Discovery Gallery

Connect the old with the new and discover the Worcester Art Museum and its collections through many different perspectives in the newly opened Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Discovery Gallery. The gallery's layout encourages both novice and seasoned museum-goers to participate in several aspects of the museum and of art viewing.

There are activities for adults as well as youth, including a multimedia kiosk that takes visitors on a visual thematic journey through the museum's art collections and an "archaeological" activity in which participants mimic being an archaeologist.

Gallery Links
Another feature of the gallery is a computer workstation containing links to the museum's online catalog of its early American collection, links to other museum sites, and a connection to the museum's own website including Bridges to Art. Bridges to Art is an educational resource produced by WAM and the College of the Holy Cross that unites art images from the Worcester Art Museum's collection of fifty centuries of art with important research materials in a searchable format.

Leave your comments
And at this workstation in the Discovery Gallery is an electronic visitor comment book where you can record and read comments on your and others' museum experiences. Be sure to leave an email address if you'd like a response to your comment from a museum staff person! Tell us what you think!

Become a Curator
Remain seated at this computer workstation and take on the role of museum curator through a directed activity that reveals part of the process by which curators discover information and ideas about the artworks in the museum's collection. You can research, for example, an 18th century American portrait by accessing its curatorial file and discovering its many dimensions through the online catalog. Become a curator in this activity in the Discovery Gallery.

The Past in the Present
Two ancient mosaics, a floor mosaic of a funerary banquet and a floor mosaic of the Drinking Contest between Herakles and Dionysos are displayed on two walls of the Discovery Gallery. Created nearly 2,000 years ago, these mosaics give us a view into the world of the ancient Romans living in Antioch and illustrate some of the great themes of life which link the mosaics and their “stories” to the present and to our world.

Take a Thematic Multimedia Journey
While in the Discovery Gallery, you can explore themes expressed in the ancient Antioch mosaics—Stories, Women, Life and Death, or Discovery—through a multimedia program that will take you on a visual journey through the Museum's collection. You are invited to learn how these themes are represented through art, throughout time, and across cultures. Choose one of the four pathways (or themes) and start your journey. On the Discovery Pathway, for example, you can view film clips from the actual 1930s excavation of Antioch, one of the great cities of the Roman Empire. On the Women Pathway, you can discover the women artists in the museum's collection or explore the many roles depicted in art for women throughout the ages. Choose Stories and you can decide what the stories are in art or hear quotations from stories that are depicted in the museum's paintings.

Walk the Maze
Want to experience what it is like to stand on a mosaiced floor? Imbedded into the floor of the Discovery Gallery is a six-foot by six-foot contemporary mosaic that you are invited to walk across and experience the design and feel of mosaics as they were intended by their original makers. The work's design (created by Victoria Blaine) is one that refers back to the ancient world-a maze-but incorporates the contemporary words Search, Create, Discovery, Seek, Explore, Play, Uncover, and Find. These words symbolize the purpose of the Museum and the Discovery Gallery.

Dig Up the Pieces
Before you leave the Discovery Gallery, try your hand at a mini-archeological dig! See what you can dig up in the museum's sandpit and document your field notes for the next “archeologist” to see.