The Rex Brasher Museum, a vision long nurtured by the Rex Brasher Association, is poised to become a beacon of cultural and environmental stewardship in the Hudson Valley Region.
Located on Rex Brasher’s wooded 116-acre property near Kent, Connecticut, the museum site holds profound historical and environmental significance. This project is not merely about erecting a structure; it embodies a commitment to long-term ownership and protection of the land, fulfilling the wishes of the Brasher family and ensuring Rex Brasher's legacy is preserved in perpetuity. For the first time, this space will be open to the public, providing access to Brasher's unparalleled collection in an archival environment while fostering awareness and activism for the protection of bird life and the environment.
At the heart of the museum's design is a visionary concept—a “wow” moment—that captures the essence of nature. The roof, reminiscent of a leaf's structure, will feature a pyramidal design with ribs on the inside, symbolizing our connection to the environmental surroundings. To further integrate with the land, wood harvested from the site itself will be used, transforming the very nature of the project into a harmonious blend of art and environment.
The Rex Brasher Museum represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to preserve history, art, and nature. Serving as the centerpiece and gateway to an interactive open-air education environment, the museum site will offer walking trails, indoor and outdoor educational programs, and potential residency opportunities. This holistic approach contextualizes the museum as a work product that introduces visitors to the environment, fostering a deeper understanding of our connection to nature.
The Rex Brasher Museum promises to be a hub of community engagement and environmental advocacy. By providing space for reflection, inspiration, art, and education, we aim to empower individuals to become stewards of the land and champions for biodiversity.
We are actively drawing up plans for a museum and raising money to build it. Our goal is to open the museum in April 2026.
Rex's 116-acre property is located in New York State, just across the border from Kent, Connecticut.
Rex Brasher (1869-1960) was one of the most prolific ornithological painters in American history. Though he was well known and universally lauded in his day, he slipped from the public eye later in life and is largely unknown today.
Rex Brasher traveled extensively to document birds in their natural habitats—in contrast to John James Audubon, who painted dead birds. Rex’s love of birds is evident in his meticulously detailed drawings, richly colored paintings, lushly rendered habitats, and poetic descriptions of each bird drawn from field notes and a deep connection to nature.
By age fifty-seven, Rex had painted every species of bird in North America, depicting nearly 1,100 species of birds and hundreds of species of trees in 874 watercolor paintings. It was an astounding achievement for a man who was not formally trained, who often traveled on foot and by boat to document each bird in the wild, and had to work to support himself.
Though Rex completed and destroyed thousands of paintings to perfect his skills, the final set of watercolor paintings were made on his 116-acre property in Chickadee Valley, near Kent, Connecticut.
The completed paintings were universally acclaimed and widely exhibited, including at the National Geographic Explorers Hall in Washington, D.C., in 1939. Critics inevitably compared Brasher’s work to Audubon’s, with many asserting that Brasher had surpassed Audubon in both quantity and quality.
With the paintings completed, Rex was eager to share his work more broadly and fulfill his dream of creating a “standard reference” for American birds and trees.
In 1929, Rex set out to publish his entire collection of paintings in a twelve-volume encyclopedic set of books titled Birds and Trees of North America.
After meeting with publishers, Rex realized that commercial publishing would be too costly and four-color printing too clumsy to reproduce the fine line quality and subtle color of his paintings, so he did the only reasonable thing he could think of: he decided to publish the books himself!
Rex was fully aware of the magnitude of this proposal. In preparation for production, Rex had his barn fireproofed and reinforced to carry 25 tons, the estimated weight of the 500,000 key plates and text pages required to produce 1,200 individual volumes.
He contracted the Meriden Gravure Company to reproduce all 874 paintings as 12x18 grayscale plates on handmade paper, which he would individually paint and bind into books.
Between 1929 and 1933, Rex and a small team of assistants hand painted well over 87,400 plates, bound them in leather covers, and mailed completed volumes to subscribers across the nation.
Shortly after publishing Birds and Trees, Rex set out to write his autobiography. The autobiography was never published, but we are fortunate to have his original hand-annotated draft, rarely seen since his death. Rex concluded his autobiography with these words:
In July 1941, she came with the information that the State of Connecticut had decided to buy the full set of 874 paintings, and erect a building for permanent exhibition.
A perfect climax to a full life.
Rex died on February 28, 1960. Despite initial planning and good intentions, the State of Connecticut had not fulfilled its promise during Rex’s lifetime, nor have they built a museum or created a permanent exhibition of his work to this day.
Our vision is to reintroduce Rex’s monumental life and work to the public and open his 116-acre property to everyone so it may inspire a new generation of artists, naturalists, and bird lovers.
Rex Brasher’s 116-acre property lies just inside the New York state line, approximately 90 miles north of New York City. Chickadee Valley sits at the foot of the Taconic Hills, in the verdant Housatonic Highlands, one of the most diverse and unique ecosystems in North America.
Chickadee Farm, as Rex called his home, is tucked a quarter mile off the main road to Kent, Connecticut. The property rises from a lowland bog chirping with frogs to the craggy stone peak of Buffalo Mountain overhead. In between is a woodland forest rich with hemlock, maple, and oak, perforated with old drover’s trails and grassy upland meadows.
Our goal is to nurture the rich and varied ecosystems that exist on site and make the property accessible to the public for hiking and bird watching.
It should be part of a constellation of architectural, sculptural, and natural moments that comprise the broader outdoor experience of the 116-acre site. The architecture of the museum should defer to the natural landscape.
Adapting an existing building forces clarity of purpose and programming. The existing workshop is well sited and the foundation and walls are solid; the doors, windows, and roof are badly deteriorated. Just as Rex Brasher—like all birders—spent his life looking up, our opportunity lies overhead. The new plan reimagines the roof as a canopy, framed with timber harvested from the property. The small footprint creates curatorial opportunities to exhibit work on a rotating basis in interior and exterior spaces.
In a collaborative effort with ornithologists, ecologists, and the New York State forestry program to manage a healthy woodland around us, we will design and build the museum with hemlock and oak harvested from the site. Trees that were saplings when Rex roamed these woods will be used to build a museum in his honor.
Rex left us with a monumental body of work and a compelling story, but the narrative is not complete. We will collaborate with a new generation of artists, writers, and naturalists through educational and residency programming so that Rex’s work can be referenced and exhibited side-by-side with fresh new perspectives.
The design and construction timeline was established to fulfill the goals set by the Brasher family and align with key milestones, such as harvesting, milling, and drying the timber that will be used in the construction of the museum.
The design and construction budget—derived from schematic design drawings—includes cost estimates and allowances from architects, builders, and trade professionals.
$71,000 Design, Engineering, Permitting
$22,000 Timber Harvest and Milling
$60,000 Sitework and Landscaping
$372,000 Museum Construction
$105,000 Contingency and Escalation
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$630,000 Total