A Tin Can on a String: Conversations from the Collection is a collaborative project by artists and lifelong friends Kat Murphy and Heidi Johnson that reimagines the Lyman Allyn Art Museum’s collection through a contemporary lens.

Working both onsite and within the Museum’s digital archives, the artists engage in a creative dialogue with historical objects; riffing on historical forms, textures, and narratives translating them into new works in painting, collage, and sculptural form.

The exhibition captures the intimate exchange between artist and artifact, past and present, an unfolding conversation made visible. Through their collaborative process, Murphy and Johnson turn research into relationship, reflection into response, offering visitors an inside look at how inspiration travels: from the quiet depths of the archive to the vibrant surface of contemporary art.