10 am to 4 pm
Celebrate the Arrival of Spring at Hill-Stead’s May Market!
May Market is Hill-Stead’s annual home, garden and gourmet benefit event featuring premium exhibitors, rare and unusual plants, entertainment, children’s activities, food, and a museum open house.
May Market’s spacious west lawn tent and many indoor spaces truly make this a rain or shine event, while our children’s craft activities, Hops & Vines tastings, Museum Open House, and a variety of demonstrations promise a fun-filled weekend for everyone. Celebrate spring in the heart of the Farmington Valley while supporting Hill-Stead’s beautiful grounds, gardens and trails at this much-loved annual benefit event!”
Interested in exhibiting at May Market? Complete an application.
Tickets
Two-day admission tickets: $15 advance/online, $20 at the gate, children under 18 are FREE.
Thank you to our sponsors
2018 May Market Schedule
Saturday, May 5
10 am – 4 pm Artisan exhibitors
10 am – 4 pm Tour the museum to see Hill-Stead’s French Impressionist masterpieces
11 am – 4 pm Clatter Ridge Farm lambs, lower lawn
11 am – 3 pm Mother’s Day craft activities for children, Education Station
11 am Mason Bee Hotel demonstration, near the museum entrance
12 – 4 pm Hops and Vines, Makeshift Theater
12 pm Floral Designer Mary Ann Haar, Veranda
1 pm Pollinator Garden Design: Where to Begin, near the museum entrance
2 pm Golf expert and author Anthony Pioppi book signing, Veranda
2 pm Pollinator garden tour with Lea Anne Moran, Sunken Garden entrance
2 pm Children’s scavenger hunt, Sunken Garden (sun) or museum entrance (rain)
2:30 & 3:30 pm The Secrets & Beauty of Hill-Stead’s Stone Walls with Betty Collins, Sunken Garden
Sunday, May 6
10 am – 4 pm Artisan exhibitors
10 am – 4 pm Tour the museum to see Hill-Stead’s French Impressionist masterpieces
11 am – 3 pm Mother’s Day craft activities for children, Education Station
11 am Mason Bee Hotel demonstration, near the museum entrance
11:30 am The Secrets & Beauty of Hill-Stead’s Stone Walls with Betty Collins, Sunken Garden
12 to 4 pm Hops and Vines, Makeshift Theater
12 pm Scarf tying with JoAnn Everson, Veranda
1 pm Pollinator Garden Design: Where to Begin, near the museum entrance
2 pm Rose pruning with rosarian Felicia Ledgard, Sunken Garden
2 pm Children’s scavenger hunt, Sunken Garden (sun) or museum entrance (rain)
2 pm Estate walk with Betty Collins, Museum Shop
2 pm Pollinator garden tour with Lea Anne Moran, Sunken Garden entrance
3 pm Pastry decorating tips with Tracy Celentano/Madame Gateaux
Downloadable schedule for Saturday
Downloadable schedule for Sunday
Hops and Vines
Your May Market admission includes free tastings with popular and up-and-coming wineries, craft breweries and distilleries! This event, sited in Hill-Stead’s historic Makeshift Theater, is brought to us by Hill-Stead’s Impressionists Council, a group of young philanthropists who share a love of art and culture. You must be 21 and older and ID is required. 2018 Hops & Vines Providers
Artisan Exhibitors
May Market will host more than 60 select home, garden and gourmet exhibitors in a spacious festival tent on the west lawn and throughout the historic buildings and grounds. Gardeners, in particular, will delight in the carefully curated collection of specialty plants and shrubs on offer.
2018 May Market Exhibitors
Browse a beautiful collection of
- hand-crafted baskets
- soaps
- pottery
- stationary
- jewelry & couture accessories
- textiles
- garden ornaments
- linens
- original artwork
- specialty teas
- spices
- honey
- and much more
The Hill-Steaders’ Perennial Sale
The Museum’s Hill-Steaders volunteers will offer their much-anticipated and fine selection of unique perennials sourced from leading local nurseries, Hill-Stead’s own Sunken Garden and gardening friends.
Donate perennials from your own garden to support Hill-Stead.
- Especially popular: shade plants including unusual or smaller hosta varieties, variegated ferns, hellebores; digitalis; blue plants; peonies; houseplants; shrubs; small trees.
- Please bring your plants to Hill-Stead on Friday morning, May 4, between 9 and 11 am, where there will be volunteers available to help you unload them.
Theodate’s Attic and Theodate’s Gallery
Treasure hunters should be sure to visit volunteer-curated Theodate’s Attic to enjoy a large selection of donated linens, glassware, gardening books, jewelry and more, to browse donated artwork at Theodate’s Gallery.
- Theodate’s Attic offers high-quality vintage, antique, and designer jewelry, ceramics, glass, linens, furniture, garden planters, tools and accessories,
- Theodate’s Gallery offers original artwork, prints, posters, photography, art books, sculpture, wall hangings at attractive prices.
Family Time
Enjoy a full schedule of children’s activities from 11 am to 3 pm both days.
- Free Mother’s Day gift-making at Hill-Stead’s Education Station
- Scavenger hunts
- A visit with Hill-Stead’s lambs
- Kid-friendly food.
- May Market admission is free for children 17 and under.
Demonstrations
- Learn how to tie a scarf with JoAnn Everson of Pangborn Ties
- Pick up pastry-decorating tips from Tracy Celentano of Madame Gateaux
- Watch and learn as Hill-Stead’s rosarian, Felicia Ledgard, conducts a live rose pruning demonstration
- Floral designer Mary Ann Haar shares ideas
- Enjoy a book-signing with golf journalist and expert Anthony Pioppi, author of To the Nines, The History of The Minikahda Club Golf Course and the newly-released The Finest Nines, North America’s Best Nine-Hole Golf Courses.
- Tour Hill-Stead’s new Pollinator Garden with Garden Manager Lea Anne Moran.
Amazing Food
- Seasonal Catering of Milford, CT will anchor festival food offerings with a fabulous farm-to-table menu.
- Culteavo
- Chet’s Italian Ice
- Hill-Stead’s volunteer-run Monet’s Express
- An exciting variety of exhibitors selling specialty tea, olive oil, exquisite baked goods, salts and spices, artisan cheese
Inside the Museum
Tour the museum at your leisure, taking in the beauty of Hill-Stead’s French Impressionist masterpieces. The weekend’s special Open House format will allow you to linger over famous paintings by Monet, Manet, Degas, Whistler and Mary Cassatt. Art lovers and experts alike will delight in seeing these incredible paintings in their beautifully appointed, historic setting.
Thanks to our May Market Donors
Hydrangea
Marianne & William Watson
Lynn Cavo
Core Construction Resources
Tree of Heaven
Claudie & Jack Blozy
May Market helps to support the museum’s 152 acres of beautiful gardens, grounds and trails. Underwritten by 2018 Presenting Sponsor, Simsbury Bank, May Market earned Yankee Magazine’s “Editor’s Choice – Top 20 Event” recognition in 2014 and 2015.
