- The Spectator (Boston), 1903

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is at once an intimate collection of fine and decorative art and a vibrant, innovative venue for contemporary artists, musicians and scholars. Housed in a stunning 15th-century Venetian-style palace with three stories of galleries surrounding a sun- and flower-filled courtyard, the Museum provides an unusual backdrop for the viewing of art. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's preeminent collection contains more than 2,500 paintings, sculptures, tapestries, furniture, manuscripts, rare books and decorative arts. The galleries house works by some of the most recognized artists in the world, including Titian, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli, Manet, Degas, Whistler and Sargent. The spirit of the architecture, the personal character of the arrangements and the artistic display of the enchanting courtyard in full bloom all create an atmosphere that distinguishes the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum as an intimate and culturally-rich treasure.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum opened to the public on the evening of January 1st, 1903, with a musical and visual arts celebration. Following an opening concert of Bach, Mozart, Chausson and Schumann performed by members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, mirrored doors were rolled back to reveal the spectacular interior courtyard, brimming with flowers and dramatically lit with Japanese lanterns. Surrounding the courtyard, galleries displayed art in a highly intimate and personal setting. The evening was a dazzling celebration of music, art, history, innovation and beauty. In the words of William James, "The aesthetic perfection of all things seemed to have a peculiar effect on the company…It was a very extraordinary and wonderful moral influence…Quite in the line of a Gospel miracle!"

Fenway Court, as the Museum was called at its inception, is the only private art collection in which the building, collection and installations are the creation of one individual. Isabella Stewart Gardner's vision that the Museum remain as she arranged it "for the education and enrichment of the public forever" is reflected in every aspect of the Museum. The Museum's seal, designed by Mrs. Gardner and Boston artist and designer Sarah Wyman Whitman, bears a phoenix (a symbol of immortality) above the phrase C'est mon plaisir ("It is my pleasure").

Today, as in Isabella Stewart Gardner's lifetime, the Museum bustles with artistic activity and presents ongoing programs in celebration of historic art, contemporary art, music, education and horticulture.

THE PERMANENT COLLECTION: An Historic Legacy
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum contains 2,500 artworks, including paintings, sculpture, furniture, textiles, ceramics, prints, drawings, manuscripts, rare books, jewelry, Japanese screens and architectural elements set into the building. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is particularly rich in Italian Renaissance paintings, as well as in 19th-century works by John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler. The first Matisse to enter an American collection is housed in the Yellow Room. The archives holds more than 7,000 letters from 1,000 correspondents, including Henry Adams, T.S. Eliot, Sarah Bernhardt and Oliver Wendell Holmes, in addition to original Dante manuscripts.

Isabella Stewart Gardner's will requires that her collection be permanently exhibited according to her aesthetic vision and intent. Conservation is an essential and ongoing priority at the Museum. Recent conservation projects have included cleaning and restoring a monumental portrait bust by Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) and the recent completion of a nearly ten-year project restoring important tapestries.

CONTEMPORARY ART: The Collection As Inspiration
During Isabella Stewart Gardner's lifetime, she welcomed artists, performers, scholars to Fenway Court to draw inspiration from the rich historic collection and dazzling Venetian setting, including John Singer Sargent, Charles Martin Loeffler and Ruth St. Denis, among others. Today, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum continues this legacy through contemporary art, music and education programs that emphasize art as inspiration for innovative artistic thinking and creation. Visual artists, musicians, photographers, composers, dancers, storytellers, filmmakers, writers and others draw inspirations found within the Museum's galleries, archives and heritage to create and showcase new works. In this sense, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's historic collection that can never change is, in fact, a vibrant, creative source for new works and artistic innovations.

Through the innovative and highly regarded Artists-in-Residence program, the Museum provides the opportunity for contemporary Artists-in-Residence to live, think and create within the extraordinary environment of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Visiting artists explore the Museum's galleries, collection, archives and other aspects to spark their artistic thinking and find new ways of looking at their art. The Museum then connects these artists with the public through contemporary exhibitions, performances and readings of their new works, or through creative community and school collaborations. A fundamental premise of the program is experimentation and access to the Museum, collection and scholarly expertise as a means to nurture and support artistic practice.

MUSIC: A Musical Heritage
Harkening back to the founding ideas of the Museum, the Sunday Concert Series, Young Artists Showcase, Avant Gardner, and Jazz at the Gardner concerts provide a musical richness to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and feature some of the most remarkable and renowned musicians in the world. Held in the inspirational Tapestry Room, the concerts allow visitors to enjoy classical and jazz music while surrounded by rich tapestries woven in Brussels and dating from the mid-sixteenth century.

Isabella Stewart Gardner established a legacy of music in the creation of her Museum. Boston Symphony Orchestra members performed on opening night, January 1st, 1903. Isabella Stewart Gardner also supported established and emerging young musicians at Fenway Court and her Beacon Street home, including Margaret Ruthven Lang, the Boston Symphony Orchestra's first female member. The music program at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was formally established 75 years ago by the Museum's first Director Morris Carter. Carter began a Sunday afternoon concert series that continues today and has grown into an established series of weekend concerts heralded for their high quality performances and diversity of offerings. In keeping with the legacy of the Museum's founder, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum showcases and supports emerging musical talent through its Young Artists Showcase concerts, part of the Sunday Concert Series.

EDUCATION: Building Lifelong Relationships with Art
Isabella Stewart Gardner's enthusiasm for encouraging a love of art continues to inspire education, family and community activities at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Over the past ten years, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum educators have fostered innovative, sustained partnerships with neighboring schools and community organizations through its School Partnership and Community Partnership programs. Partnership programs promote personal interactions with art by bringing teachers, young people and families to the Museum many times over the course of a school year. Visits involve gallery discussion and creative studio experiences that help students develop skills to learn to look at and understand any work of art - from historic to contemporary. Museum educators also support teachers in making arts education and access to the Museum an integral part of classroom curriculum through ongoing teacher training and Teacher-in-Residence programs. Participating schools also benefit from direct collaborations with artists as part of the Museum's Artist-in-Residence program. Students work with visiting contemporary artists to create or collaborate on new works. Students create and display the results of their collaborations at a series of Family Nights held at the end of each school year or an annual Community Creations exhibition in the Museum's special exhibition gallery.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum also offers visitor, family- and adult-oriented educational programs to engage visitors of all ages. Renowned Eye of the Beholder lectures highlight important historic and contemporary topics relating to the Museum's collection, heritage and founder. Mornings at the Gardner adult courses provide insights into the collection through gallery discussions and lectures. For families, new Saturday afternoon drop-in Family Fun activities help young people and families engage in the collection through interactive performances, drawing in the galleries and other activities.

HORTICULTURE: Courtyard & Gardens
Isabella Stewart Gardner designed her Museum around a central flowering courtyard as a reflection of her personal love of flowers. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is unique in featuring a garden as the physical and imaginative center of the Museum - and the courtyard is a highly memorable aspect of the larger Museum experience. Museum gardeners design, cultivate and present six horticultural displays showcasing seasonal flowers and greenery annually. In April, fifteen-foot-long Nasturtium vines are hung from the balconies in honor of Mrs. Gardner's birthday (April 14, 1840).