Access for All Community Day | ¡Viva Puerto Rico!

Join us in kicking off the Museum’s multi-year initiative to address the intersections, past and present, between the art of Puerto Rico and the U.S. 

Schedule:

11 a.m.-2 p.m. | Café Takeover by Borinquen Bakery 

• Your local family-owned Puerto Rican Bakery serving the community high-quality and authentic foods. Founded in 2001, our bakery was born out of passion for sharing the flavors and traditions of our Isla del Encanto.  

11 a.m.-12 p.m. | Circulo de Voces

• Join artist Xenia Rubinos for an intimate workshop exploring our individual and collective voices. Together we will reimagine the choir as a public service, like a library or park, centering the voice as a primary tool for connection and collective transcendence. Inspired by the group vocalizations in Cuban Rumba and Puerto Rican Bomba. Everyone who wants to explore their voice is invited to join! 

11 a.m.-2 p.m. | Let’s Co-Create an Exhibition Inspired by Pop Art! (Learn More)

• Inspired by the exhibition, Pop! American Art in the 1960s, students will use printmaking techniques to bring new ideas to life. With cARTie, our original works of art come together inside a mobile art museum exhibition set to travel all over our state in Summer of 2026.

12:30-1:30 p.m. | Bomba + Plena Interactive Performance by Bomba de Aqui

• Bomba de Aquí is a vibrant Afro-Puerto Rican cultural organization based in Holyoke, Massachusetts, dedicated to preserving, educating, and uplifting the rich traditions of Puerto Rican Bomba. Rooted in ancestral rhythm, resistance, and community, Bomba de Aquí creates spaces where culture is not only performed—but lived, taught, and passed on. Led by cultural practitioners and community leaders Brendaliz Cepeda and Saúl Peñaloza.

2-3 p.m. | Artist Talk by Pablo Delano in The Museum of the Old Colony exhibition (Registration Required)

10 a.m.-2 p.m. | Drop-in artmaking: Studio A  

• Vejigantes-inspired artmaking 

All Day | Drop-in self-directed games in Landers House, such as Dominos and Cartas Españolas 

Generous support provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program. Additional support provided by New Britain Commission on the Arts and Murphy Charitable Contributions Committee, Legrand/Wiremold. 

This program is related to The Museum of the Old Colony, which is the inaugural exhibition of Puerto Rico In Focus, a multiyear initiative at the New Britain Museum of American Art that centers Puerto Rican art and histories within the context of an American art museum.