GREENWICH, CONN.- The Bruce Museum is about to roll out the red carpet, but it’s not for the kinds of luminaries you might expect. The superstars who will be taking over the Bruce for a weekend later this month are world-renowned experts in the fields of art and science, and they will be the featured panelists and speakers in a prodigious and unprecedented weekend of learning, inspiration and exploration at the Museum on October 25 and 26.

“I’m not sure we have ever had such an illustrious group of experts under our roof at once,” says Peter C. Sutton, Executive Director of the Bruce Museum. “We are delighted and honored to be hosting such an accomplished and knowledgeable group in the worlds of art and science, and to be sharing this kind of expertise with the community. Education has always been and continues to be an important part of our charter.”

On Saturday, October 25, the Museum will host The Splendor of a Golden Age: Topics in Northern Baroque Art, an international scholarly symposium featuring some of the world’s foremost authorities in the world of art history, including experts from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., as well as the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and the Mauritshuis at The Hague.

On Sunday, October 26, the Bruce will host The Explorer’s Journey: Pushing Boundaries, a unique live- streamed event featuring some of the brightest minds in science--from award-winning explorers and aero-scientists to oceanographers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution--sharing their real life discoveries from the farthest reaches of the earth.

The Splendor of a Golden Age: Topics in Northern Baroque Art
On Saturday, October 25, the Museum will host The Splendor of a Golden Age: Topics in Northern Baroque Art, a scholarly symposium that will be open to the public. In support of the Museum’s latest exhibition, Northern Baroque Splendor, The HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION from: LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna (now through April 12, 2015), the symposium will provide an interactive forum for an open exchange of knowledge and expertise among leaders in the study of Dutch and Flemish art of the seventeenth century and the general public. The conference will feature some of the world’s foremost authorities on Old Master Painting, Dutch and Flemish Art, and The Hohenbuchau Collection, including experts from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., as well as the Ashmolean Museum and the Mauritshuis at The Hague.

“The symposium gives us an opportunity to provide our constituency with in-depth discussion of the Hohenbuchau Collection,” says Dr. Sutton, “including both the historical context and cultural relevance of the Collection. The Dutch and Flemish masterpieces in this collection offer a glimpse of a remarkable period of artistic creativity with little-known paintings long hidden in a private collection.”

Symposium panelists will each present a specific topic, with a question and answer period after each presentation. The individual presentations will then be followed by an hour-long panel discussion and question and answer session. As a preeminent expert on the subject, Dr. Sutton will serve as moderator. In addition to being the organizer of the Northern Baroque Splendor exhibition and a world-renowned Old Master scholar, Dr. Sutton is also the author of the 500-page, richly illustrated catalogue The Hohenbuchau Collection: Dutch and Flemish Paintings from the Golden Age (2011).

Topics to be covered by the experts include: • Jacob Jordaens in the Hohenbuchau Collection -- Christopher Brown, Director Emeritus of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, will look closely at two paintings by Jacob Jordaens, The Holy Family with St. Elizabeth and an Angel, and Portrait of a Musician with his Muse. Discussing the paintings within the context of Jordaens’s career, this talk will explore Jordaens’ position as one of the three greatest Flemish Baroque painters.

• Decisive Years in Dutch Landscape Art -- Dutch Baroque artists invented naturalistic landscape painting, documenting Holland’s hills, rivers and dramatic skies with unparalleled precision. Frederick DuParc, former Director of the Mauritshuis at The Hague, will trace the development of Dutch landscape painting over time.

• Style in Dutch Art --The play between style and observation in Dutch painting can be difficult to appreciate, especially in genres such as landscape and still life. Walter Liedtke, Curator of European Paintings for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, will discuss the diverse local, regional, national, and international stylistic trends that impacted Dutch Baroque Art.

• Bringing Light into the Darkness: Gerrit Dou’s Evocative Interiors -- Gerrit Dou was the founder of the fijnschilders or “fine painters,” artists who created meticulously detailed, jewel- like works. Arthur Wheelock, Curator of Northern Baroque Painting at the National Gallery of Art, will discuss Dou’s dramatically lit interior scenes.

The Explorer’s Journey: Pushing Boundaries
On Sunday, October 26, the Museum will host another impressive group of experts, but this time from the world of science. The Explorer’s Journey: Pushing Boundaries, a unique live-streamed event from the Museum’s Youth@Bruce Committee, takes place from 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, and will feature highly-accomplished, real-life explorers sharing their passion, vision and journey with invited high school students. Some of the brightest minds in science will be at the Bruce to share their discoveries from the farthest depths of the ocean, land and cosmos, bringing their amazing real-life experiences to life for local students.

“This is an incredible opportunity for kids who are interested in science,” says Mary Ann Lendenmann, Volunteer Manager at the Bruce museum and a leader of the Youth@Bruce program. “These speakers are truly the rock stars of the science world. They can teach these kids how to turn science fiction into science fact. We hope to expand the curiosity of young minds through the first hand experiences of these amazing, real-life explorers.”

Each scientist’s talk will vary according to his or her own expertise, and will include a discussion of his or her own evolution from child scientist to career scientist working on large, real-life science projects. The scientist-explorers will encourage students to push boundaries and pursue big ideas, and to explore the academic disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The real-life explorers panel will include: Dr. Hanumant Singh, Associate Scientist with Tenure, Applied Ocean Physics & Engineering, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; Bruce Strickrott, Group Manager and Senior Pilot of the manned deep submergence vehicle Alvin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; Diane Tuft, artist and photographer, whose work from Antarctica will be exhibited at the Bruce beginning later this month (10/25/14-2/1/15); the Bruce Museum’s own Dr. Daniel Ksepka, Curator of Science; Anthony Dorian Challoner, Inertial Wave, a Boeing Technical Fellow and aerospace engineer; and Matt Greenhouse, James Webb Space Telescope Project Scientist and recipient of NASA’s Exceptional Achievement Medal.

The Explorer’s Journey is for invited high school students only, but will be live-streamed for the general public. You can watch the event live online by going to https://brucemuseum.org/site/education_detail/youthbruce-talks or, if you are an interested high school student and would like to inquire about an invitation to attend in person, contact Mary Ann Lendenmann at the Bruce Museum directly at 203-413-6746 or mlendenmann@brucemuseum.org