Worcester Art Museum

Encyclopedic art museum punching well above its weight for a small city

Address 55 Salisbury St, Worcester, MA 01609

The Worcester Art Museum is the city's standout cultural institution and the reason serious art lovers should make a stop. Founded in 1898, its collection spans 50 centuries — Egyptian funerary art, Roman mosaics lifted from Antioch, medieval European paintings, a strong showing of Dutch and Flemish work, French Impressionists, and a substantial collection of American art. It is genuinely encyclopedic in the way few small-city museums are.

The Higgins armoury collection, absorbed in 2013, is the surprise highlight. Rooms of medieval and Renaissance arms and armour from across Europe and Japan, including spectacular full suits of plate, are integrated with the rest of the museum in ways that draw unexpected connections between art and warfare. The museum is closed Mondays and Tuesdays; admission is reasonable and free on the first Sunday of each month.

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A story
In 2013 the Worcester Art Museum absorbed the entire collection of the closing Higgins Armory Museum, gaining one of the world's great collections of arms and armour. The medieval helmets, gauntlets, and full suits of plate now sit alongside the museum's Renaissance paintings and Roman mosaics, an unusual juxtaposition that makes the place far stranger and more interesting than its modest exterior suggests.