The Fairfield University Art Museum (FUAM) holds a varied collection of paintings, sculpture and decorative art objects, including ten paintings from the Italian Renaissance and Baroque periods - works gifted by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. The Museum also maintains a large collection of historic plaster casts, after works of art from the Classical world through the Renaissance, with an emphasis on ancient Greece and the Parthenon; Eight of these were donated by the Acropolis Museum in Athens, and others are on long-term loan by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In addition, the Asian Art Collection features works from China, Thailand, India, and Persia, and the museum showcases a range of non-Western art objects (including pre-Columbian vessels, 19th-century South East Asian sculptures, and African masks), and holds twenty-four objects from the Celtic, Byzantine, Romanesque, and Medieval periods on loan from the Metropolitan Museum's Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters.
FUAM mounts up to four temporary exhibitions each year. While some are hosted in the Bellarmine building, others are shown in the Thomas J. Walsh, Jr. Art Gallery in the Quick Center for the Arts. With its soaring ceiling and dramatic visual axes and site lines, the Walsh Gallery has become an appreciated venue by artists and art lovers alike.
FUAM is a member of the Connecticut Art Trail, a partnership of 18 museums and historic sites. The Art Pass, which is good for a year, includes one-day admission to each museum.
Read our article about FUAM -- a Small Museum with a Big Mission.