American Writers Museum is Chicago’s New Literary Paradise | Amy Diegelman

Museums | Writers | Literature

May 16, 2017

“It’s an affirmation that we are a literary people.” That was how Anna Castillo expressed the impact of the new (and first) American Writers Museum. Castillo, a Latina poet, Chicago native, and author of So Far From God, was joined by Rosellen Brown, author of Cora Fry’s Pillow Book, for a discussion to open the museum’s press day in Chicago. The topic that dominated the conversation was the modern, evolving culture of writing in America. It couldn’t have been more appropriate.

The Children’s Hall

 

 

 

 

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Anne Frank Who? Museums Combat Ignorance About the Holocaust | MARCH 21, 2017

Museums | Holocaust | Exhibitions

By NINA SIEGAL

Anne Frank in 1939, six years before her death. Credit Agence France-Presse — Getty Images 

 

 

AMSTERDAM — “She hid Jews?”

Aleatha Hinds, 17, ventured a guess about Anne Frank’s identity as she waited in line for two hours recently to enter the museum devoted to that world-famous diarist, who hid with her family in a secret annex for 25 months during World War II.

“No, no, no!” replied several friends, all 11th and 12th graders from the St. Charles College high school in Ontario. “She was Jewish!” they corrected her, in unison.

“She was hiding in her father’s factory,” said Eric LeBreton, 16. “The Nazis were looking for all the Jewish people because Hitler was trying to do genocide.”

With attendance swelling to 1.3 million annually, from one million in 2010, the Anne Frank House has begun reckoning with a striking dimension of its popularity: Many of the younger and foreign visitors who flock here nonetheless have little knowledge of the Holocaust — and sometimes none about Frank. The museum and some others dedicated to Jewish life are seeking new ways to address a declining understanding of World War II and the genocide that took the lives of six million Jews in Europe, efforts that have increasing relevance as anti-Semitic incidents intensify across parts of Europe and the United States. Read more...

 

 

Because This Place Has Been Showing How Black Lives Matter for 90 Years

A First Fridays party in the Schomburg Center courtyard.  

(Photo: Cheryl Lathan/courtesy of the schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture)

For some, Harlem’s Schomburg Center is simply their local New York Public Library. But it’s also where you could have heard, recently, a lecture on Nat Turner, a scholarly discussion of the Young Lords Party (a Puerto Rican nationalist group), or a conversation with Ta-Nehisi Coates. The library, around since 1925, also functions like a museum, with rotating exhibitions — next up, “Black Suburbia: From Levittown to Ferguson” and “Unveiling Visions: The Alchemy of the Black Imagination” — meant to introduce visitors to the center’s vast collection of art, film, and rare books and manuscripts. There’s also a gift shop filled with books by James Baldwin, Malcolm X, and Maya Angelou — as well as everything else that can be black: posters of African art, a Kwanzaa kinara, an Aretha Franklin CD. And there are, of course, Black Lives Matter T-shirts. It’s all a physical reminder — one I’ve lately sought out more and more — that the current political movement is built on a legacy that’s both deep and wide.

Because This Place Has Been Showing How Black Lives Matter for 90 Years

You won’t believe what NYC museums keep in storage | New York Post

Collections Manager Carl Mehling helps manage the "Big Bone Room" beneath the American Museum of Natural History, which includes these long bones and other hidden treasures.Photo: Tamara Beckwith/NY Post

Apparently, you can have too much of a good thing — which explains why Lauren Bacall’s gowns, Beethoven’s death mask, a paddy wagon and a 68-million-year-old triceratops skull are all in storage.

It’s the typical New York bind: There’s never enough shelf space. Whether too big, too fragile or redundant — just how many triceratops skulls does one need to admire, anyway? — millions of cultural artifacts are kept under wraps. And no place seems to tuck away as many things as the American Museum of Natural History: Though it contains more than 32 million specimens and artifacts, only a measly 2 percent are on display at any one time. Read article...

METRO New York Library Council - NYC Library Services - Online Public Library METRO

METRO New York Library Council - NYC Library Services - Online Public Library METRO

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New York Librarians MeetUp at MoCCA

 


On Tuesday, May 18th eight hardy librarians braved the rain and/or who were able to leave work early enough visited the Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art. This fascinating museum is hidden in an office building at 594 Broadway-Suite 401 (just south of Houston). If you think of comics as only superheroes or Archie and Veronica, you can gain a new appreciation of the artistry involved in telling stories through pictures and text.

A current exhibit, running through August 29th, entitled NeoIntegrity: Comic Edition features cartoonists, illustrators, animators and fine artists.We were fortunate to have Keith Meyerson, the curator of the exhibit, as our guide. The concept of NeoIntegrity is to show how the combination of words and images can explain a culture to itself. Through understanding itself, a culture and society can become a better world. Meyerson spoke to us about what he described as iconic language created through the graphic arts. There should be no distinction between fine art and what some may call lesser arts, like comics. Indeed, the exhibition featured political art, social art and art for arts sake.

Meyerson talked to us about the history of comics. Before World War II, comics were read by children and adults alike. However, the McCarthy Era fell upon comics as well as other entertainment media and the Comics Code was enacted. This rather draconian measure was a reaction to the perceived ultraviolence of horror comics. Comics had to follow strict guidelines showing the triumph of good over evil without accompanying blood and gore. Reaction to this code gave rise to MAD Magazine in the 1950's and National Lampoon in the 1970's mainstream. The 60's and 70's produced underground comics such as RAW and Heavy Metal. Recently, graphic arts have been heavily influenced by Japanese manga. The exhibit has examples from all these eras. Meyerson explained how he designed the exhibit to have artists, their influences and those they influenced to be in proximity so viewers could examine the flow of ideas.

I highly recommend a visit to MoCCA.. It is a small museum but has much to offer to anyone interested in expanding their knowledge of the visual arts. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 12PM to 5M and there is a suggested donation of $5.00.