The Lyman Allyn Art Museum has received an early 90th birthday present for New London, Connecticut, to enjoy.
Thanks to a $500,000 donation from two of its board trustees, the museum is going to transform its grounds into a park.
“This is the largest gift the museum has received since 1939, and it enables all sorts of forward thinking for us,” Museum Director Sam Quigley said. “We have embarked upon a master plan for the redevelopment of our 12 acres of green space into an urban park. And this gift makes it possible for us to think expansively.”
Quigley said the new park will celebrate art in nature, amplify the museum’s social justice and environmental advocacy and help serve a more diverse community into the future.
The museum was established as a gift from Harriet Allyn, a lifelong New London resident, in memory of her seafaring father. The facility houses over 17,000 objects from ancient times to the present.
“We feel that with this wonderful gift from the LaBoiteaux-Sharp Family Foundation, we are carrying out Harriet Allyn’s legacy,“ said Ellen Anderson, the museum’s director of development. “She was the person who said, ‘I would like to have my estate create a park and a museum for the people of New London.’”
“We’re bringing that park into reality today.”
The Lyman Allyn Art Museum will hold an open house Saturday, September 17, to show their park master plan from 10 a.m. to noon.
