SCHOMBURG CENTER INVITES PUBLIC TO VIEW $11 MILLION RENOVATION

On Saturday, May 12, 2007, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture will unveil its $11 million renovation to the public. The Open House celebration, held from 12 Noon to 6 p.m., will include dance and musical performances, children's activities, film screenings and a staged reading. During this time the library invites visitors to tour it's new and renovated spaces and to view two new exhibitions, the provocative Stereotypes vs. Humantypes: Images of Blacks in the 19th and 20th Centuries and Black Art: Treasures from the Schomburg, a selection of extraordinary works from the Schomburg Center's Art and Artifacts Division with holdings of over 20,000 items.

The renovation, designed by Richard Dattner & Partners, Architects PC, includes the Jean Blackwell Hutson General Research and Reference Division, Latimer Edison Gallery, and lobby. The renovation, which began two years ago, includes a new, glass façade complete with a video wall viewable from Malcolm X Boulevard; a new Scholars-in-Residence Center; and the transfer of the Latimer/Edison Gallery from the area along the front of the building to a new space on the entry-level floor. The Latimer/Edison Gallery's inaugural exhibition is Black Art: Treasures from the Schomburg. The Schomburg Center has been an internationally renowned treasure chest of black history for over 80 years and as technology advances, so must the facility. The Center has undergone more than a beautiful but simple facelift, it is now a state of the art library that gives users more effective access to research resources onsite and offsite.

The New York Public Library selected Dattner Architects as the design team for the project and the New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC) selected Hill International, Inc. to provide construction management services.

The Grand Opening exhibition in the exhibition hall focuses on an ongoing phenomenon. For much of the 19th and early 20th centuries, stereotypical images of people of African descent dominated the public media, especially in the United States.   Black men, women and children were portrayed as "coons", "mammies", and "pickaninnies" in the press, in children's and comic books, in marketing and advertising promotions, as well as film and television.  Many of these mythological images persist today in the public consciousness and public eye.  Stereotypes vs. Humantypes : Images of Blacks in the 19th and 20th Centuries uses vintage photographs of black people, as well as representational paintings, sculptures and other artworks to challenge these mythological images and present accurate, humanistic depictions of these maligned black folk. It also poses the question of why certain whites in western culture found it necessary to create such stereotypical images of their human forbearers. Both exhibitions are on view through October 28. The exhibition draws on the Center's own collections as well as items on loan from the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan.

About The New York Public Library
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a research unit of The New York Public Library, is generally recognized as one of the leading institutions of its kind in the world. A cultural center as well as a repository, this Harlem-based modern research library also sponsors a wide array of interpretive programs, including exhibitions, scholarly and public forums, and cultural performances. For over eighty years The Schomburg Center has collected, preserved, and provided access to materials documenting black life, and promoted the study and interpretation of black history and culture. The Center is located at 515 Malcolm X Blvd. at 135 th Street. For information visit www.schomburgcenter.org.

###

Contact :             Laini Madhubuti   212.491.2259            |             lmadhubuti@nypl.org