Brandywine River Museum of Art
1 Hoffman’s Mill Road
Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania 19317
Updated 01/13/21:
The Museum is now open!
Wednesday–Monday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. (closed Tuesday)
To ensure the safety, security and quality of the visitor experience, the Brandywine has implemented a variety of new procedures, including face mask requirements, timed ticketing and capacity limits. Advance reservations are highly recommended. For more information on purchasing tickets, please read our timed ticketing FAQs. Additional FAQs regarding all safety procedures now in place can be found below. Not ready to visit just yet? Join us at Brandywine at Home.
The Brandywine Railroad and Ann Wyeth McCoy dollhouse display extended through the end of January 2021.
In order to protect its visitors, volunteers and staff, the Brandywine will be implementing a variety of safety protocols when it reopens, including facemask requirements, timed ticketing and capacity limits. Click here for a complete list of new procedures, safety protocols and FAQs.
You can also continue to join us virtually with Brandywine at Home featuring a wide array of offerings, including fun online events, crafts and art projects, artwork spotlights from our collection, calming moments of nature, and some tasty recipes from the Millstone Café.
BETSY JAMES WYETH: A TRIBUTE
Extended through January 31, 2021
The Brandywine River Museum of Art pays tribute to Betsy James Wyeth (1921-2020) with a display of drawings and paintings of and about her in the Andrew Wyeth Gallery, and with a biography of her remarkable life presented in the first-floor lobby of the Museum.
Holiday Magic at Brandywine
Extended to January 31, 2021
Celebrate the wonder of the holiday season at the Brandywine River Museum of Art! Returning this year with exciting new additions and features, the Brandywine Railroad has been a holiday family favorite at the Brandywine since 1972. Slightly modified this year to provide a safe and socially distant experience, the Brandywine Railroad will still feature plenty of trains, miniature details and the engaging elements that everyone loves—including interactive components operated by hands-free foot pedals.
The Brandywine’s famous O-gauge display will feature model trains running on a thousand feet of track through a small village, a drive-in movie theater and even a carnival. This year the Brandywine also welcomes the exciting new additions of two model train sets with layouts once owned by Nicky and Jamie Wyeth—sons of the renowned American artist, Andrew Wyeth.
Nicky Wyeth’s standard gauge train display features historic “tinplate” Lionel trains from the 1920s and 30s traveling around colorful buildings and scenery, including a large bridge modeled after New York’s Hell Gate Bridge. The 8 x 12 foot display was also recently enhanced with modern reproductions of a 1940s monorail. Artist Jamie Wyeth’s N-gauge train display was originally co-owned by Jamie and his friend and fellow toy collector, artist Andy Warhol. Included in the 4 x 6 foot landscape are foothills of a mountain, train tunnels with a bridge crossing a lake, and even a diminutive industrial town with a main street packed with businesses and rowhouses, a steel mill, and a large metal warehouse featuring an oversized reproduction of Wyeth’s own iconic painting, Portrait of Pig.
In addition to the Brandywine Railroad, this year’s holiday offerings include the return of artist and composer Ann Wyeth McCoy’s dollhouse, which features six rooms filled with three-dozen dolls and hundreds of miniature objects that will delight visitors of all ages. The Brandywine’s whimsical Critter ornaments, handcrafted by our volunteers at home this year, will also be back to decorate the towering trees in the Museum’s three-story atrium*, as well as thousands of these unique treasures that will be available for purchase during the annual Holiday Critter Sale—including a few “classics” that can now be purchased online for the first time.
Virtual Gallery Talk with Victoria Wyeth: Andrew Wyeth’s Late Paintings
Monday, January 25, 2021, 7 p.m. (EST)
Tuesday, January 26, 2021, 7 p.m. (EST)
Join Victoria Wyeth as she shares her uniquely personal perspectives on the art of her grandfather, Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009). In January, Victoria’s talk will have a special focus on the art Andrew Wyeth created in the last ten years of his life including Dryad, The Carry, and his final tempera, Goodbye.
The program will be held on Zoom and participants may submit questions in advance during the registration process. Limited tickets are available. All proceeds support the Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art.
If you encounter any difficulties in registering for this program or accessing the Zoom link after registering, please email maryc@brandywine.org.
In the meantime, catch up on new virtual tours, activities and upcoming events in this week’s edition of “Brandywine at Home” !
Discover a distinguished collection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American art, housed in a renovated nineteenth-century mill with a dramatic steel and glass addition that overlooks the bucolic Brandywine River. The extraordinary site—the intersection of art and nature—emphasizes the Brandywine Conservancy’s commitment to the preservation of the natural, cultural and scenic resources of the region.
Renowned for its holdings of the Wyeth family of artists, the Museum features galleries dedicated to the work of N.C. Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth and Jamie Wyeth. The Museum’s outstanding Heritage Collection is a cross section of American art, with a special focus on artistic practice in the Brandywine valley. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century landscape paintings testify to the beauty which drew well-known artists to the area. Important portraits, still life paintings and notable holdings in American illustration add diversity and breadth to this unique collection.
A robust program of changing exhibitions places the Museum’s collection into the broader contexts of American art.
Link to the website: https://www.brandywine.org/museum
The Laurels Preserve and The Waterloo Mills Preserve are open to members of the Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art from dawn to dusk, Wednesday through Sunday. Visitors should carry their Conservancy membership cards.