The Worcester Art Museum is located in central Massachusetts. It is a museum where people come to see works of art from all over the world and from all different time periods. 

The Worcester Art Museum is located at 55 Salisbury Street in Worcester, Massachusetts.

By the 1890s, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia all had art museums. Worcester philanthropist Stephen Salisbury III believed his hometown deserved one too, and he worked with other community leaders to build an art museum for Worcester. These community members wanted to create a museum “for the benefit of all.” People of all ages, walks of life, and backgrounds would see and learn about art.

The Worcester Art Museum opened on May 10, 1898. This early image was created on June 13, 1898. It shows the Worcester Art Museum's Opening Exhibition with works of art hung closely together. Does this image look like a museum you have been to? Our galleries, or rooms with works of art, have more space between the works today.

Today the Museum has all different types of artwork. Here you see a group of students learning about some of the paintings one gallery. You will also see a suit of armor in this image. The Worcester Art Museum has the second largest collection of arms and armor in the United States of America. 

Some objects, like these ancient jars from China, were originally objects that were created for people to use. They are now at the Worcester Art Museum where they are on display and no longer used. They are preserved for us to see and learn about earlier times.

A special work of art at the Worcester Art Museum is the 

This was one room of a religious community in France. It is a rare example of medieval architecture, originally from the Benedictine Priory of Saint John in west central France. The room was where a group of religious men lived together in a life of prayer, study, and reflection. People can experience stepping into a room from thousands of years ago.

The galleries at the Worcester Art Museum are set up to show different time periods. The objects in the gallery here are all from the Medieval period, which is from about 476 to 1450. 

The Worcester Art Museum has a number of portraits, or works of art that show a person. Portraits often focus on the person's face and can show part or all of the person's body. Many of the portraits at the Museum are paintings. The slide here shows students looking at portraits in a gallery that has works from the early years of the United States of America. What do you think you could learn about different times in history from portraits?

The Museum does not just have old works of art. The Museum collects works from contemporary artists - these are artists working now. The slide you see shows a mural that was painted at the Worcester Art Museum in the winter of 2024 by Nevena Prijic. She is an artist from the country of Serbia who now lives in California. She worked for a few months on the scaffolding that you see here. She is the person in the picture closest to the painting. 

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