Ridgefield: A Center for the Arts in Connecticut

The American Craftsmen Show is right at home in Ridgefield, one of Connecticut’s centers for culture and the arts. If you are making a weekend trip to Ridgefield for the American Craftsmen Show, you may want to visit the following arts and cultural venues:

Keeler Tavern Museum

If are coming to the American Craftsmen Show because you love traditional American arts, you may want to drop by the Keeler Tavern Museum which is furnished with period pieces reflecting its residents’ lifestyles from the early 18th to early 20th
century. In addition to furniture and household items, the Museum’s redware, as well as its blue and white Staffordshire, are especially noteworthy elements of its artifacts collection. The Archives include paintings, prints, samplers and sculpture. Among the most treasured pieces in the collection is the original engraving of the Battle of Ridgefield published April 4,1780, the original T.Keeler's Inn sign, portraits of early Keeler family members, and an original broadside of Columbus, a male elephant that appeared at the Keeler Tavern in the early 1800s. In addition, visitors to the gardens will find hand-carved decorative urns recreated in Italy from blueprints and images of the original urns that Cass Gilbert selected to complement his garden setting

The Keeler Tavern Museum was founded by the Keeler Tavern Preservation Society, Inc. in 1966 as a living museum of colonial history within the town of Ridgefield, Connecticut. It is the Society's mission to preserve and protect the Keeler Tavern, a site listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1982, that embodies the life of the community from the early 19th century through the mid- 20th century.

The Ridgefield Playhouse

The Ridgefield Playhouse is a not for profit 501 (c)(3) whose mission is to present a variety of performing arts to the community and the surrounding area that they can enjoy and experience at a varied price point. The Playhouse presents national and local acts and is the cultural hub for the town of Ridgefield. The Ridgefield Playhouse was voted the best venue in Fairfield County to see live concerts. The weekend of the American Craftsmen Show the Ridgefield Playhouse will be featuring the following performances: November 7th: Comedian Artie Lange November 8th: Blues Guitarist Buddy Guy Visit the Ridgefield Playhouse website for more information about these performances the same weekend as the American Craftsmen Show.  


The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

Founded by Larry Aldrich in 1964, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is dedicated to fostering innovative artists whose ideas and interpretations of the world around us serve as a platform to encourage creative thinking. The Aldrich, which served an audience of over 37,700 in 2011, is one of the few independent, non-collecting contemporary art museums in the United States, and the only museum in Connecticut devoted to contemporary art. It is one of only twenty museums in Connecticut and only 318 art museums in the country to be accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.