Newport Art Museum Previews Exciting Summer Season

NEWPORT, RI – The Newport Art Museum (NAM) has announced its exhibition calendar for the summer 2025 season, featuring a dynamic selection of artists and exhibitions. The season will showcase treasured works from the Museum’s permanent collection as well as the work of contemporary artists.

“Through this extraordinary summer season, the Newport Art Museum continues its commitment to presenting exhibitions that engage, inspire, and deepen our understanding of art and its connections to history and the human experience,” said Artistic Director Danielle Ogden. “The upcoming eclectic exhibition schedule reflects the Museum’s commitment to artists and to our audiences. There is truly something for everyone at the Museum.”

The summer season kicks off on May 9 with the opening of Sean Landers: Lost at Sea, which reinterprets the legacy of Moby-Dick and New England’s maritime past, placing contemporary storytelling in dialogue with Winslow Homer, the renowned 19th-century American painter and illustrator famous for his seascapes and depictions of the American Civil War. The exhibition will explore the power of storytelling, bridging historical and contemporary narratives.

NAM follows up with a dual-release coinciding with Newport Design Week in June: Bobby Anspach: Everything is Change, curated by Taylor Baldwin, and Through a Collector’s Lens: Iconic Photography from the Christopher Hyland Collection. Both exhibitions will include multiple opportunities for community programming, including collaborative workshops with partners and talks on collecting.

Opening with the Summer Art Party on July 11, the Museum will present Howard Gardiner Cushing: A Harmony of Line and Color, a highly anticipated tribute to the life and legacy of Howard Gardiner Cushing, the celebrated portrait painter and muralist.

Key dates and details for the summer season:

• Opening May 9
  Sean Landers: Lost at Sea
  An exhibition anchored by Landers’ monumental 28-foot painting “Moby Dick,” a striking meditation on storytelling, seafaring, and artistic legacy. Landers will also curate from NAM’s permanent collection, focusing on works by Winslow Homer.
• Opening June 21
  Bobby Anspach: Everything is Change
  Everything is Change is the first museum solo exhibition celebrating the groundbreaking work of Bobby Anspach, emphasizing the late artist’s unique ability to create a sense of connection and community through his immersive, interactive sculptural installations. The exhibition, curated by Taylor Baldwin—who once served as Anspach’s advisor at Rhode Island School of Design—will feature Anspach’s immersive sculptural installations, known for their transformative use of light and sound, as well as a selection of his other innovative works.
• Opening June 21
  Through a Collector’s Lens: Iconic Photography from the Christopher Hyland Collection
  An exhibition showcasing a remarkable selection of renowned photography, curated from Christopher Hyland’s collection. The collection represents an individual’s discerning choice of images that render moments conveying emotions, and often ideas, eternal. Featured will be iconic works by Edward Weston, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Sally Mann, Robert Mapplethorpe, and other masters of the medium.
• Opening July 12
  Howard Gardiner Cushing: A Harmony of Line and Color
  Curated by Ricardo Mercado, Charles H. Sawyer Curatorial Fellow at the Addison Gallery of American Art, this landmark exhibition celebrates the life and work of Cushing, whose career bridged the traditions of 19th-century academic painting with the bold innovations of early modernism, and for whom NAM’s Cushing Memorial Gallery is named.

More information on programs and events to accompany the summer 2025 exhibition calendar will be released as the season begins. Event details and registration will be added to the website at www.NewportArtMuseum.org.