The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
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| Established | November 1964 |
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| Location | 258 Main Street, Ridgefield, Connecticut, United States |
| Type | Art museum |
| Website | www |
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is a contemporary art museum located in Ridgefield, Connecticut. The Aldrich has no permanent collection and is the only museum in Connecticut that is dedicated solely to the exhibition of contemporary art.
The Aldrich was founded in 1964 by Larry Aldrich (1906–2001) with the purpose of being one of the first truly contemporary art museums in the United States. Using money he raised from selling his own art collection (which included works by Picasso, Miró, Chagall, Paul Klee, and others), Mr. Aldrich bought an 18th-century former church and general store known as "Old Hundred" and converted it into the Larry Aldrich Museum.
The museum, whose original board of trustees included Alfred Barr, Joseph Hirshhorn, Philip Johnson, and Vera List, was renamed The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in 1967. To better focus on its founding mission to exhibit only the very newest art, the museum's board voted in 1981 to deaccession the museum's permanent collection.
Mr. Aldrich stayed active and involved with the museum until his death in 2001, shortly prior to which the Aldrich's board of trustees, with their chairman emeritus in attendance, had voted to proceed with a major renovation and expansion. Groundbreaking took place in April 2003, and the galleries reopened to the public in June 2004 with a new name, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. The new building received a design award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
The Aldrich Museum features works by national and international emerging and mid-career artists. Larry Aldrich said in a 1986 interview: "Almost all the well-known American artists you can think of have been seen here at early stages of their careers. Among them Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella and Cy Twombly."
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