Have you ever wanted to experience the world of the forest at faerie-scale? A new exhibit this fall at the Florence Griswold Museum will offer the opportunity to do just that! Come and learn all about the latest happenings at the Museum as we host David D.J. Rau, Curator of Visitor Engagement, in the Buel room of the Essex Library on Sept. 19. Well known as the site of one of the more famous Impressionist colonies of painters in the United States, its interpretation of the historic Florence Griswold House, as well as its collections of American art and artifacts and innovative programming, the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme offers something for everyone!

About David D.J. Rau:

David D.J. Rau has been the Curator of Visitor Engagement (originally Director of Education & Outreach) at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme since 1998. Rau holds a master’s degree in the History of Art and a Certificate in Museum Practice from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. 
 
Since his arrival at the Florence Griswold Museum, Rau has initiated a broad array of new educational programming at the Museum, designed to promote active, experiential, and life-long learning opportunities for diverse audiences. Shortly after arriving at the Museum, he worked closely with architects in the design and outfitting of the Hartman Education Center as an active maker space for students, families, and adults. Rau played a key role in the reinterpretation of the Griswold House as a boardinghouse for the Lyme Art Colony as well as a related series of on-line learning resources. In 2008, in the wake of the economic downturn, he was asked by the Museum’s director to propose something “spectacular” that would become a magnet for family audiences. In 2009, he initiated an outdoor exhibition program called Wee Faerie Village that invited audiences of all ages to go on a themed tour of miniaturized dwellings (created by artists, schools, and design professionals) all over the historic site. An overnight success, this has become a signature program each October, attracting thousands of visitors with different themes each year. Wee Faerie Village was recognized by the AAM in 2010 as one of the top three examples of innovation and creativity in an American museum that year. 
 
Rau has held positions at Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Michigan; and The Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire. He also currently teaches in the Museum Studies program at Connecticut College.