*SOLD OUT* Pysanky Egg Decorating Workshop AM Session

Cost: $35 for Members, $45 for Not-Yet-MembersOpen to participants ages 8 and up (a participating adult must accompany children under the age of 13). SOLD OUT   Registration deadline: March 21, 2026 Pysanky (pee-san-key) are decorated eggs with traditional folk motifs a......More

Cost: $35 for Members, $45 for Not-Yet-MembersOpen to participants ages 8 and up (a participating adult must accompany children under the age of 13). SOLD OUT   Registration deadline: March 21, 2026 Pysanky (pee-san-key) are decorated eggs with traditional folk motifs and designs created using a wax-resist method. Students in this workshop will learn how to draw on a whole plain white chicken egg with a special pen (kistka) and melted wax, then dye the egg with special dyes. The drawing and dyeing process is repeated several times as each layer of the design is applied. The egg’s interior is removed, and a ribbon is added. Workshop leader Hanka Robertson was born in Slovenia and learned to make pysanky as a child. She was taught by her mother, who was born and raised in the former Czechoslovakia, where pysanky eggs were an annual Easter tradition. The workshop fee includes admission to the Museum, all supplies, a short history of pysanky, instructions on the process and how to care for the completed eggs, motifs and designs for inspiration, and a container to take the decorated eggs home.

The Icon Museum and Study Center, 203 Union St, Clinton, MA, 01510, United States

Pysanky Egg Decorating Workshop PM Session

Cost: $35 for Members, $45 for Not-Yet-MembersOpen to participants ages 8 and up (a participating adult must accompany children under the age of 13).     Registration deadline: March 21, 2026 Pysanky (pee-san-key) are decorated eggs with traditional folk motifs and desi......More

Cost: $35 for Members, $45 for Not-Yet-MembersOpen to participants ages 8 and up (a participating adult must accompany children under the age of 13).     Registration deadline: March 21, 2026 Pysanky (pee-san-key) are decorated eggs with traditional folk motifs and designs created using a wax-resist method. Students in this workshop will learn how to draw on a whole plain white chicken egg with a special pen (kistka) and melted wax, then dye the egg with special dyes. The drawing and dyeing process is repeated several times as each layer of the design is applied. The egg’s interior is removed, and a ribbon is added. Workshop leader Hanka Robertson was born in Slovenia and learned to make pysanky as a child. She was taught by her mother, who was born and raised in the former Czechoslovakia, where pysanky eggs were an annual Easter tradition. The workshop fee includes admission to the Museum, all supplies, a short history of pysanky, instructions on the process and how to care for the completed eggs, motifs and designs for inspiration, and a container to take the decorated eggs home.

The Icon Museum and Study Center, 203 Union St, Clinton, MA, 01510, United States

Easter Closure

The Museum will be closed on Sunday, April 5, for the Easter Holiday. We will reopen to the public on Thursday, April 9, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Our First Free Sunday program has been rescheduled to Sunday, April 19, to avoid interfering with Orthodox Easter Sunday (Sunday......More

The Museum will be closed on Sunday, April 5, for the Easter Holiday. We will reopen to the public on Thursday, April 9, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Our First Free Sunday program has been rescheduled to Sunday, April 19, to avoid interfering with Orthodox Easter Sunday (Sunday, April 12).

Author talk and Q&A with Mary Kay Zuravleff

Cost: $20 -$35$20 ticket includes admission to the Museum and event$35 tickets include admission to the Museum and event, plus one pre-signed paperback copy of American Ending**Limited quantity available — book must be picked up at the Museum and will not be shipped** R......More

Cost: $20 -$35$20 ticket includes admission to the Museum and event$35 tickets include admission to the Museum and event, plus one pre-signed paperback copy of American Ending**Limited quantity available — book must be picked up at the Museum and will not be shipped** RegisterJoin the Icon Museum and Study Center as we welcome award-winning author Mary Kay Zuravleff to discuss her book “American Ending.” Zuravleff will give an illustrated lecture, followed by an open Q&A. An Oprah pick for spring 2023, “American Ending” follows Yelena, the first American born to her Old Believer Russian Orthodox parents, who are building a life in a Pennsylvania Appalachian town. This town, in the first decades of the 20th century, is filled with Russian transplants and a new church with a dome. Here, boys quit grade school for the coal mines and girls are married off at fourteen. The young pair up, give birth to more babies than they can feed, and make shaky starts in their new world. However, Yelena craves a different path. Will she find her own American ending or will a traditional Russian ending be her fate? In this immersive novel, Zuravleff weaves Russian fairy tales and fables into a family saga within the storied American landscape. The challenges facing immigrants–and the fragility of citizenship–are just as unsettling and surprising today as they were 100 years ago. American Ending is a poignant reminder that everything that is happening in America has already happened.

The Icon Museum and Study Center, 203 Union St, Clinton, MA, 01510, United States

Picturing Paradise: Earth Day at the Icon Museum

Free. Join us for a fun and free celebration of Icons and the Natural World for Earth Day at the Icon Museum. Enjoy a guided tour, explore natural materials utilized in icon making, create a card out of recycled materials, and plant a beneficial sunflower to take home. ......More

Free. Join us for a fun and free celebration of Icons and the Natural World for Earth Day at the Icon Museum. Enjoy a guided tour, explore natural materials utilized in icon making, create a card out of recycled materials, and plant a beneficial sunflower to take home. 10:30, 12:30, 3:30 Guided Tours The beauty and variety of the natural world can be found throughout our galleries. Take in the vibrant colors and rich textures of the icons while learning about the natural materials used to create them during guided tours led by the Museum’s curator and registrar. Explore how the splendor of nature is celebrated in the iconography and learn how fantastic beasts convey complex spiritual messages.  10:00-4:00 Drop-in Activity: Materials of Icon Painting Explore the natural materials used to make icons! Most of the icons in our collection were painted with egg tempera. Artists would grind rocks and minerals into colorful pigments using a mortar and pestle these would be mixed with egg yolk to create vibrant, long-lasting colors. Get a sense of how it would feel to use these materials while learning about the symbolic meanings behind different colors, grind with a mortar and pestle, create your own paints, and use imitation gold and silver leaf to adorn your paintings.   11:00-3:00 Drop-in Activity: Earth Day Cards and the Green Museum Encounter how artists used scenes of nature and natural patterns to enliven their sacred paintings. Take inspiration from the natural motifs in our icons to create Earth Day greeting cards using recycled materials at a creation station located in our galleries. While you create, learn how museum founder Gordon Lankton envisioned a museum built and operated on the principles of environmental conservation. This short talk will include information about our solar panels, efficient lighting, and the daily practices we take to ensure that Gordon’s vision of a green museum holds true today.    10:00-4:00 Drop-in Activity: Planting PeaceSunflowers, the national flower of both Ukraine and Russia, have been revered by various cultures for centuries as symbols of happiness, resilience, and hope. Today, these magnificent plants are favored by conservationists for their beneficial effects on the environment. Learn about these incredible flowers and how to care for them as you plant your own to take home.