Make the MIA part of your holiday traditions this year. Celebrate Holiday Traditions, a fascinating, festive way to connect with friends and family.

Take a free tour led by costumed guides of the lavishly decorated period rooms and the Prairie School-style Purcell-Cutts House. (Purcell-Cutts House tours require a reservation.) Discover surprising seasonal traditions from centuries ago. View an array of contemporary Hanukkah lamps. And join us in making the season bright!

Image: Purcell-Cutts House living room decorated for the holidays.

Holiday Traditions

Ending Soon!

Friday, November 28, 2008—Sunday, January 11, 2009
Period Rooms, Bell Family Decorative Arts Court, Purcell-Cutts House
Free Exhibition

Since 1951, the MIA has decorated its American and European period rooms each year to show winter holidays as they were celebrated in times past. Nine period rooms showcase a range of special occasions, from a feast in Tudor England to a 1770s Hanukkah celebration in Providence, Rhode Island. Examples of early Christmas trees and Nativity scenes are highlighted in the Bell Family Decorative Arts Court and the Mary C. and Walter C. Briggs Gallery. To further explore Hanukkah this year, a display of contemporary Hanukkah lamps will be on display near the Providence Room.

Period Room Tours
Throughout the holidays, visitors can enjoy lively tours by costumed docents emphasizing the gifts, toys, food, and social traditions of each period. Offered several times per day, Tuesdays through Sundays. Call (612) 870-3131 for times. Free.

Holiday Traditions at the Purcell-Cutts House

Friday, November 28, 2008—Sunday, December January 4, 2009
Purcell-Cutts House
Ticketed Exhibition (FREE for members!)

The MIA’s Prairie-School style Purcell-Cutts House, designed in 1913 by William Gray Purcell and George Grant Elmslie for Purcell and his family, is decorated for the holidays to reflect the upper-middle-class, “progressive” lifestyle of the Purcells around 1915.

Purcell-Cutts House Tours
Tours of the Purcell-Cutts House, given on weekends from November 29 through January 4, can be reserved at (612) 870-3000 or online. Buses will transport visitors to and from the house, starting and ending at the MIA.

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts address: 2400 3rd Avenue South, Minneapolis
Purcell-Cutts House address: 2328 Lake Place, Minneapolis, (612) 377-0728

Bus/Tour Schedule
• Saturdays: Nov. 29, Dec. 6, Dec. 13, Dec. 20, Dec. 27, Jan. 3
Six hourly tours, departing the MIA at 10:15 and 11:15 a.m., and 12:15, 1:15, 2:15, and 3:15 p.m.

• Sundays: Nov. 30, Dec. 7, Dec. 14, Dec. 21, Dec. 28, Jan. 4
Four hourly tours departing the MIA at 12:15, 1:15, 2:15, and 3:15 p.m.