Westport Arts
Advisory Committee
Committed to increasing public awareness of Westport's cultural resources.

ON FIRE, Westport Public Art Collections’ 2025 exhibition at MoCA CT, includes over 75 artworks in a variety of media, and asks how artists from the 1930s to today have envisioned and responded to the interrelationship of energy, infrastructure, and the environment. This fourth annual exhibition by the Westport Public Art Collections at MoCA allows the community to experience works of art, usually on display in school and municipal buildings, in a beautiful museum setting. As Westport and other seaside and riverfront towns in Connecticut plan for the future, issues of development, transportation, access, and ecology engender fiery debates. The exhibition is accompanied by programming that brings in local officials, community groups, and artists in dialogue about these contemporary issues. By including art depicting bridges, roads, waterways and sites in and around Westport, the exhibition asks viewers and residents to consider the past and envision the future of our community. ON FIRE includes a Learning Gallery exhibition showcasing WestPAC’s Ford Times Collection of paintings, a remarkable gift received from the Ford Motor Company in 1966. These paintings, each published in reproduction in the pocket-sized consumer magazine, Ford Times, were created by American artists during the 1950s and early 1960s, a period known as the golden age of magazine illustration and American cars, coinciding with the development of the interstate highway system. The selections highlight themes of energy, transportation, and infrastructure, prompting reflection on how the motor industry has shaped our desires and habits, our economy and policies, and our environment.