhibit works of art, encourage cultural education and historical interest and contribute to the beauty and cultural life of Mystic.

More than a century later, that mission continues from the museum’s location directly beside the Mystic River.

Why This Is the 10th Birthday

The birthday being celebrated Saturday isn’t the organization’s founding anniversary.

The Mystic Art Association evolved into the Mystic Arts Center and, in 2016, became the Mystic Museum of Art.

That change reflected the institution’s development beyond its earlier identity as an artists’ association. Today, MMoA combines exhibitions and a permanent collection with studio classes, workshops, children’s programs, lectures and community events.

Its permanent collection includes more than 250 works, with particular connections to American Impressionism, Tonalism and artists associated with Mystic and southeastern Connecticut.

So Saturday’s party effectively celebrates the first decade of the museum’s modern identity within an arts organization whose history reaches back 113 years.

A Fashion Exhibition Opens for Free

Visitors will also have free access Saturday evening to the museum’s current major exhibition, Luxe CT: Velvet Mills to Modern Runways.

The exhibition examines the history and evolution of textiles in Connecticut, stretching from the precolonial period through the state’s manufacturing history and into contemporary fashion.

The project brings together material from several regional institutions, including Historic Stonington, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center and Mystic Seaport Museum, alongside contemporary fashion from designers including Christian Siriano, Peter Som, Toriana Sauro and Xarea Lockhart.

The exhibition normally carries a special summer exhibition admission charge, but admission to Luxe CT will be free from 4:30 to 7 p.m. during the birthday celebration.

The show remains at the museum through Oct. 11.

Artmaking, Refreshments and a Concert on the River

This isn’t being staged as a formal anniversary ceremony.

MMoA is opening the celebration to all ages, with hands-on artmaking and refreshments on the museum’s patio overlooking the Mystic River.

Then, at 5:30 p.m., composer Garth Stevenson will perform a sunset concert on the river.

The waterfront setting has long been one of the museum’s distinguishing features. Its galleries and patio sit just south of downtown Mystic, giving visitors views across the river while remaining within walking distance of the village center.

For the birthday celebration, that setting becomes part of the program itself: galleries indoors, artmaking and refreshments on the patio, and live music as evening settles over the Mystic River.

The entire celebration is free and open to the public, although the museum requests RSVPs.

More information is available at the Event Website link below.

Details

Event: Mystic Museum of Art’s 10th Birthday Celebration
Date: Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026
Time: 4:30–7 p.m.
Sunset Concert: Garth Stevenson at 5:30 p.m.
Location: Mystic Museum of Art
Address: 9 Water Street, Mystic, CT 06355
Admission: Free and open to the public
RSVP: Requested
Activities: All-ages artmaking, refreshments on the patio, exhibition viewing and sunset concert
Exhibition: Luxe CT: Velvet Mills to Modern Runways
Exhibition Admission: Free during the celebration from 4:30–7 p.m.
Parking: Parking validations will be provided to MMoA members.

Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.