Essex Attractions

Culture

Essex is home to the acclaimed Ivoryton playhouse, said to be the oldest summer theater in America, where actors such as Katherine Hepburn, Marlon Brando and Tallulah Bankhead once performed. Just up the river in East Haddam is the renowned Goodspeed Opera House, dedicated to the preservation and advancement of musical theater. The musical Annie got its start here, and Goodspeed has been the source for many musical revivals. Essex Meadows has a unique relationship with these institutions, hosting an on-site Goodspeed lecture series, sponsoring shows, and providing opportunities for residents to attend performances.

The Essex area boasts an extraordinary array of options for music lovers. The Musical Masterworks series attracts world-renowned classical musicians to Old Lyme several times a year, while the Summer Music series at Harkness in Waterford provides opportunities to hear fine classical and pops music in a gorgeous outdoor setting near Long Island Sound. The New Haven Symphony and Eastern Connecticut Symphony orchestras are a short drive away, and concerts of all types are held throughout the year at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun.

For more than a century, the Connecticut River Valley has been a center for the visual arts. American Impressionists such as Childe Hassam made the area famous in the early 1900s when they flocked to Old Lyme to paint the local landscape. Artists continue to live and work in the area today, and Essex and its neighbors have active art associations and galleries. The Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, known as a center for American Impressionism, has rotating shows in its new state-of-the-art galleries, as well as a museum focusing on the turn-of-the-century art colony. Essex Meadows has an active group of resident artists who display their work in periodic on-site art shows. Art instruction is offered in our arts and crafts studio, while those with more professional aspirations can take advantage of our proximity to the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts.

• Bee and Thistle Inn, Old Lyme
• Chester town link
• Connecticut College, New London
• The Connecticut River Museum, Essex
• Connecticut River Valley information
• Connecticut River Valley dining
• Connecticut Visitors Council
• The Copper Beech Inn, Essex
• East Haddam town link
• Essex Steamboat and Train, also www.valleyrr.com
• Town of Essex
• Foxwoods Resort, Ledyard
• Garde Arts Center, New London
• The Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme
  
• Goodspeed Opera House, East Haddam
• The Griswold Inn, Essex
• Hartford Stage Company, Hartford
• High Hopes Therapeutic Riding, Old Lyme
• The Inn and Vineyard at Chester
• Ivoryton Playhouse, Essex
• Long Wharf Theater, New Haven
• Lyman Allyn Museum, New London
• Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, Old Lyme
• Mashantucket Pequot Museum
• Mohegan Sun, Uncasville
• Mystic area
• Mystic Aquarium, Mystic
• Mystic coast
• Mystic Seaport, Mystic
• The Nature Conservancy, Connecticut Chapter
• Old Lyme Inn
• Town of Old Lyme
• Town of Old Saybrook
• Trinity College, Hartford
• Wadsworth Atheneum Museum, Hartford
• Wesleyan University, Middletown
• Yale University, New Haven
• Yale Art Gallery, New Haven
• Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
• Yale Repertory Theater, New Haven

Please visit the following links to see more Essex attractions:

Culture  |  The Natural Environment  |  History
Volunteer Opportunities  |  Restaurants and Inns  |  Related Web Sites

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