Dear Stockbridge Friends,

This moment invites my personal reflection and gratitude for the privilege of 40 years of bringing together a community that has nourished and grown Norman Rockwell Museum. Palpable excitement is in the air about a future filled with the opportunities inherent in the Museum’s and my own next chapters.

None of the Museum’s accomplishments would have been possible without the affection and support of our beloved community of Stockbridge. Norman Rockwell chose Stockbridge as home for his last 25 years, at a time when he sought healing and support for his family. He received that and found more: a community that embraced and welcomed this beloved national figure as one of their own, affording him the privacy, friendship, and inspiration that helped him paint some of his most important and affecting works.

When Rockwell chose Stockbridge as his home in 1953, he would have had no idea that there would one day be a museum established in his honor, a museum that has shared his work around the world, that has been seen by presidents and popes, and millions of ordinary Americans while knitting together the vibrant field of illustration art across the nation. His neighbors and friends were his models, photographers, studio assistants, and community.

When Rockwell chose to leave his artwork, studio, and archive in the care of the nascent Old Corner House, he was giving a gift to the nation that had given so much to him. When he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Gerald Ford, he was being honored for his contributions to his country and its citizens whom he deeply respected and inspired with aspirational hope to create an always-better America.

Norman Rockwell was a brilliant and beloved visual communicator. He unified people of many beliefs around a vision of America filled with possibility. As we reflect on the vital importance of visual communication in an increasingly visual world, I am optimistic that the Museum will continue to create community and contribute to building a society that seeks a bright future for all.

I hope you will join me in giving my successor, Graham C. Boettcher, Ph.D., a warm welcome. Please take time to visit and meet him. He brings an extraordinary background and expertise to the Museum. And please remember that visits to the Museum are always free for Stockbridge residents. We welcome your membership to support the scores of programs and exhibitions we present each year.

I want to express my deep gratitude to you for your friendship, for your support, and for your steadfast belief in the power of illustration art to reflect and shape the world—a world that, here at NRM, centers around Norman Rockwell’s values of kindness, respect, and equity for all. With gratitude to our Board of Trustees to represent our museum as director emerita, my husband, Craig, and I look forward to seeing you around our Stockbridge village, our beloved home of so many years.

With gratitude,

Laurie Norton Moffatt,
Stockbridge
15 August 2026