The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

T he Aldrich, which opened in 1964, is one of the few independent, non-collecting contemporary art museums in the United States and the only contemporary museum in its state. Larry Aldrich, its founder, was born in Manhattan in 1906 and made his mark as a fashion designer. He purchased an 18th-century building that had been a grocery and hardware store on Ridgefield’s historic Main Street to house his art collection, featuring impressionist and expressionist works. The institution later sold the holdings to dedicate itself to presenting contemporary art and opened a new building in 2004 to do so – its design complementing the colonial-era architecture of the district. The museum aims to act as an “incubator” for cutting edge work and has given first U.S. institutional shows to artists including Eva Hesse, Jack Whitten, Olafur Eliasson, Huma Bhabha, KAWS, Mark Dion, and Shahzia Sikander, among others. A renovation in 2024 included an overhaul of its sculpture garden which is open year round.