Conn. museum steampunks for wee ones

OLD LYME, Conn. — Visitors to the Florence Griswold Museum get a rare glimpse into the beginnings of American Impressionism at the modest boardinghouse where Griswold sheltered artists who created the Lyme Art Colony in the early years of the 20th century. Some artists — including Willard Metcalf and Childe Hassam — repaid her kindness with bucolic paintings of landscapes and flowers, which remain on view today. From Oct. 3 to Nov. 2, however, the museum puts on a very different persona: Wee Faerie Village in a Steampunk’d Wonderland is “a miniature Victorian world viewed through a steam-powered futuristic lens,” says David Rau, the museum’s director of Education and Outreach. Twenty-five handcrafted faerie houses and scenes spread across the museum’s 11-acre campus recount Lewis Carroll’s classic tale, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” in a steampunk setting. The term “steampunk” describes an imaginary world where iconic images from our steam-powered past (think cogs, gears, and flywheels) are married to the technologies of today. Nearly 50 artists and designers have been working since spring to create their mini-masterpieces. Visitors are encouraged to dress up as their favorite faerie or Alice in Wonderland character.

FLORENCE GRISWOLD MUSEUM