What is WestPAC?

Westport Public Art Collections (WestPAC) are a cultural asset of our town, with nearly 2,000 works of art in a broad range of media — paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints, illustrations, cartoons, photographs, sculptures and murals — by notable American artists, giants of the international art world and important artists who established their homes and studios in the Westport-Weston community. WestPAC’s artworks are acquired primarily through gifts, mostly given by the artists themselves or donated by heirs and collectors. Artworks are displayed throughout Westport’s municipal buildings and public schools.

The WestPAC Committee cares for the artworks in the collections and carries out WestPAC’s mission of using original works of art to inspire and educate Westport residents, students, teachers and the broader community.

Search WestPAC collections by visiting our online database at Connecticut Collections!

Westport Schools Permanent Art Collection (WSPAC)

In 1965, Westport Public Schools’ arts educator Burt Chernow (1933-1997), together with Vivien Testa (1912-2014) and WPS art teachers, founded this collection, entrusted to the Board of Education, with the vision that original art would be a daily part of the educational environment of every student.

 

 

 

 

 

Learning Galleries in each school are created with funds provided by Drew Friedman Community Arts Center and Friends of WestPAC, a 501(c)3 nonprofit (left); Burt Chernow with students, Greens Farms Elementary School, circa 1964 (right)

Town of Westport Art Collection

This collection includes artworks which promote the artistic and cultural heritage of Westport.

 

 

Hardie Gramatky, Compo Beach with Figures, 1971, watercolor on paper, Westport Public Art Collections, no. 579

Works Progress Administration (WPA) Collection

Artworks commissioned under the federal art programs of the New Deal remain property of the federal government and are granted by extended loan to local towns, for whom the work was created. Westport's WPA collections form a historically significant portion of the Westport Public Art Collections.