The Preservation Society of Newport County is marking the nation’s 250th anniversary with a summer-and-fall slate of programming, anchored by a new exhibition, theatrical performances, children’s programs and a series of lectures by leading voices in American history and the arts.
The centerpiece is “Revolution Reimagined: Evolving Stories from Newport’s Past,” an exhibition running June 26 through Nov. 1 at Rosecliff. Curated by Nicole Williams, the society’s curator of collections, the show examines Newport’s role in the American Revolution through the lens of myth and memory, exploring how diverse Newporters lived through the war and how later artists, writers and activists reshaped its memory at milestones like the 1876 Centennial and the 1976 Bicentennial.
At Hunter House, “Loyalty or Liberty: Tales from Revolutionary Newport” brings the era to life with three short plays staged Tuesdays and Saturdays from June 30 through Sept. 1, from 6 to 7:15 p.m. Produced with Plays in Place, the performances draw on real occupants of the house, including a stranded Loyalist wife, an enslaved woman and her husband, and the French naval commander stationed in Newport. The production is supported in part by a grant from the Rhode Island Semiquincentennial Commission.
Younger visitors can take part in “Time Traveling Tuesdays at Hunter House,” a family program on Colonial American life held Tuesdays from July 7 through Aug. 18, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
The lecture series, all held at Rosecliff from 6 to 7 p.m., features several prominent speakers. On July 9, Alexandra Kirtley of the Philadelphia Museum of Art traces Philadelphia’s influence on American art and design from the colonial era through the 1876 Centennial. On July 30, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Rick Atkinson and F. Anderson Morse of the American Revolution Institute discuss the causes and consequences of the Revolution; Atkinson is the author of “The British Are Coming” and “The Fate of the Day,” the first two volumes of a planned trilogy. On Aug. 11, former Christie’s Americas deputy chairman John A. Hays explores collecting 18th-century Rhode Island furniture. And on Sept. 10, Williams returns to discuss how Newporters turned the fight for independence into a rallying cry for later struggles, from Black civil rights after the Civil War to the modern Civil Rights Movement and American Indian Movement.
The season closes with the Newport Symposium, “What Makes it American,” on Nov. 5 and 6 at Rosecliff, where presenters will examine how national identity has evolved through visual culture.
Information and tickets are available at www.newportmansions.org/events.
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