Tracy Sweeney, “Leaving,” 2019 (oil on wood).
The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum, in collaboration with Quinnipiac University and Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield, will inaugurate its 2026 Season with the opening of a new exhibition titled “A Journey of Hope: The Irish American Immigrant Experience,” on March 12 from 12 to 4 pm.
A reception, generously sponsored by O'Neill's Pub and Restaurant, will follow from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.
The exhibition will run through May 17, 2026, and feature paintings and sculptures displayed in the Mansion’s Art Gallery as well as in the Servants’ Quarters. Viewing will be included with the purchase of a guided tour.
For more information, visit LockwoodMathewsMansion.com.
“We look forward to this collaborative exhibit that touches upon themes that are timeless and universal. I am certain that visitors will be thrilled to have an opportunity to see this outstanding art collection,” said LMMM Chairman of the Board Douglas Hempstead.
"Cottage, Achill Island," oil on canvas, by Alexander Williams.
Former President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, stated that “The Irish Famine of 1845 to 1852 was the greatest social calamity, in terms of morality and suffering, that Ireland has ever experienced.”
From 1845 to 1855, over 1.5 million people emigrated from Ireland to America, searching for a better life. This exhibition will highlight the topic of Irish immigration in the 19th century to America using art as a visual reference. This exhibit will connect directly to the history of the Mansion in the 19th century, when most of the domestic staff was Irish, and where visitors will have an opportunity to revisit the Servants’ Quarters featuring an installation of sculptures by Irish American artists.
Loretto Leary, Co-Chair of the Connecticut-Ireland Trade Commission, said: “Forced from their homes by forces beyond their control, seeking not pity but the chance to forge new lives in an unfamiliar land, Irish famine immigrants set out on journeys that still echo today.
"From 1845 to 1852, this watershed moment in Irish history sent ripples across the Atlantic, shaping America in ways that are still felt, and mirroring the experiences of refugees around the world today.”
Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield contains the world’s largest collection of Great Hunger-related art by noted contemporary Irish and Irish American artists, as well as several period paintings by some of Ireland’s most important 19th-century artists. Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield exists at the intersection of art, history, and moral imagination. Rooted in the story of Ireland, but speaking to the wider world, the museum strives to remember what happens when a society turns away from its most vulnerable – and to honor the resilience of those who endure.
"Leaving," oil on wood, by Tracy Sweeney, 2019.
John Foley, President of Ireland's Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield (IGHMF), said: “We are honored to collaborate with the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum and Quinnipiac University on an exhibition that brings together art, history, and place.
"This partnership allows these works to be experienced in a setting that mirrors the lived realities of Irish immigrants in nineteenth-century America.”
This exhibition will be curated by Ryan Mahoney, the Project Manager at the Springfield Museums in Springfield, Massachusetts. A graduate of St. John Fisher College (BA) and the University at Albany (MA), Mahoney has over 15 years of experience working in the museum field, including serving as Executive Director for both the Irish American Heritage Museum in Albany, New York, and Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut.
Active in the Irish American Community, Mahoney has served as a national board member for the Irish American Cultural Institute and as a board member of the United Irish Societies of the Capital District. He was also an active member of the Albany St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee. In 2016, Mahoney was named a recipient of the 40 under 40 Award by the Irish Echo.
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