Exterior of Purcell-Cutts House in winter. Photo credit: Christian Korab.
Friday, November 27, 2009—Sunday, January 3, 2010
Period Rooms and Purcell-Cutts house
Free Exhibition
Starting Friday, November 27, in the Period Rooms, Bell Family Decorative Arts Court, and Mary C. and Walter C. Briggs Gallery.
Free
Starting Saturday, November 28, at the Purcell-Cutts House.
Admission: $5 for adults, $4 for students and seniors, free for MIA members and children 12 and under
Since 1951, the MIA has decorated its American and European period rooms each year to show winter holidays as they were celebrated in times past. Nine period rooms showcase a range of special occasions, from a feast in Tudor England to a 1770s Hanukkah celebration in Providence, Rhode Island. Examples of early Christmas trees and Nativity scenes are highlighted in the Bell Family Decorative Arts Court and the Mary C. and Walter C. Briggs Gallery. To further explore the holidays this year, several versions of two beloved Christmas stories—A Christmas Carol and The Night Before Christmas—are on view in the Bell Family Decorative Arts Court. Tours of the period rooms are led by costumed docents and are offered several times per day. For information on holiday tours of the period rooms, please call (612) 870-3131.
The MIA’s Prairie School style Purcell-Cutts House, designed in 1913 by William Gray Purcell and George Grant Elmslie for Purcell and his family, is decorated for the holidays to reflect the upper-middle-class, “progressive” lifestyle of the Purcells around 1915. Throughout the holidays, visitors can enjoy lively tours by costumed docents emphasizing the gifts, toys, food, and social traditions of each period. Tours of the Purcell-Cutts House, given on weekends from November 28 through January 3, can be purchased by calling (612) 870-6323 or by clicking the link below.
reserve tickets online »
