Musically Timed

Continental Clock Makers and their Markets

Now on view through March 26, 2023

Explore how clock makers incorporated music into their works, and households added a wide range of music to their everyday lives. Musically Timed: Continental Clock Makers and their Markets traces the circulation of mechanical instruments from shop to store, home to auction, collection to museum. This exhibition features select musical clocks loaned from private collectors that are augmented by pieces from the museum’s Guinness Viewable Storage vault.

Leadership support for this exhibition is provided by Will and Mary Leland.

Member Tuesday Curator Tour

RetroBlakesberg Captured on Film: 1978-2008

Tuesday, December 6 || 11:30 AM

Join us for a curator-led tour exploring the 40+ year career of photographer Jay Blakesberg. Led by Michelle Graves, Assistant Curator, you will have the opportunity to deep dive into Jay’s rock and roll photographic journey, which began in 1978 in Suburban New Jersey. RetroBlakesberg Captured on Film 1978-2008 spans four galleries and features 126 images. Artists featured in the exhibit include the Grateful Dead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, David Bowie, Neil Young, Carlos Santana, and Joni Mitchell.

RSVP: membership@morrismuseum.org

Generous support for this exhibition is provided by Chromaluxe, Magna Chrome, Another Planet Entertainment and the Blavatnik Family Foundation.

Additional support is provided by an anonymous donor, 11E1even Management Group, Blue Square Wealth, Andrea Grant and Michael Leffler, Jay’s Grateful Friends, the Lakin Family, Georgiana and Ira Platt, Alessandra Schwartz, the Bill Graham Memorial Foundation, Brian Halligan, Andy & Becky Logan, Jason Rubinoff and Family, Arrival Artists, Blakesberg & Company CPA’s, David Meerman Scott, Bob Rosner and Julie Goldman, and Philip and Yael Eliasoph.

A Holiday Jazz Concert

Water Gap Jazz Orchestra: Nutcracker and Grinch Suites

Sunday, December 11 || 3:00 PM

Tickets: $30.00; Members: $25.00

Join us for Duke Ellington's Nutcracker Suite, and the new Grinch Suite at the Museum's Bickford Theatre this December 11. The Water Gap Jazz Orchestra is joined by vocalist Nancy Reed and Edward Ellington II, Duke Ellington’s grandson, who will read a short version of the Nutcracker story between the movements.

Buy Tickets

The Morris Museum has adopted a dynamic mask policy for upcoming events in the Bickford Theatre. Face masks are currently optional in the CENTER and HOUSE RIGHT sections (indicated in blue) and are required in the HOUSE LEFT section (indicated in red). Face masks are currently optional for Children’s Theatre performances. This policy is subject to change at any time. Please check back on our website or call the box office for our current policy before your scheduled performance date. For assistance, call the box office at 973-971-3706.

Pingry School Choir Holiday Concert

Wednesday, December 14 || 3:15 PM

Free Event, Reduced Admission after the concert

Join us for a festive concert with the Pingry School Choir and hear holiday classics in their annual performance at the Morris Museum. This free concert will take place in the front pavilion. After the concert, visit the Museum's special exhibitions with a reduced admission price of $5.00.

Spark!Lab, Where Everyone Is an Inventor

Spark!Lab offers any child (ages 5-12 and accompanied by an adult), a new informal approach to hands-on learning. Instead of following step-by-step instructions, young inventors will be empowered to problem-solve and overcome real-world obstacles. We offer many unique, project-specific stations, where young inventors can engage directly with engineering and design challenges.

Spark!Lab will be closed December 23, 24, 25 (Christmas Day), and January 1 (New Year's Day).

Memorable Gift Ideas in the Museum Shop

Wednesday-Sunday 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Looking for a unique gift this holiday season? Look no further and stop by the Morris Museum shop. We have just partnered with the Morris County School of Glass and will be featuring one of a kind, handcrafted ornaments, vases, and more this December.

Federico Solmi: Joie De Vivre

On View through February 26, 2023

This is the first exhibition to explore Federico Solmi's unique process—which combines traditional art practices and digital technologies—through a case study of his most ambitious video-painting to date, The Bathhouse (2020). This monumental, 20-foot-wide, five-channel, multi-sensory video installation depicts an excess of revelry by Leaders from across world history in the setting of a Roman bathhouse.

Along with new works, there will be an interactive Virtual-Reality (VR) installation, The Bacchanalian Ones (2020), composed of three VR headsets with accompanying 3D-printed character masks. The visitor is invited to enter the world of The Bathhouse as one of three characters wearing a VR headset. Manipulating hand-held controllers allows them to embody the chosen perspective through the eyes of one of these historical avatars.

Federico Solmi: Joie De Vivre is made possible through the generous support of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation.

Additional general operating support for the exhibition is provided by Luis De Jesus Los Angeles.

We are pleased to acknowledge the Ronald Feldman Gallery where the Morris Museum first discovered the work of Federico Solmi.

Image credits (from top to bottom): French Empire Gilt Ormolu Clock. Clockmaker, François Alibert, Paris, France, first half 19th century. Musical Movement, M. Bordier, Geneva, Switzerland, c. 1810. The Murtogh D. Guinness Collection, Morris Museum. 2003.18.28a-c.; Jay Blakesberg, Paul Kantner, Jefferson Airplane, October 12, 1997. 30th Anniversary of the Summer of Love, Beach Chalet, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA.; Holiday Jazz Illustration by Jean Minthe; Photo courtesy Pingry School; Holiday gifts and Spark!Lab photo by Morris Museum; Federico Solmi, Joie De Vivre (IX), Oprah Winfrey and Warren Buffett, 2021, Soft pastels, white pen and ink, gouache on wood panel, 60 x 36 x 1 in. (152.5 x 91.5 x 2.5 cm).