Leach Library Hosts “A Visit with Isabella Stewart Gardner in Autumn 1910”

On Thursday, November 12 at 7:00 p.m. the Leach Library will host Isabella Stewart Gardner, as she is brought vividly to life by character re-enactor, Jessa Piaia.

Ms. Piaia studied performance at London’s Oval House Theatre and graduated from the University of Massachusetts in Boston.  She works at the Harvard School for Engineering and Applied Sciences.  Research for this program was conducted at many different institutions including The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

The drama is set in 1910, seven years after the opening of Fenway Court, the house-museum which Mrs. Gardner designed and built for her extensive art collection, and willed to the City of Boston upon her demise.  Mrs. Gardner was a recognized leader of Boston’s emerging salon scene, and Ms. Piaia with characteristic verve and candor, relates episodes about Gardner’s luminous circle of family and friends, relives journeys to exotic lands, and shares other potentially scandalous encounters.

This presentation is free and open to the public with seating limited to the first 90 individuals. It will be held in the library’s lower-level meeting room. Light refreshments will be served.