Worcester Art Museum

Interior courtyard with mosaic

The Worcester Art Museum will never be put in the same category at The Louvre or even Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. However, for an art museum located in a small city, it isn’t bad. Better than I expected.

Let’s start with the building itself. It is rather grand. Neo-gothic, I think, with a sunlit interior courtyard that features a very large Roman mosaic on the floor, plus a few more lining the courtyard walls. Rooms off of this courtyard contain some very nice collections of ancient art, including Greek, Roman and Chinese artifacts. The exhibits are arranged roughly in chronological order, so as you move clockwise around the courtyard you encounter art that is less and less ancient. However, all of the exhibits on the main floor are pretty darn old.

The second floor is reserved for paintings. Again, moving clockwise the paintings become more modern. There are not a lot of modern pieces, just a room of impressionist works. But for a small museum the variety and quality of the works are impressive.

The museum also has a rather large library, which I found surprising, and a cafe which I didn’t sample but which was very attractive, with an exterior courtyard.

Overall, pretty nice. Expensive for the size – I paid the $14 senior price and younger adults would pay $16. But it is free the first Sunday of every month. If you like art and find yourself in Worcester MA, take a look.

Greek statues

Chinese bust

Medieval armor

Impressionist room featuring Gauguin