The Peabody Essex Museum is America’s oldest continuously operating museum.
It was founded in 1799, sixteen years after the establishment of the nation and nearly three-quarters of a century before the founding of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Peabody Essex Museum’s collections, many ranking among the finest of their kind, exceed 2.4 million works of art and culture. Peabody Essex collections also encompass twenty-four historic buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, five National Register buildings, and our most recent architecture acquisition, Yin Yu Tang, the only complete Qing Dynasty house located outside China.

The guided tour will start with a tour of the Yin Yu Tang, a late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) Chinese merchant's house; it is the only installation of its kind in North America. Click here to view more details about the Yin Yu Tang.

Tickets are $60.00 non-refundable. Please purchase tickets in advance. Includes pastry and coffee at the Inkwell, round trip private bus, entrance to the Peabody Essex, and guided tour by an employee of the Museum.

The other focus of the tour will be the special exhibit at the Peabody Essex:
Painting Summer in New England
New England is renowned for the summer delights and leisure activities afforded by its mountains, villages, and seacoast. Since the 19th century, painters have gathered in New England to capture these activities and landscapes on canvas. In Painting Summer in New England, guest curator Trevor Fairbrother assembles an astonishing array of paintings, ranging from the 1850s to the present, including works by Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Childe Hassam, Andrew Wyeth, Stuart Davis, George Bellows, Marguerite Zorach, Edward Hopper, Lois Dodd, and Alex Katz. While some works reflect the leisure activities of the summer, others touch on the counterpoints of city living, rural existence, and the impact on natural settings and resources.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the world's largest and finest art museums. Its collections include more than two million works of art spanning 5,000 years of world culture, from prehistory to the present and from every part of the globe. Founded in 1870, the Metropolitan Museum is located in New York City's Central Park along Fifth Avenue (from 80th to 84th Streets). Last year it was visited by 5.2 million people.

To view the special exhibitions that are currently at the Met, please click here.

Tickets are $75.00 non-refundable. Includes pastry and coffee at the Inkwell, round-trip private bus, entrance to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Guided Tour led by Susan M. Pennington, M.A. Our popular tours sell out quickly, so please purchase tickets in advance at The Inkwell. The morning pastries are donated by Michael Flaherty, manager of Roche Bros., and snacks during the bus ride are donated by Cape Cod Potato Chips. Thanks to both for their support of the Met Tour!

Clark Art Institute & Williams College Art Collection

The Clark collection is best known for an extraordinary collection of French Impressionist paintings, which take their place within a wider ensemble of masterworks that date from the Renaissance to the late 19th century. The Clark continues to collect in the fields of paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, and photographs as well as decorative arts including additions to its already extensive collection of British and American silver. The Williams College collection is based on modern and contemporary American art.

Tickets are $50.00 non-refundable. Includes pastry and coffee at the Inkwell, round trip bus fare, entrance to the two museums and guided tour by Susan M. Pennington, M.A. Please purchase tickets in advance. Box lunch is available for an additional charge.