Friday, November 28, 2003—Sunday, January 4, 2004
Period Rooms and Purcell-Cutts House
Free Exhibition
Holiday Traditions: "A White House Christmas"
November 28, 2003 through January 4, 2004
Bell Family Decorative Arts Court
Since Calvin Coolidge lit the first official White House Christmas tree in 1923, American presidents have communicated holiday greetings through public addresses, cards, prints, and other gifts. This year's "Holiday Traditions" offers insight into Christmas at the White House. The Bell Family Decorative Arts Court will feature mementos from the 1930s to the present, including a rare example of the card signed by President Kennedy just days before his assassination.
Costumed guides will offer FREE tours of the Bell Court and the Period Rooms several times each day.
Period Room tours begin November 28. Guides in period costume take you back in time to discover the charms of the season, from a festive seventeenth-century English country home to an extravagant eighteenth-century feast in Charleston, South Carolina. Offered several times per day, Tuesdays through Sundays. Call (612) 870-3131 for times. (No tours December 24 and 25; the museum will be closed.)
The Purcell Cutts House is also decorated in period style for the holidays.
Purcell-Cutts House tours begin November 29. Experience a progressive early 20th-century celebration with a costumed guide. Offered hourly, Saturdays 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and Sundays 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. All tours leave by shuttle bus from the Institute. Purchase your Purcell-Cutts Holiday Tour tickets in advance by calling 612-870-6323 or (888) 642-2787, extension 6323, Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Any remaining "same day tickets" will be sold in the museum lobby on a first-come, first-served basis. Museum members and children under 12 free, nonmember students and seniors $4, nonmembers $5.
Organized by The Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
