What to See in Storrs - Top Sights and Attractions

Museum in Mansfield, Connecticut. The William Benton Museum of Art is a public fine arts museum located on the University of Connecticut's main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, US. The Benton houses a permanent collection of over 6,500 artistic works and hosts special exhibitions, concerts, campus art walks, and other events. The museum is named in honor of the prominent U.S. senator and university trustee William Benton. The Benton has a cafe and a gift store. Admission to the museum is free for all.

Constructed in 1920 and used for twenty years as University's main dining hall, the Benton opened officially as an art museum in 1967. The museum building is designed in the Collegiate Gothic style and is one of the core campus buildings in the University of Connecticut Historic District-Connecticut Agricultural School, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Benton's collection originated with former Connecticut Agricultural College president Charles Lewis Beach, who began the college's art collection, bequeathed his personal collection of American art to the college in 1933, and left a trust fund for the college to continue acquiring art. Developed over the ensuing decades, the museum's permanent collection includes works by Childe Hassam, Henry Ward Ranger, Emil Carlson, Charles Harold Davis, Ernest Lawson, Ellen Emmet Rand, Guy Wiggins, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Hart Benton, Fairfield Porter, George Bellows, Gustav Klimt, Rembrandt Peale, Georges Braque, Edward Burne-Jones, Reginald Marsh, Käthe-Kollwitz, Arthur Bowen Davies, Maurice Prendergast and Kiki Smith. The collection is strongest in modern and American art, but some works date to the Renaissance, and exhibits are highly diverse.^[1]

Theater in Mansfield, Connecticut. The Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts is a public performing arts venue located on the University of Connecticut's main campus in Storrs, Connecticut. Opened in December 1955 and seating over 2,600 people, the Center presents 25-30 artists and ensembles annually. The Center draws 65,000 to 70,000 visitors every year. Performances include classical and contemporary music and dance, children's theater, comedy, a cabaret series, lectures, and other cultural events and entertainment. Past performers include Duke Ellington, Itzak Perlman, Kodo, Sweet Honey in the Rock, the Artemis Quartet, the American Ballet Theatre, the London Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. The Center also houses the Jorgensen Gallery, devoted mostly to regional artists, and the 485-seat Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre, featuring performances by the Connecticut Repertory Theatre.

The Center was named for UConn president Albert N. Jorgensen, who oversaw construction. The Center's director is Rodney Rock.^[3]

Museum in Mansfield, Connecticut. The Connecticut State Museum of Natural History was located in Storrs, Connecticut, as part of the University of Connecticut.

The small museum contained a variety of scientific and archaeological collections about the cultural history of southern New England. The natural history collections contained "hundreds of thousands of specimens of mammals, birds, insects, invertebrates, fossils, plants, fish and parasites." Since 2004, it housed the Connecticut Archaeology Center, which contained the "largest repository of Connecticut Native American, colonial and industrial artifacts in existence."

In August 2016, the University closed the museum to turn it into administrative office space. Although the museum still exists as a legal entity, it no longer has any physical location or exhibit space.^[4]

Land-grant university in Mansfield, Connecticut. The University of Connecticut is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut. It was founded in 1881. The primary 4,400-acre campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hartford and 90 minutes from Boston.

UConn was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two brothers who donated the land for the school. In 1893, the school became a land grant college. In 1939, the name was changed to the University of Connecticut. Over the next decade, social work, nursing and graduate programs were established, while the schools of law and pharmacy were also absorbed into the university. During the 1960s, UConn Health was established for new medical and dental schools. John Dempsey Hospital opened in Farmington in 1975.

The university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". The university has been recognized as a Public Ivy. UConn is one of the founding institutions of the Hartford, Connecticut/Springfield, Massachusetts regional economic and cultural partnership alliance known as New England's Knowledge Corridor. UConn was the second U.S. university invited into Universitas 21, an international network of 24 research-intensive universities who work together to foster global citizenship. UConn is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

Competing in the Big East Conference as the Huskies, UConn has been particularly successful in their men's and women's basketball programs. The Huskies have won 21 NCAA championships. The UConn Huskies are the most successful women's basketball program in the nation, having won a record 11 NCAA Division I National Championships (tied with the UCLA Bruins men's basketball team) and a women's record four in a row (2013–2016), plus over 40 conference regular season and tournament championships. UConn also owns the two longest winning streaks of any gender in college basketball history.^[8]