Lockwood-Mathews Mansion opens 2026 season with Irish American art exhibition

Leaving by Tracy Sweeney at the lockwood Mathews mansion art exhibit in Norwalk, Connecticut in March 2026 — Leaving by Tracy Sweeney

The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum will open its 2026 season March 12 with a new exhibition exploring the Irish American immigrant experience, presented in collaboration with Quinnipiac University and Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield.

Titled “A Journey of Hope: The Irish American Immigrant Experience,” the exhibition will be on view through May 17 and will feature paintings and sculptures displayed throughout the mansion’s art gallery and historic servants’ quarters. Viewing is included with the purchase of a guided tour, museum officials said.

The season-opening celebration will include a public reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on March 12, sponsored by O’Neill’s Irish Pub and Restaurant, with live music by the Shamrogues.

“We look forward to this collaborative exhibit that touches upon themes that are timeless and universal,” said Douglas Hempstead, chairman of the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum board. “Visitors will be thrilled to have an opportunity to see this outstanding art collection.”

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The exhibition examines Irish immigration to the United States in the 19th century, particularly in the aftermath of the Great Famine, which forced more than 1.5 million people to leave Ireland between 1845 and 1855. Former Irish President Michael D. Higgins has described the famine as “the greatest social calamity, in terms of morality and suffering, that Ireland has ever experienced.”

Organizers said the show connects directly to the mansion’s own history, when many of its domestic staff were Irish immigrants. Sculptures by Irish American artists will be installed in the servants’ quarters to help visitors better understand the lived experiences of those who worked and lived there.

Loretto Leary, co-chair of the Connecticut-Ireland Trade Commission, said the exhibition reflects both a pivotal moment in Irish history and a broader global story.

“Forced from their homes by forces beyond their control, seeking not pity but the chance to forge new lives in an unfamiliar land, Irish famine immigrants set out on journeys that still echo today,” Leary said. “Their experience mirrors that of refugees around the world.”

Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield, a partner in the project, houses the world’s largest collection of art related to the famine, including works by contemporary Irish and Irish American artists as well as 19th-century painters. John Foley, president of the museum, said the collaboration offers a powerful setting for the exhibition.

Alexander Williams, RHA 1846-1930
Cottage, Achill Island
Oil on canvas
24 x 42 in. (61 x 106.68 cm.)

“This partnership allows these works to be experienced in a place that mirrors the lived realities of Irish immigrants in nineteenth-century America,” Foley said.

The exhibition is curated by Ryan Mahoney, project manager at the Springfield Museums in Massachusetts and a former executive director of both the Irish American Heritage Museum in Albany, New York, and Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum at Quinnipiac University. Mahoney has more than 15 years of museum experience and has been active in Irish American cultural organizations nationwide.

Support for the museum’s contemporary art exhibitions is provided in part by Gail Ingis and Kathy Olsen, CPA. The 2026 season is also underwritten by several civic and private benefactors, including the City of Norwalk, the Maurice Goodman Foundation, Lockwood-Mathews Foundation, and the Sealark Foundation.

The exhibit runs until May 17, 2026.

For more information about tours, programs, or tickets, visit lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, email info@lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, or call 203-838-9799.

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Lockwood-Mathews Mansion opens 2026 season with Irish American art exhibition