Winterlights at the Purcell-Cutts House

Designed by William Purcell and George Elmslie in 1913, the Prairie School-style Purcell-Cutts House will be decorated for the holidays to reflect the upper-middle-class, “progressive” lifestyle of the Purcells around 1915. Forty-five minute tours led by costumed docents will emphasize the gifts, toys, food and social traditions of the period that the Purcells might have enjoyed. For example, many people had begun to reject Victorian knickknacks in favor of useful gifts that reflected modern aesthetic values of simplicity and function. Decorations include a Christmas tree decorated mainly with handmade paper ornaments, some in the Japanese style. The house display will also feature several still and mechanical banks of the period from the MIA’s Katherine Kierland Herberger Collection.

Weekends November 30, 2019 -January 5, 2020
Tours meet at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts for a shuttle to the house
Tickets: $5 for adults, $4 for students, free for members (it’s free to become a member) & kiddos under 6