Page 154 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - USA

152  NE W ENGLAND

Greater Boston paintings, sculptures, and
tapestries are still displayed as
Southwest of central Boston, what were once the marshlands Mrs. Gardner arranged them,
of the Fenway now house two superb art museums – the in galleries around a flower-
Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. filled central courtyard.
West of the city, across the Charles River, is the college town A striking modern wing
designed by architect Renzo
of Cambridge, dominated by Harvard University. To its east is Piano opened in 2012, adding
historic Charlestown, which forms a major part of Boston’s galleries, a café, and an intimate
Freedom Trail (see pp142–3). performance space for the
acclaimed concert series.
h Isabella Stewart
Gardner Museum j Museum of
25 Evans Way. Tel (617) 566-1401. Fine Arts
 MFA. Open 11am–5pm Wed–Mon Avenue of the Arts, 465 Huntington
(until 9pm Thu). Closed Jan 1, Thanksg., Ave. Tel (617) 267-9300.  MFA.
Dec 25. & 8 9 call for concert Open 10am–4:45pm Sat–Tue,
schedule. ∑ gardnermuseum.org 10am–9:45pm Wed–Fri (selected
collections Thu & Fri). Closed Jan 1,
This Venetian-style palazzo, 3rd Mon in Apr, Jul 4, Thanksgiving,
completed in 1903, houses a Dec 25. & 7 8 9 Lectures,
remarkable collection of over concerts, & films. 0 - =
2,500 works of art, including Old ∑ mfa.org
Masters and Italian Renaissance
The dramatic structure of the John F. Kennedy pieces. Advised by art scholar The largest art museum in New
Library and Museum Bernard Berenson, the wealthy England, and one of the five
g John F. Kennedy and strong-willed Isabella largest in the US, the Museum
Stewart Gardner began
of Fine Arts (MFA) has a
Library & Museum collecting art in the late permanent collection of
19th century and acquired approximately 450,000 objects,
Columbia Point, Dorchester.
Tel (617) 514-1600.  JFK/U Mass. master pieces by Titian, ranging from Egyptian artifacts
Open 9am–5pm daily. Closed Jan 1, Rembrandt, and Matisse as to modern American paintings.
Thanksgiving, Dec 25. & 7 8 9 well as the American painters Though founded in 1876, the
∑ jfklibrary.org James McNeill Whistler and MFA’s original Beaux Arts-style
John Singer Sargent. The building dates from 1909. It was
Housed in a dramatic white
concrete and black glass
building designed by architect
I.M. Pei, this museum chronicles
the 1,000 days of the Kennedy
presidency. The combination of
video and film footage, papers,
and memorabilia evoke the
euphoria of “Camelot” as well
as the numb horror of the
assas sination with an
immediacy that is uncommon
in historical museums. Some of
the key chambers in the White
House, including the Oval
Office, are re-created here.
The house at 83 Beals Street
in Brookline, where the late
president was born in 1917,
is now the John F. Kennedy
National Historic Site. The
Kennedy family moved to a
larger house in 1921; in 1966
they repurchased this house,
and restored it to how it would
have looked in 1917. It is
open during the summer
and fall. Statue of Artemis in the central courtyard of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp184–6 and pp187–9

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