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Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Receives $25K Grant For Servants' Quarters Exhibit

NORWALK, Conn. -- The Connecticut Humanities has awarded a $25,000 implementation grant to the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum for a new exhibition that will open Wednesday, Oct. 14, with a gala preview Saturday, Oct. 10.

The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum of Norwalk received a $25,000 grant for a new exhibit that will debut Oct. 14.

The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum of Norwalk received a $25,000 grant for a new exhibit that will debut Oct. 14.

Photo Credit: File

The exhibit will continue through Oct. 30, 2016.

“Once again, we thank all our legislators for making funding available to the CT Humanities for this engaging educational program that will help us highlight and revitalize this National Historic Landmark," said Patsy Brescia, chairman of the museum's Board of Trustees, in a press release.

In this new exhibit entitled, "The Stairs Below: The Mansion’s Domestic Servants, 1868-1938," the museum intends to open the servants’ quarters of its building to visitors, creating an educational tour and exhibit that will focus on the lives of the people who worked at the mansion, and whose stories have never been told before, according to a press release.

This exhibit will explore themes, such as the immigrant experience, housing, social justice, the role of women and the multi-faceted relationship between the elite and the working class, according to a press release.

“The Board of Trustees and I are very grateful to the Connecticut Humanities for supporting this inspiring, new program with a major implementation grant that will enable the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum to create a powerful and engaging experience for our communities and connect our shared past and American history to present-day themes in a deep, meaningful way,” said Susan Gilgore, the museum's executive director, in a press release.

The mansion’s servants’ quarters will offer an uncommon story as its domestics lived in rather comfortable and perhaps luxurious quarters compared to many of the domestics who worked in society’s less majestic homes, revealing the forward thinking of LeGrand and Ann Louisa Lockwood, according to a press release.

The exhibition will be curated by Kathleen Motes Bennewitz, an independent museum consultant and curator for several local and national organizations, including the Fairfield Museum, the Bush- Holley House and the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum.

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