Hillwood Estate Museum and Gardens

Physical plant: Hillwood's twenty-five acre Estate comprises twelve acres of manicured Gardens, including a japanese-style garden, a french parterre, a rose garden, putting green, cutting garden, and many pathways winding through azaleas and other blooming shrubs, surrounded by thirteen acres of woodlands. The 26,000 square foot mansion, open to the public, displays post's extensive art collections in the original domestic setting she created for her own and her guests' enjoyment and to be left for the benefit of the public after her demise. Other buildings on the campus include the visitors center, greenhouses, cafe, library, two buildings where special exhibits are shown, and numerous staff buildings. There are a total of sixteen structures and one parking deck on site.

Interpretation and programs: through its immersive visitor experience, robust calendar of special exhibitions and public and educational programs, Hillwood serves over 80,000 individuals annually. All visitors to Hillwood have access to informational tours, including docent-led tours, self-guided tours accompanied by rich informational booklets available in english, french, spanish and russian, and self-guided audio tours for the mansion and Gardens, all of which are supplemented by explanatory object labels.hillwood routinely engages with community partners that include, but are not limited to the art deco society, environmental film festival, levine school of music, rainbow families, kids eurofest, girl scout troops region-wide, as well as embassies such as french, belgian, spanish and the netherlands.

Collections: important collections of russian imperial art, french decorative arts, costumes, textiles and jewelry are displayed in the mansion and through special exhibitions. Highlights of the russian collection include an 1884 diamond crown worn by the last empress alexandra at her marriage to nicholas ii; and a comprehensive collection of some eighty works by faberge, including two imperial easter eggs. The french holdings include funishings, tapestries and porcelain, primarily from the 18th century, numerous pieces of famed sevres porcelain and spectacular beauvais tapestries designed by francois boucher. The fashion holdings span the first seven decades of the twentieth century and the jewelry collection features historical pieces and works from the main jewelry houses fot eh 1900's, including cartier, harry winston adn van cleef & arpels. In total, Hillwood's collections include some 20,000 objects.

The foundation maintains the home of the late marjorie merriweather post. Under the terms of her will, the home and grounds are to be operated as a Museum open to the public to exhibit her art collection. All of the operating and administrative expenses incurred exlcuding investment income, management fees, relate to the operation and maintenance of Hillwood.

Lectures and seminars offered to provide information about Hillwood art collection.

Museum shop sales- replicas and reproductions of art on display in the Museum, books and other related item are available for sale to the public.