Paine Art Center & Gardens

The wood working in this place is breath taking. All the carvings in the wood and not to mention the beautiful furniture. The first time I visited was for the «Downtown Abbey» show case this summer with my mother and a friend. We were more interested in the building than the clothes. I came back for «Nutcracker in the Castle» and honestly that was amazing. I took my husband with me and he was in love with the architecture and decorating of the building. We also loved that they had each room decorated like part of the story. I think if you have never been you need to stop in to see this place.

I’ll be honest, the boyfriend and I have a membership, but we mainly use it to take friends from out of town — we hardly ever just come here ourselves. However, a variety of friends and family have enjoyed the Paine, so the membership has more than paid for itself. Plus, you get 4 guest passes when you buy a membership, which apparently you can just give to people to use (I’m a little slow on the uptake sometimes). Entry is casual, and with a membership card, they just wave you in and ask how many today.
Enough of a membership commercial, on to the actual house and gardens! The house is neat, but not really that large, so it can get a little old after repeated visits. The Downton Abbey exhibit was a huge hit with my family, but beware of going between exhibits — we accidentally went while they were taking down the Nutcracker, and it was pretty meh. They have a ton of herbs and edibles (Swiss chard, artichokes, etc.) in the gardens, but when the boyfriend asked if he could pick some, they said no. So, you’re growing all this stuff to die on the vine? Kinda weird.
Overall, it’s an interesting piece of history, but not a regular spot for me.

I attended a wedding here and it was pretty neat. I didn’t know about this place beforehand. The mansion is very nice with detailed woodwork that’s really gorgeous. Definitely worth checking out!

Meh. I was recently in Oshkosh because the hubby wanted to attend the famed airshow. I found out about Paine during internet searching and made my plan to go there expecting a lot more. Somehow the website and other sources made out like the gardens were THE thing about it. I was expecting acres and acres. It was more like a big backyard. Very disappointing. Back home in LA I can visit the much more expansive Descanso, Arboretum, or Huntington. These gardens were SAD.
The house was nice but since it was never lived in it did leave one a bit cold. The special exhibition was of Matisse prints. Fine, but that killed 5 minutes.
What I do recommend is going kitty-​corner across the street to the Oshkosh Public Museum. Fantastic! And two bucks cheaper than Paine! One can easily spend a couple of hours in the OPM, which is chock full of exhibits about the history (western, native & ancient) of Oshkosh and the Lake Winnebago area. Terrific.

A wonderful place for assorted entertainment/​Venue. I have officiated several weddings here and the couples have always been satisfied with the Paine’s staff management of their big day. The gardens are exceptionally beautiful and kept up by a horticulture garden club of Oshkosh (Good job people!)
The attractions change seasonally. Winter always brings The Nutcracker. Support the center by buy purchasing season passes.

This is a lovely art museum in a lovely old mansion with fantastic gardens. I was here for the Chihuly exhibit which was really fantastic. Gorgeous stuff at a gorgeous venue. I’d love to see it decorated at Christmas!

After reading the reviews and talking to locals, I went here expecting to be floored. I was… well, not impressed. I mean, it’s fine, but not spectacular.
Main gallery had Chihuly glass, which was pretty cool. The gardens were small and, maybe I’m jaded, but not all that impressive. The house is a mansion, but it was never lived in, and I got a sense of a recreation of something that never existed. Bedrooms, etc., set up as if the family were there, but it’s just speculative. Impressive architecture. Docents were a bit snotty, and clustered by the entrance talking amongst themselves instead of wandering and being helpful.

This was my first trip to the Paine, and I was very impressed. All the woodworking and architectural detail that the house has, especially the wood scrolled trim indoors by staircase, were really nice. We saw a Floral exhibit, put on by various floral merchants in the area. The various dinner tables in the Great Hall, all themed, were wonderful. Perhaps a few more floral displays throughout the rest of the house would have been welcome. All rooms clearly labeled as to original intent and features.
The refurbished Coach House had more flowers. Enroute to the Coach House, I could see the various garden bed shapes outlined, waiting for Spring to come to life again.
A coupon got us 2 for 1 entry, so, a great price. A nice winter pick me up for a weary gardener! I’ll be back for the tulips. I hear they are great.

The Paine Art Center always has beautiful exhibits and the loveliest gardens. Most recently, I visited with family to see the Nutcracker In The Castle exhibit and it was really impressive. Beautiful Christmas trees decorated within an inch of their lives! They’re kind of works of art themselves.
In the warmer months it is an absolute must to tour all of their gardens. They’ve also had really impressive exhibits like, Tiffany Lamps, Andy Warhol, film costumes, Norman Rockwell, etc.

For a museum outside a major metropolitan area this is «As good as it gets!»
I took my wife there today because of her love of art and gardens. The current exhibition is a collection of family portraits by the American Impressionist Wm. Merritt Chase. Very interesting. An enthusiastic docent was there spreading her knowledge.
We then proceeded to check out the rest of the mansion, its fancy furnishings and the other art they have. Very interesting also because of the wide variety of stuff. The aboundant art pieces are well labelled for the most part; that helps make roaming the mansion more interesting.
The architecture and features such as elaborate carving is very interesting.
Then we went outside to tour their gardens. There are about 5 gardens with different themes, e.g. a formal garden. They are small compared with an awesome place like the Minnesota Botanical Gardens but still had an excellent variety.
We learned about their winter Nutcracker performances in their Great Hall and other rooms. It sounds pretty cool.
Adult admission in $ 9. Overall in summer it is, as Nicole V. says about Nutcracker time, well worth the money.

Came during the holidays for the nutcracker house. Really quite beautiful. Worth the trip and money. The decorations are inspiring and festive.