About Us
Founded in 2010 and accredited by the American Alliance of Museums in 2024, the Fairfield University Art Museum is one museum, comprised of two spaces. In the Bellarmine Hall Galleries, the Museum displays its permanent collection alongside rotating special exhibitions. In the Walsh Gallery, located in the Quick Center for the Arts, the museum presents larger special exhibitions. The permanent collection features European and American paintings — including a core group of 10 Renaissance and Baroque paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection — drawings, prints, photographs, and historic plaster casts as well as artwork from Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Also on view are works of art on long-term loan from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, the Worcester Art Museum, the American Numismatic Society, Columbia University, and private collections.
The Museum is always free and open to it all. FUAM receives operating support from Fairfield University, endowment funds, grants, and generous donations from alumni and community members who value the resources that the Museum provides.
Fairfield University Art Museum's Mission Statement
The Fairfield University Art Museum (FUAM) inspires curiosity, creativity, reflection, and dialogue through its exhibitions, programs, and the collections in its care. As an essential component of the scholarly community at Fairfield University, FUAM advances knowledge for students from all disciplines, and offers communities of learners across Connecticut and beyond the opportunity to connect to art, ideas, and each other.
Hours
Bellarmine Hall Galleries: Tuesday-Saturday 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., with extended hours on Thursdays until 8 p.m.
Walsh Gallery: Tuesday-Saturday 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., with extended hours on Thursdays until 8 p.m.
We are closed for all University holidays, and during inclement weather.
Admission
Admission is always free and reservations are not necessary to visit our galleries. Faculty who are interested in visiting the gallery with students please contact Michelle DiMarzo (mdimarzo@fairfield.edu).
Information for Visitors
Visitors are required to leave backpacks, umbrellas, shopping bags, totes, and large purses in the cloakroom. Wheelchairs, service dogs, and other aids for visitors with special needs are permitted in the galleries.
No food or drink allowed.
Museum Contact Information
We welcome comments and questions about your visit to the museum and about our programs, events, and website. Please email museum@fairfield.edu
Fairfield University Art Museum
1073 North Benson Road
Fairfield, CT 06824
Phone: (203) 254-4046
Fax: (203) 254-5529
Covid-19 Policy
Visitor Guidelines
We are delighted to welcome you back to in-person events and programs at the Fairfield University Art Museum. Your health and safety remain our highest priorities.
Visitors to the museum galleries are encouraged to observe social distancing with other museum patrons. Masks are recommended, but not required.
Covid-19 Liability Waiver
Fairfield University continues to prioritize the safety of its Staff and Guests, and will adapt protocols and procedures as appropriate following CDC, WHO, and local, state, and federal guidance and recommendations from medical experts.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, an inherent risk of contracting Covid-19 and other contagious diseases remains present in any public venues. Fairfield University cannot guarantee that you will not be exposed to or contract Covid-19 or other contagious disease.
By entering the Fairfield University Art Museum and/or attending or participating in any program you are accepting the risk of being exposed to, contracting, or spreading Covid-19 or other contagious diseases along with all related consequences and expressly waive any and all claims against Fairfield University, its trustees, officers, employees and agents arising out of such exposure.
Accessibility
The Fairfield University Art Museum is committed to making our campus and programming accessible to all visitors. If any of our new protocols hinder your ability to access our spaces or programs, or if there is anything we can do to make your experience more accessible, please let us know.
Parking and Directions
The FUAM's main galleries are located on the lower level of Bellarmine Hall. Parking is available in front of Bellarmine Hall. Handicap parking is available next to the museum’s service and classroom entrance on the lower level of Bellarmine Hall.
The Walsh Gallery is located in the Quick Center for the Arts. Parking is available in front of the building.
For GPS please use the following address: 200 Barlow Road, Fairfield, CT 06824
- For the Bellarmine Hall Galleries: enter through the University gates, and continue along Bellarmine Road until you reach a stop sign. Turn left onto Fitzgerald Way, and Bellarmine Hall is directly in front of you. The visitor parking lot is on the left.
- For the Walsh Gallery: enter through the University gates, and bear right at the pond. The Quick Center for the Arts is on your left. The visitor parking lot is on the right.
By train:
Take Metro-North, New Haven Line, to Fairfield Station (approximately 70 minutes from Grand Central Station).
www.mta.info/mnr
800-638-7646
Meet Our Staff
Carey Mack Weber
Frank and Clara Meditz Executive Director
Carey Mack Weber has over 25 years of experience working in museums and galleries. Carey spent over a decade working in fine art galleries in New York City, notably serving as Director of Susan Sheehan Gallery and Edward Tyler Nahem Fine Art. She was integral to the creation of the university’s art museum in 2010, assisting Dr. Jill Deupi, the founding director, in developing exhibitions, programming, setting up the Collections Management systems, and creating policies. She was appointed Frank and Clara Meditz Executive Director of the Fairfield University Art Museum in 2019.
Carey also currently serves as the President of the Connecticut Art Trail, a nationally recognized partnership between twenty-four world-class museums and historic sites. She serves as the CT State Representative for the Association of Academic Art Museums and Galleries, and is on the Advisory Board of the Maguire Museum at St. Joseph’s University. She is an active member of the American Alliance of Museums, the Association of Academic Art Museums and Galleries, the New England Museum Association, and the Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County.
cweber@fairfield.edu
Michelle DiMarzo
Curator of Education and Academic Engagement
Dr. Michelle DiMarzo is an alumna of Fairfield University, graduating with a B.A. in Art History and English. She went on to pursue graduate degrees in Art History, specializing in Italian Renaissance visual art, and received her PhD from Temple University. Before returning to Fairfield, she held the Phyllis G. Gordan/Samuel H. Kress Foundation Two-Year Pre-doctoral Rome Prize at the American Academy in Rome. She is also Assistant Professor in Art History & Visual Culture in the Department of Visual & Performing Arts, where she teaches courses in Renaissance art and the museum exhibition seminar. Dr. DiMarzo has curated several exhibitions at the museum, most recently Out of the Kress Vaults: Women in Sacred Renaissance Painting (2023).
mdimarzo@fairfield.edu
Marice Rose
Curator, Historic Plaster Cast Collection
Dr. Marice Rose graduated from Fairfield University with a B.A. in Art History and French, and holds a PhD in Art History from Rutgers University. She is currently chair of the Department of Visual & Performing Arts. Her most recent research focuses on classical reception and gender, and ancient hairstyling. With colleague Dr. Katherine Schwab she co-curated the exhibition Hair in the Classical World at the Fairfield University Art Museum (2015). She teaches courses on ancient Roman art, ancient Celtic and Irish art, and medieval art in Europe and Byzantium.
Megan Paqua
Registrar
Megan Paqua has been the full time Registrar since 2022, prior to that she was the part-time registrar from 2019-2022. She is responsible for registration and collections management, and supports the museum’s in-house and traveling exhibitions as well as other museums exhibition programs. She oversees all exhibition installations and deinstallations. She received her B.A. in Archaeology from Dickinson College in 2011 and went on to complete an M.A. in Egyptology from the American University in Cairo in 2015 and an M.S. in Museums & Digital Culture from the Pratt Institute School of Information. While living in Egypt, she participated in archaeological fieldwork at the site of Tell el-Amarna with the Amarna Project. After returning to the US, she was the Permanent Collection Documentation Fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art (2018-2019) and the project registrar for the Westport Public Art Collection (2019-2021). She is also an adjunct in the Art History & Visual Culture in the Department of Visual & Performing Arts, teaching ancient Egyptian archaeology & art history. She is currently the Chair for the Membership Engagement Committee for the Association of Registrars and Collections Specialists (ARCS).
mpaqua@fairfield.edu
Kate Wellen
Museum Educator
Kate Wellen received a B.A. in Art and Art History with a Studio Concentration from Colgate University and a M.A. in Art Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Kate taught art in the New York City public school system working primarily with middle school students. In addition to teaching, Kate has done arts related volunteer work with children of all ages and creates her own artwork.
kwellen@fairfield.edu
Museum Spaces
Bellarmine Hall Galleries
The FUAM occupies the lower level of the University's signature building, Bellarmine Hall, the former residence of the Walter B. Lashar family. Designed in 1921 in the English manorial style, this handsome structure was purchased by the Jesuits from the town of Fairfield in 1942 to serve as the foundational building for the newly established Fairfield University.
In 2008, Centerbrook Architect and Planners were charged with creating spaces in the lower level of the hall, formerly used by the University for storage and other utilitarian purposes, into a state-of-the-art museum. A lead donation of $2.5 million from John Meditz '70 laid the foundation. Further support was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Dolan Family Foundation, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Jost Foundation, and donations from a number of private individuals. The museum was publicly inaugurated on October 25, 2010, and is a testament to Fairfield's commitment to excellence in education and the arts.
Walsh Gallery
This large "white cube" gallery for special exhibitions is housed in the Quick Center for the Arts.
The Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery opened its doors in April 1990 under Founding Director and Professor of Art History, Dr. Philip Eliasoph. Its inaugural exhibition was, "Defining Modernism: Art of the 20th Century." In a review by the New York Times, Vivien Raynor wrote: "With this exhibition, the Walsh assumes a missionary role that is not inappropriate for a Jesuit campus, even though the word brought is not of God."
Accessibility
Everyone is welcome at the Fairfield University Art Museum. We are committed to ensuring that our spaces, programs, and collections are accessible to all visitors.
Physical accessibility
- Handicapped-accessible parking is available at the side entrance to Bellarmine Hall
- The galleries are fully accessible with a wheelchair lift
- Wheelchairs are available on a first-come, first-served basis
- Moveable stools are available upon request
Hard of hearing
- Audio guides available for most special exhibitions
- Closed captions during all live-streamed events on thequicklive.com
- Closed captions on recorded events and lectures on our YouTube channel
Low vision
- Service dogs are welcome in the galleries
- Large print versions of text for permanent collections and special exhibitions are available
We’re always looking to improve our accessibility to our visitors. If you have suggestions or questions, please contact museum@fairfield.edu
American Alliance of Museums Accreditation
The Fairfield University Art Museum is one of just two Jesuit University Art Museums to be accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. Accreditation, which is the highest national recognition afforded to the Nation's museums, signifying excellence to the museum community, governments, funders, outside agencies, and the museum-going public. The Museum is one of only 12 accredited art museum in the state. Only 11% of museums in New England are accredited, only 16% of the Academic Art Museums in the country are accredited, and only 15% of the museums with staffs the size of Fairfield’s Art Museum have achieved this honor.
AAM Accreditation brings national recognition to a museum for its commitment to excellence in education, public service, accountability, high professional standards, and continued institutional improvement. Developed and sustained by museum professionals for 50 years, AAM's museum accreditation program is the field's primary vehicle for quality assurance, self-regulation, and public accountability. It strengthens the museum profession by promoting practices that enable leaders to make informed decisions, allocate resources wisely, and remain financially and ethically accountable in order to provide the best possible service to the public.
The Nation's estimated 33,000 museums play an important role in promoting lifelong education, travel and tourism, and quality of life in nearly every community. Currently an impressive group of 1,080 museums are accredited. To earn accreditation, a museum must first conduct a year of self-study, followed by a site visit by a two-person team of peers. The Accreditation Commission, an autonomous body of museum professionals appointed by the AAM Board, considers the self-study and site visit report to determine whether a museum should receive accreditation. While the time to complete the process varies by museum, it may take as long as three years.
Affiliations
Scroll to Learn More