What a nifty place! In downtown Bridgeport, right in front of the People's Bank HQ is the P.T…read more Barnum Museum - it is a great piece of local history. We got the free passes from the Milford Library last August and proceeded to bring the kids on a very HOT Wednesday afternoon to utilize the AC. What a pleasant surprise! We were the only patrons that day and had the run of the place. People's Bank also sponsored a recycling exhibit in the "Gallery" that was particularly thought provoking. http://www.barnum-museum.org/

The Barnum Museum is a staple to any visit to Brisgeport, as the man basically built the city. The…read moreentrance and tours are completely free, but they encourage donations at the front desk. The tour guides keep up on their research and are able to answer any question you may possibly have about Barnum and the city. I love visiting the Barnum Museum! They've done so much since my last visit! The pink walls are beautiful. It was a pleasure going through the tour with Cherise, who was very knowledgeable and adorable, and to meet the director, Kathy. Can't wait to see what's in store next!

Beautiful park to walk around and see some history. Dogs are welcomed too. They have a beautiful…read morerose garden. Also sunken garden is cool too.

Recent pumpkin fest and less recent car shows were both excellent! Such a great asset for our town…read moreand region!

"If a man could be two places at one time I'd be with you…read moreTomorrow and today Beside you all the way" (Bread) The Fairfield Art Museum has a split personality! That's because their wonderful painting and sculpture exhibits can be found in two separate and distinct buildings. The two locations are known as the Bellarmine Hall Galleries and the Walsh Gallery. You can walk from one to the other by following Bellarmine Road, it was a fairly easy walk. The Bellarmine Galleries are on the lower level of Fairfield University's main building. The space had previously been used for basement storage and underwent a multi-million-dollar renovation that opened the museum in 2010. They have some permanent exhibits dating from antiquity through the centuries, and many of them are religious themed. The paintings and artifacts are beautiful. The rotating exhibit displayed photographs. 'Famous & Family: Through the Lens of Trude Fleischmann'. She was a groundbreaking photographer that lived from 1895-1990. She loved taking portrait photos and I saw portraits of Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Leopold Stokowski among the 100 photos on display. The second museum space is known as the Walsh Gallery, and you'll find it inside the Quick Art Center. It's used to showcase special exhibitions and today's exhibition featured selections from Ireland's Great Hunger Museum. The exhibit looks at the impact of the Irish Famine of 1845-1852 through artwork produced by Irish and Irish American artists. Some of the paintings and sculptures were truly haunting, especially "Famine Ship", a sculpture crafted in 2000 by John Behan. His sculpture looks like an ordinary three masted ship, but if you look closely at the masts and the riggings you'll unveil dozens of intertwined bodies representing those that perished along the journey from Ireland to America. There was a guard and a very helpful docent in Bellarmine, and a guard with no docent at Walsh. Both halves of the museum are free and the walk along the campus from one to the other was very scenic and enjoyable. In fact, the art on Fairfield's campus isn't restricted to the museum. We saw plenty of public art sculptures all over the university grounds.

This museum is split between two buildings on the Fairfield University campus. I suppose they're…read morewithin walking distance of one another, but it would be a longer, uphill walk and both have parking nearby. The Bellarmine Hall Gallery is on the basement of a beautiful stone building sitting on top of the hilly campus. There is handicapped parking off O'Neil Way, and parking directly in front of the building (four spots). The hall has a lot of beautiful religious art from the 1500s, 1600s.. They are associated with the Met, and have other small examples of art from other cultures, some dating back to BCE. There is also a rotating exhibit, which at this time, the rotating exhibit is Japanese lacquer boxes. The Walsh Gallery is located in the Quick Art Center, and seems to be rotating exhibits. At this time, they have pieces from six Cuban artists. Both Galleries have extremely beautiful pieces and detailed descriptions explaining what you're looking at. Admission is free. Since both Galleries are on campus, check before going to make sure nothing has changed due to school breaks.

"They took all the trees put 'em in a tree museum And they…read morecharged the people a dollar an' a half just to see 'em" (Joni Mitchell) The Fairfield Museum is undergoing renovations and we could just see two exhibits. The admission fee was accordingly waived for us. One exhibit was on quilts. The exhibits were drawn from their extensive textile collection. These colorful scenes of early New England life were gorgeous. If you ever wanted to know how quilts are pieced and stitched together or if you're just a quilt lover, you will enjoy this exhibit. The second exhibit was a biggie -it drew a TV crew (Cable Connecticut 12) into the room to film a segment. Guess who made a 2 second guest appearance in their piece? Ever seen those childrens books abiut "Busytown" by Richard Scarry? He was a Fairfield native and quite a few of Fairfield's businesses and landmarks ended up in those books. The exhibit is an immersive experience that allows you to select one of his animal cartoon figures and walk through the colorful streets of Busytown. You can teach your kids how communities work, what jobs people have, learn about transportation and all kinds of interactive exhibits- think opening doors and reading things inside the door. This has got to be a blast for kids or a nostalgic visit for anyone who grew up on Scarry's books.

Great local history museum! The front desk had great resources and the exhibits were wonderful.read more

This place was super fun! It was bigger than I thought and…read morewith so many things for the kids, things that they can touch and learn from, it was very clean and the staff was also very very nice. They have some special activities as well on certain days at certain times that are educational and fun, we got to participate in a science demonstration about sound waves and that was cool. They also have a planetarium, it's small but the kids love it. I also really enjoy the fact that there's a place for the adults to sit, sometimes I end up with the kids backpacks and such that a nice bench is so helpful. The whole place was nice and clean and organized, which I was also surprised since kids tend to make a mess. The ticket for adult is - $18 And kids are - $15 They can spend as much time as they want in each section, it's deff worth every penny, so if you have any little ones, I highly recommend checking this place out.

It was fun for the kids and adults. Staff was friendly and engaging…read more There was enough for different age categories. Well definitely be going back.

My club had our post holiday party there and the venue worked surprisingly well. We had a fire…read moreroaring in the fireplace and there was plenty of room to mingle and enjoy the company and the location. Highly recommend if your party isn't too big - we were about 25 and it was great for that size or a bit bigger.

While we didn't end up there, it was being considered as a location for our wedding. The orchards…read morein the back were really nice and the caterers were very fond of it. I also happened to hear the back story on the place from someone I worked with at the time, that the head of People's Bank lived there for a long time and grew huge fields of flowers (that are all the houses behind the society today) and he would always bring them down to the People's Bank offices for his employees to enjoy. I would have went for this had it been a summer wedding. I didn't want to risk this in early fall with freak cold weather or rain.