Professor's Connecticut Public Art Website Wins National Award

HARTFORD, CT — A free online guide to Connecticut's public art and architecture, created by a Trinity College professor, has received a national award recognizing excellence in preserving and interpreting state and local history.

Public Art CT, a digital humanities website founded and edited by Alden R. Gordon, a Trinity College professor emeritus, received a 2026 Award of Excellence from the American Association for State and Local History(AASLH).

Gordon, a 1969 graduate of the Hartford-based college and Trinity's Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts, Emeritus, accepted the award Sept. 18 at the organization's joint conference with the National Council on Public History in Providence, R.I.

The website, PublicArtCT.org, serves as a free digital guidebook and catalog of Connecticut's public art and architecture.

Visitors can search for sculptures, murals, monuments, buildings, and other public works by town, artist, architect, monument title, or keyword.

The website also features geolocation mapping to help users discover public art near them.

“Public Art CT is the exhibition catalog to the permanent free exhibition of art and architecture in public places all across Connecticut,” Gordon said.

Gordon developed the project at Trinity College to make Connecticut's public art and architectural landmarks more accessible to residents and visitors, regardless of who owns the works.

The website, sponsored in part by Trinity College, is designed to help people identify and learn about artwork and architecture they encounter in public spaces.

Brenton Grom, executive director of the Webb Deane Stevens Museum in Wethersfield, praised the project's accessibility and its efforts to document Connecticut's cultural resources.

“The broad array of sculptures, murals, architecture, and landscapes that Public Art CT embraces as public art are, in fact, the daily companions of everyone who moves through public space,” Grom said. “Public Art CT names them, contextualizes them, and returns that knowledge to the public without a ticket price attached.”

Vanessa Sigalas, chief curator at Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, described the project as “in every sense museum-worthy—forward-looking, accessible, and deeply engaged with community.”

Jackie Gorsky Mandyck, executive director of The iQuilt Partnership, also praised the website, saying it “represents an important contribution to how Connecticut documents and shares its cultural resources.”

The AASLH presented 42 national awards in 2026, recognizing individuals, projects, exhibitions and publications for contributions to preserving and interpreting history.

The organization's Leadership in History Awards program, established in 1945, recognizes achievements by museums, historical societies, educational institutions and other organizations involved in documenting and sharing state and local history.

The AASLH is a national nonprofit organization that provides resources, professional development, and advocacy for history organizations, professionals, and volunteers.

Residents interested in exploring Connecticut's public art can visit www.publicartct.org. More information about the awards program is available at www.aaslh.org.

For more information on the award, click on this link.