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Search for a past exhibition. The Rose Haggadah  Special Display: The Rose Haggadah is a unique artists' book, bringing together fifty years of Passover-themed artwork, the results of an innovative annual commission from the Rose family—exceptional friends of The New York Public Library. Collected into three riotously eclectic volumes, the Rose Haggadah was presented to the Library's Dorot Jewish Division by the Rose family in 2005. Artists and approaches represented in this half-century collaboration range all the way from New York social realist Jack Levine to New York Review of Books caricaturist David Levine, via some of the most prominent American artists of the twentieth century. This Passover and in future years, the Library will show different openings of the Rose Haggadah; meanwhile, work has begun on volume four. Benny Goodman: The Historic Carnegie Hall Concert January 16, 2008 marked the 70th anniversary of the historic concert at Carnegie Hall given by Benny Goodman and his Swing Orchestra. As it stated in the original concert promotion brochure: "Benny Goodman and his orchestra will give, under the pioneering auspices of S. Hurok, the first concert of swing music in the history of Carnegie Hall." The original concert announcement, programs record jackets and photographs will be on display through April 15th in the third floor reading room. Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road  This exhibition will explore the life and career of the Beat writer and poet Jack Kerouac, including the evolution of On the Road and other works; his unique amalgam of Christian and Buddhist spirituality; and his attitude to the movement that he felt had forsaken its beatific roots and purpose. The exhibition will draw on the contents of the Jack Kerouac Archive, housed in the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, and will display many of Kerouac’s unpublished manuscripts, drafts and notes for published works, diaries, journals, correspondence, drawings and paintings; his minutely detailed fantasy baseball and fantasy horse racing materials; and unpublished photographs of him and his family. Punctuating the exhibition at various points will be the objects that Kerouac treasured throughout his life, including the crutches he used after suffering a football injury while playing for Columbia University, his harmonicas, Buddhist bells, and his railroad track lantern.
The original scroll of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road will be on view from Friday, November 9 through Sunday, February 24. The exhibition will be closed from Monday, February 25 through Friday, February 29. Reopening on Saturday, March 1, the exhibition will continue through Sunday, March 16; during this period, a full-size facsimile of the scroll will be on view.
In Their Company: Portraits of American Playwrights by Ken Collins  Plays tell stories, and photographs tell stories. The words of a play begin on the page and come alive in real time with real people. That relationship created between the people onstage and those in the audience is an intimate one. Photography, I feel, works the same way, though in the opposite direction—capturing real people in real time, the image on the page creates an intimate experience for the viewer. I am completely enchanted by the passion, intellect, and grace of the playwrights who welcomed me into their homes. As a photographer, I could not have asked for better subjects. They wear their lives and their choices on their faces. To become a playwright is a leap of faith, and while these artists have achieved so much, they maintain enormous humanity and humility. That’s what I wanted to capture, and why I chose to photograph them as people, not as “personalities.” I wanted to invite the viewer in, to recreate the sensation of close contact found in the theatre, and, as best I could, to tell each person’s story. – Ken Collins The 45 photographs on display are selected from In Their Company: Portraits of American Playwrights (Umbrage Editions, 2006). Quotations are excerpted from longer interviews, conducted by Victor Wishna, in that book. The playwrights represented here live in The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts through published scripts on the Circulating Drama Collection shelves (on the 2nd floor) and in archival materials in the research divisions on the 3rd floor. Image: August Wilson. Photograph by Ken Collins. Graziella Vigo captures Verdi on Stage  This exhibition features 130 images by the famed Italian fashion, portrait, and performance photographer, Graziella Vigo. At the suggestion of maestro Riccardo Muti, Vigo photographed productions of Verdi operas at the Teatro alla Scala, in Milan, and the Teatro Regio, in Parma. Ms. Vigo also photographed productions touring at Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo. The over-sized photographs, hand-printed on canvas, comprise strikingly dramatic images of Verdi's most popular operas: Aida, La traviata, Il trovatore, Rigoletto, Un ballo in maschera, Macbeth, and two productions each of Falstaff and Otello. Image: Photograph by Graziella Vigo of Andrea Rost in Verdi's La Traviata, Teatro alla Scala, 2001. The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic  When the Willard Psychiatric Center in New York’s Finger Lakes region closed in 1995, several hundred suitcases filled with the personal belongings of former patients were discovered in an abandoned attic room. As a team of committed curators explored these belongings, individual histories were revealed and The Lives They Left Behind exhibition was born. These suitcases and their contents illuminate the rich, complex lives the individual patients led before they were committed to Willard and speak to their aspirations, accomplishments and community connections, as well as their loss and isolation. These stories make The Suitcase Exhibit a poignant illumination of both the humanity and struggle of those with mental illness historically, while illustrating the vital importance of quality care, compassion, and the hope of recovery today. Image: The Octagon. New York City Lunatic Asylum. Blackwell's Island (now Roosevelt Island) 1839. Lincoln Kirstein: Alchemist  At his centennial, cultural institutions around New York City are celebrating writer, poet, and arts patron Lincoln Kirstein and his impact on American culture. Lincoln Kirstein: Alchemist focuses on the five dance companies he founded – the American Ballet, Ballet Caravan, American Ballet Caravan, Ballet Society, and the New York City Ballet. Each was, in its own way, experimental and pushed the edges of American culture and society. He brought choreographers together with young artists and composers, leading to masterpieces as different as Billy the Kid, Concerto Barocco, The Seasons, and Orpheus. Among the designers whose art is featured are Cecil Beaton, Aline Bernstein, Isamu Noguchi, Tchelitchew, and Ben Shahn, whose designs for the unproduced Tom are on display. The exhibition also recognizes Kirstein's role in the founding of the Library's Dance Collection, now the Jerome Robbins Dance Division. Exhibition Brochure (PDF) Image: Lincoln Kirstein. Portrait photograph by George Platt Lynes Gift of Marie-Jeanne, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Copyright Estate of George Platt Lynes Multiple Interpretations: Contemporary Prints in Portfolio at The New York Public Library  Prints by definition suggest multiplicity, and printmaking lends itself to projects that are best expressed through multiple images. The artists represented in this exhibition have taken advantage of printmaking’s penchant for serial imagery in order to tell a story, to take a stand on political and social concerns, to consider formal issues, and to explore the creative process. Among the 23 artists represented in this exhibition are: Christiane Baumgartner, Chris Burden, Ernesto Caivano, E.V. Day, Mark Dion, Olafur Eliasson, Tony Fitzpatrick, Wayne Gonzales, Elliott Green, Daniel Heyman, David Levinthal, Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, Olaf Nicolai, Thomas Nozkowski, Juan Uslé, and John Wilson. Image: Ernesto Caivano (Spanish and American, born 1972 in Spain, lives in New York) Graphic Modernism from the Baltic to the Balkans, 1910-1935  This exhibition explores the interplay between post–World War I national revivals and the broader European modernist artistic and literary movements of the early 20th century until the establishment of authoritarian regimes in the mid-1930s. Over fifty works on paper, primarily printed materials including books, book jackets, posters, and printed ephemera in more than a dozen languages, will be drawn from eight departments and collections at The New York Public Library. A featured artist or artists whose vision and oeuvre dominated a given region will anchor each of the five exhibition cases, for example: El Lissitzky from both Germany and Russia; Karel Teige from Czechoslovakia and Jerzy Hulewicz from Poland; Sirak Skitnik from Bulgaria and Fran Krajl from Slovenia; Lajos Kassák from Hungary and Victor Brauner from Romania; and Niklavs Strunke from Latvia and Jaan Vahtra from Estonia. This exhibition of East European modernism will be the first of its kind organized by the Library, and many of the individual books and artifacts from the historic foundation collections of the Library will be displayed here for the first time. Men at Dance -- from Noh to Butoh  Men at Dance–from Noh to Butoh", a photography exhibition by Miro Ito, is a visual representation of the dichotomy that characterizes Japanese performing arts of the past and present. Ito’s 50 photographs focus on two distinct forms of Japanese dance – Noh and Butoh – capturing the intrinsic qualities of each form, establishing a unique relationship between them. Noh, a traditional dance form, began in the 14th Century, whereas Butoh is a modern form, characterized by a subversion of conventional notions of dance.
Image: Fumiyuki TAKEDA (of the Kanze school)as Arsumori in the Noh play Atsumori. Photograph by Miro Ito. Moneta Sleet, Jr.: Pulitzer Prize Photojournalist  This retrospective collection of 125 photographs, drawn largely from images Sleet shot for Johnson Publishing, divides his work into six sections: the era of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; the Civil Rights Movement; Africa; Photo Essays; Portraits; and Children. read more... Black Art: Treasures from the Schomburg  To help commemorate the Grand Opening of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture's renovated facilities, this exhibition offers a sampling of the diverse forms of artistic expression and trends documented in the Center's collection. Part of a long and enduring tradition of art-making in the African world, these works eloquently attest to the fact that African peoples, like all members of the human family, have been actively and creatively involved in producing art of extraordinary beauty, meaning, and power, regardless of where and under what circumstances they have lived. Image: Dance Composition, 1976, by Eldzier Cortor Stereotypes vs. Humantypes: Images of Blacks in the 19th and 20th Centuries  This exhibition 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. read more... Image: Humantypes: Vaudevillians Ada and George Walker, 1905. Stereotypes: Topsy from a promotional poster for the Uncle Tom’s Cabin Company, mid-19th century; and Jim Crow, the stereotypical character portrayed in blackface by Thomas Dartmouth Rice (known as the “Father of American minstrelsy”) beginning in 1828. Invention: Merce Cunningham & Collaborators  A collaborative project of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the Cunningham Dance Foundation, and the John Cage Trust. Image: Merce Cunningham in his Antic Meet, 1958. Photograph by Richard Rutledge. Courtesy Archives of the Cunningham Dance Foundation. Cloud Gate in Photographs  This photographic exhibition honors the Taiwanese experimental dance company on its fifth appearance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival. The images focus on major works by the innovative choreographer LIN Hwai-Min: Nine Songs, Songs of the Wanderers, Moon Water, and the trilogy Cursive. This program is presented in association with Asia Society and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Image: Dancer CHOU Chang-ning in LIN Hwai-Min's Cursive, presented by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre. Photograph by LIU Chen-hsiang. Molly Picon: Yiddish Star, American Star  For years she was the "sweetheart" of New York’s Lower East Side Yiddish-speaking community. Her shows, her sheet music, her records, her films, her radio programs, won her a special place in their hearts. Then, as she increasingly began appearing in more English language shows, television programs, and films, an even larger audience fell in love with her: the American public. Picon's changing career reflects the contributions immigrant cultures have made to our entertainment industry, our city, and our nation.
Exhibition Brochure (PDF) Image: This photograph of Molly Picon was distributed by the William Morris Agency, ca. 1963. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Making the Scene: The Midtown Y Photography Gallery, 1972-1996  While photographs are exhibited widely today, their acceptance into the mainstream art world has been a long process, periodically fraught with controversy and debate. One of the more recent manifestations of this debate occurred in the late 1970s, when the rise of postmodern theory led to a reevaluation of the medium and a critical scrutiny of the museum's role in the promotion of photography's status. Until recently, less attention has been paid to the role of alternative spaces, particularly those devoted to the exhibition of photography. If the triumph of art photography now seems like a foregone conclusion, prior to the 1980s, very few galleries showed photography exclusively and emerging photographers were faced with limited options for exhibiting their work outside museums. The Midtown Y Photography Gallery was the first non-profit organization in New York City with a mission to provide a public space for the display of photographs, helping dozens of photographers make the scene that it helped to bring about over 25 years, from 1972 to 1996 when the gallery closed. This exhibition offers a broader vision of the photography that was seen during the period in which photography became a mainstay of the art world, as well as an intimate portrait of one New York gallery. Lower Manhattan 2010: It's Happening Now  Lower Manhattan 2010: It's Happening Now is an exhibit designed by the Lower Manhattan Command Center (LMCCC) to present images and text describing the major rebuilding projects underway in New York City from Chambers Street south to the Battery.
Green Building Bibliography
The Declaration of Independence  The Library is honored to safeguard a fair copy (clean, full-text version without corrections or alterations) of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson’s hand. In the days immediately following ratification on July 4, 1776, Jefferson made several copies of the text that had been submitted to the Continental Congress, underlining the passages to which changes had been made. The Library’s copy is one of two known to survive intact. It is shown together with the first Philadelphia printing and the first New York printing of the final version issued by Congress. These versions are complemented by the earliest newspaper printings; the second official version ordered by Congress, published by a woman printer in Baltimore; and a letter from Franklin to Washington mentioning that the Declaration was being drafted. In addition to the exhibition, the 14-minute film We Hold These Truths …, a dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence, will be shown continuously in the South Court Visitors’ Center. Admission is free. The Performance of Self in Everyday Life: Photography by Dona Ann McAdams  The Performance of Self in Everyday Life: Photography by Dona Ann McAdams Image: Meredith Monk in her Volcano Songs at PS122, 1994. Photograph by Dona Ann McAdams. From Revolution to Republic in Prints and Drawings  A celebration of the profound and diverse holdings of early American prints and drawings in The New York Public Library, this two-part exhibition draws primarily from the Phelps Stokes, Emmet, Eno and C. W. McAlpin collections, all part of the Print Collection of The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, and from the Spencer Collection. Dawn of the American Revolution, 1768–1776 features many firsthand visual accounts of the major battles and scenes of the early Revolutionary period, a number of them executed by British and American soldiers who participated in the incidents they depicted. Selections from the C. W. McAlpin Collection highlights a variety of pieces from this collection of portraits of George Washington, ranging from formal portraits to allegories and mourning pictures, and from etchings and engravings to textiles and badges. Russia Imagined, 1825-1925: The Art and Impact of Fedor Solntsev  The defeat of Napoleon in 1815 sparked a surge of nationalism throughout Europe, and the search for a national past was a European preoccupation in the early decades of the 19th century. From London to St. Petersburg, artists turned for inspiration to the new sciences of archaeology and ethnography. Artists A.W.N. Pugin in England and A.J. Davis in America looked to medieval cathedrals to create the Gothic Revival. In Imperial Russia, Fedor Solntsev (1801 – 1892), under elite patronage, worked on important commissions to record, preserve, and refashion the remains of medieval culture in a strikingly modern way. Solntsev’s meticulous drawings of regalia, icons, and weaponry, his watercolor portraits of the peoples of European Russia, his restoration of historic monuments, and his experiments at design in an “Old Russian” style helped to express a newly crafted sense of national identity. The exhibition, drawn from the Library’s incomparable holdings of Solntsev’s work, explores his prodigious career and the extraordinary range of his artistic endeavors within their historical context. It considers Solntsev’s role in developing a distinctive Russian-Slavonic style, from its initial archaeological and ethnographic origins to its final flowering in the lush sets and costumes of the famous Ballets Russes. Arturo Toscanini: Homage to the Maestro  A 50TH ANNIVERSARY RETROSPECTIVE Image: Arturo Toscanini aboard the U.S.S. Rex, December 28, 1933. Toscanini Legacy Collection, Music Division. A Rakish History of Men's Wear  This exhibition surveys men's dress from antiquity to the present, noting how through the centuries male style has swung from ostentation to restraint and back again. Masculine clothing has changed over time owing to a multitude of social, economic, and attitudinal transformations. At first, individuals chose garments that proclaimed their rank or special status as warriors and leaders. Later, sumptuary laws (restricting what could and could not be worn), chivalric codes, and the rituals of royal courts played a role in the development of masculine garments. By the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods, male fashion leaders were admired both overtly and covertly. The growth of a new bourgeoisie in the late 18th century further influenced the outward expression of modern masculinity, as dandies took upon themselves the role of fashion leaders. Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 4.3 MB) "I Was in the Neighborhood" To celebrate the opening of the "Spider-Man III" movie, New York City has declared April 30 to May 6 Spider-Man Week. Comic book and Spider-Man fans everywhere will also have an opportunity to see several, never-before-displayed, original Marvel Spider-Man comic books from the The New York Public Library's collection. Stars and Treasures: 75 Years of Collecting Theatre  Since its founding in 1931, the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, a division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, has amassed more than nine million items, which together constitute the world's preeminent record of live theater in all its manifestations. The collection's holdings are of such repute that researchers from every continent have availed themselves of its treasures and resources. This year marks the 75th anniversary of this world-renowned collection and The New York Public Library will commemorate the occasion with celebratory events throughout the year. The centerpiece of this anniversary celebration will be a major exhibition featuring hundreds of rare or unique treasures from the collection. The exhibition will consist of artifacts that, in most cases, have been viewed by only a few researchers on-site and, in many cases, have never before been seen by the public. Among the items featured in the exhibition will be costume jewelry worn by Edwin Booth in Hamlet, costume designs by Cecil Beaton for the original production of My Fair Lady, a bejeweled belt worn by Sarah Bernhardt in Cleopatra, letters written by Harry Houdini, heartbreaking letters from American playwright Tennessee Williams describing the burden of alcoholism and its effect upon his writing, and a color caricature by Al Hirschfeld portraying George Bernard Shaw as a red-faced, horned devil. Many contemporary actors have loaned their personal treasures for this exhibition. One among many is a silver smelling-salts vial once owned by actress Ellen Terry and now a prized possession of actress Jane Alexander. Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 4.5 MB) Image: Costume design by Gladys Monkhouse for a musical revue, probably Cheer Up (1917), presented at New York's Hippodrome Theatre. R. H. Burnside Collection, Billy Rose Theatre Division. Commemorating New York's African Burial Ground: A National Monument  This special exhibition will fully explore the African Burial Ground, from its unearthing in 1991 to the 2006 Presidential declaration making it America's first National Monument commemorating a community of enslaved African men, women, and children. From the local community's struggle to "stop the digging" and to properly protect and preserve the ancestral cemetery, Commemorating New York's African Burial Ground will include documents, photographs, artifacts reproductions, and video footage to recall the historic, but long-forgotten cemetery's origins, abandonment, and rediscovery--and the public's journey to transfrom the site into a national monument. Image: Rodney Leon's African Burial Ground memorial design Jim Dine's Pinocchio  Painter, printmaker, sculptor, photographer, performance artist, and poet, Jim Dine (b. 1935) has devoted the last three years to a personal interpretation of a story that has engaged and intrigued him for much of his life, Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio. Dine has made his own the tale of the temptations, trials, tribulations, and ultimate triumph of this mischievous but endearing wooden boy in thirty-nine hand-colored lithographs, on view in this exhibition, and reproduced in a new edition of Pinocchio published by Steidl. This exhibition celebrates Dine's promised gift of these prints to the Spencer Collection of The New York Public Library, the most recent in a series of gifts to the Library from Jim Dine, documenting his extraordinary career as an artist of the book. read more... Image: Frontispiece for Pinocchio by Jim Dine and Carlo Collodi (Steidl, 2006). Lithograph, hand-colored with acrylic and pastel Where Do We Go from Here? The Photo League and Its Legacy (1936-2006)  In January of 1948, the photographer Walter Rosenblum published the article "Where Do We Go from Here?" in response to the blacklisting of the Photo League by Attorney General Tom Clark. Disregarding the actual photographs produced by the League's members, the FBI emphasized the organization's commitment to social causes in order to allege subversive activities and political alliances. The claims of subversion were never substantiated, but the Photo League, a cooperative of amateur and professional photographers, was forced to disband in 1951 after an informant testified that it was a front for the Communist party. Now recognized as an important force in the development of American photography, the Photo League trained an entire generation of New York photographers, a number of whom continue to practice today. In recognition of the 70th anniversary of the League's founding, this exhibition celebrates the diverse oeuvre of these photographers and their unflagging commitment to their medium. It also serves as a reminder that the political climate of the nation can have real consequences on its cultural life. Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 1.4 MB) Image: Lewis Hine's "Two Mill Workers", ca. 1905. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Print Collection Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan  The Japanese literary tradition, dating from as early as the 8th century, is among the richest and most enduring of any country in the world, and ehon, or "picture books," although little known in the West are one of the glories of world art. Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 3 MB) In Character: Actors Acting  Each actor was given a direction, a character to play, a scene, and, at times, even dialogue. Photographs were made as each actor creatively developed the part. The results of these improvisations are revealed on the walls of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in Howard Schatz's enthralling close-up photographs. Based on the 2006 book by Howard Schatz and Beverly J. Ornstein, this landmark project provides a fascinating new vision of actors acting and the power of creative imagination. Image: Edie Falco as photographed by Howard Schatz. © 2006 by Howard Schatz and Beverly J. Ornstein 500 Years of Italian Dance: Treasures from the Cia Fornaroli Collection  500 Years of Italian Dance: Treasures from the Cia Fornaroli Collection pays tribute both to the rich history of Italian dance and to the remarkable Cia Fornaroli Collection, a jewel of the Library's Jerome Robbins Dance Division. Assembled by Walter Toscanini, son of the famed Italian conductor, and his wife the La Scala ballerina Cia Fornaroli, the Collection documents the full sweep of Italian dance history from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century. The Collection is huge and multifaceted. It encompasses some of the earliest writings on dance, including one of the very first Renaissance dance manuals, scores of books, letters, programs, and libretti, and literally hundreds of designs, photographs, lithographs, and ephemera. It also includes Toscanini's personal research materials and manuscripts, as well as an important collection of memorabilia documenting the career of his ballerina-wife. Image: Sofia Fuoco dancing the Tarantella, [185-]. Engraving from Cia Fornaroli Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The African Presence in the Americas  The African Presence in the Americas originally made its debut at the Center in April 1991. Fifteen years later, the traveling exhibition version will be on display. This exhibition was designed to introduce viewers to the dynamics and dimensions of African peoples' 500-year history in the Americas. African Presence explores four broad themes--migration, work, culture, and resistance--that cut across time and geography, illuminating the commonalities and differences in background, culture, gender, and social status of these African Americans. Please join us as we welcome back, for a limited time, this wonderful exhibition. Ads Matter  ADS MATTER is an Ad Council exhibit which documents the advertising industry's long standing commitment to better America by producing compelling public service campaigns. Smokey Bear and McGruff the Crime Dog are among the icons depicted in images from a dozen memorable ads. The exhibit will be accompanied by a number of programs related to advertising and the media. Dance in Cuba  In 2001 Gil Garcetti traveled to Cuba for the first of what would be several visits. Captivated by the essential role of dance in everyday life, he photographed dancers ranging from professional ballerinas to street performers. This, the first museum exhibition of Garcetti’s Cuban images, features fifty-nine photographs, most of which are drawn from his acclaimed new book, Dance in Cuba (2005). Image: Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, January 2004. Photograph by Gil Garcetti. Changing Streetscapes: New Architecture and Open Space in Harlem  Walk down almost any street in Harlem and you will see a transformation underway. Changing Streetscapes highlights recent construction and development in five areas: housing, commercial development, cultural and institutional projects, and landscape and planning. This exhibit offers a snapshot of the unfolding fabric of Harlem. Image: Changing Streetscapes From Color to Light: Beni Montresor  This multi-media exhibit on the international opera, ballet and theater career of designer Beni Montresor is a co-production of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in New York, Fondazione Aida, and Titivillus Mostre Editoria. Montresor designed for scenery, costumes and lighting for an international array of the major opera houses, ballet troupes, and summer festivals, as well as Broadway and Off-Broadway theaters. The exhibit will feature photographs and original designs, costumes from Turandot, loaned by the New York City Opera, and the set model for the musical comedy Rags. From Color to Light is presented in conjunction with House of Flowers House of Stars,a concurrent exhibit on his career as an author and illustrator of children's books at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura. Image: Beni Montresor arriving in New York City. Fondazione Aida Places & Spaces: Mapping Science  The exhibit compares traditional historical mapping of political entities with the mapping of individual fields of scientific research. Science is mapped by tracking citations to papers indexed in the Web of Science database. Panels in the exhibit will present traditional early maps and several specific instances of the mapping of science. An interactive module will permit the viewer to create a digital map of a specific area of science. Exhibition Brochure (PDF) French Book Art/Livres d'Artistes: Artists and Poets in Dialogue  Paris in the 19th and 20th centuries witnessed a vivid collaboration between artists and writers, and they regularly produced spectacular results of their personal and professional friendships. Image: Alain Jouffroy (b. 1928) | René Magritte (1898–1967). Aube à l’antipode [Dawn on the Other Side of the World]. Paris: Le Soleil noir, 1966. Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet. © 2006 C. Herscovici, Brussels / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph © Michel Nguyen The Declaration of Independence The Library is honored to safeguard a fair copy of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson's hand. In the days immediately following ratification on July 4, 1776, Jefferson made several copies of the text that had been submitted to the Continental Congress, underlining the passages to which changes had been made. The Library's copy is one of two known to survive intact, a third survivor being fragmentary. It is shown together with the first Philadelphia printing and the first New York printing of the final version issued by Congress. These versions are complemented by the earliest newspaper printings; the second official version ordered by Congress, published by a woman printer in Baltimore; and a letter from Franklin to Washington mentioning that the Declaration was being drafted. "We hold these truths ...," a dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence, is a 14-minute film that is shown continuously in the South Court Visitors' Theater. Admission is free. In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience  By boat, on foot, by train, car, and plane, Africans and their descendants have crossed oceans and land, sailed up and down rivers, and put down roots and pulled them up again. Like Maya Angelou, Harry Belafonte, Wyclef Jean, Barack Obama, Edwidge Danticat, Ossie Davis, Colin Powell, 35 million African Americans are heirs to migrations that have shaped this country and the African Diaspora. With images, manuscripts, photographs, maps, and music, In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience tells the story of a people whose movements over the last 500 years, both coerced and willing, inspired a culture and shaped a nation. For public program information and exhibit hours, visit www.schomburgcenter.org.
Image: Stephanie S. Hughley (photo by Keith Hadley) Recent Acquisitions: New York Street Photography from the 1960s and 1970s  This exhibition features the work of three New York photographers, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, and Joel Meyerowitz, who played a major role in the emergence of street photography as a central photographic practice in the 1960s. Following the lead of William Klein and Robert Frank, these photographers helped to transform documentary photography with their eccentric vision of the world. As the practice extended into the 1970s, street photography absorbed other artistic movements, as evidenced by the work of William Gedney, Roy Colmer, and Thomas Struth, whose photographs demonstrate both the continuity and diversity of photography in the streets of New York. The show is the first in a planned series of exhibitions that will showcase recently acquired New York City photographs from 1950 to the present. Image: Joel Meyerowitz
Rockefeller Center, 1970 Recent Acquisitions: Old Master Prints  This exhibition will include 75 prints, acquired between 2000-2005, and will feature prints by Fontainebleu printmaker Pierre Milan, Jaques Callot, Jan van de Velde II, Domenico and Lorenzo Tiepolo, Philibert-Louis Debucourt and Ferdinand Olivier, among others. In addition to comments on each artist/printmaker, the exhibit will address the kinds of issues, which are considered when acquiring a print for the collection, from context to condition. Image: Jean-Baptiste Chapuy (French, ca. 1760-1802) 60 Years of Tony Award® Excellence  The American Theatre Wing, The League of American Theatres and Producers, and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts are proud to present the 60 Years of Tony Award Excellence exhibition at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The exhibition, which features the window cards from each one of the Tony Award Winning Best Plays and Musicals from the past 60 years, will officially kick-off the 2006 Tony Award® season. Letters to Sala: A Young Woman's Life in Nazi Labor Camps  At age sixteen, Sala Garncarz entered the Nazi labor camp system, where she would be imprisoned from 1940 to 1945. During that time she was able to collect and preserve a collection of 300 letters sent to her by friends and family from outside and within the camps. The letters were recently donated to the Library's Dorot Jewish Division by Sala's daughter, Ann Kirschner, and form the basis for the exhibition, in which they will be displayed for the first time. In passionate terms, the letters document the harsh consequences of the Nazi slave labor system on both the interned Jews and their torn families. They also reflect Sala’s relationship with such noteworthy figures as Ala Gartner, one of four women hanged in Auschwitz after participating in an armed rebellion. Letters to Sala will reveal rare documentation of Nazi atrocities written by the victims of those events during the time they were unfolding. Image: Sala Garncarz at 12 Show Business: Irving Berlin's Broadway  From interpolations to the integrated musical, Irving Berlin's story tells the evolution of the Broadway musical as an art form. through photographs, drawings, set and costume designs, programs, and related ephemera, we present moments from every part of his Broadway career, as he and his audience first saw it. The exhibition is a project of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts that will also travel to the San Francisco Performing Arts Library & Museum (July - December 2005) and the Marion McNay Art Museum, San Antonio (July - October 2006). read more... Image: Irving Berlin (at piano), with (from left) Eddie Cantor, Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., dance director Sammy Lee, and members of the chorus of the 1927 edition of the Follies. Billy Rose Theatre Collection Treasured Maps: Celebrating The Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division  Established in 1898 as a separate collection of The New York Public Library, and named a Division in 1947, the Map Division is a treasure-filled place, with maps and atlases dating from the 16th century to the present. This exhibition celebrates the Map Division's reopening in December 2005 after months of renovation. The last public reading room to be renovated, the Map Division will double its reader capacity and services with its new look. Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 7.8 MB) Image: John Seller's "A Mapp of the World" Opera on the Air: The Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcasts Turn 75  This multi-media exhibit documents the 75 years of live radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera. It includes scores, correspondence, photographs and artifacts from the Music Division and Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, as well as costume pieces on loan from Metropolitan Opera's Archives. Available with the exhibit is an audio station featuring selections from the broadcasts' performances and intermission features. Harlem is...Music  Harlem is...Music is a component of Community Works' signature multilayered public art exhibition developed with NYC public schools and after school programs. The exhibit explores Harlem's unrivaled musical tradition through archival and contemporary photographs, commentary by contributing writers and poetry and prose by Harlem public school students. It examines the development of 8 musical genres: Jazz, blues, R&B, hip-hop and rap, gospel, classical, Latin, and fusion. Image: The Minton's Playhouse PHOTO CREDIT: Copywright William P. Goittlieb, Library of Congress Collection PICTURED FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Portrait of Thelonious Monk, Howard McGhee, Roy Eldridge, and Teddy Hill, Minton's Playhouse, New York, N.Y., ca. Sept. 1947 Vaudeville Nation  Vaudeville has been called the most influential entertainment genre in the nation's history. Vaudeville, and the related forms such as burlesque and prologs, provided freedom for self-expression of social and political commentary. It supported the development of America's two native art forms -- jazz and tap dance -- and served a model for radio, early sound film, and television. Unlike those media, it served the full diversity of the American public -- as performers and as audience. The research divisions of LPA, the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, Music Division and Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, are the major source for vaudeville research. They document thousands of performers, promoters, tour managers, theater buildings, and the critics, composers, writers, dance directors, and designers who worked with them. The collections include the primary documents of vaudeville -- joke books, scripts, designs, and songs -- as well as promotional materials, such as photographs, illustrated letterheads, flyers, and calling cards, sent to turn-of-the-century critics. The Splendor of the Word: Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts at The New York Public Library  The New York Public Library possesses one of the finest collections of medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts in North America, yet its manuscript holdings are scarcely known to scholars, much less to a wide public audience. Medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts are vehicles of the collective memory of western European culture, and provide a material connection between the scribes, illuminators, and patrons who produced these works and the audiences who view them today. The works represent diverse genres, from Bibles and missals to romance literature and science texts. Drawn entirely from the Library's Spencer Collection and the Manuscripts and Archives Division, the 100 medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the exhibition will focus on the 9th through the 16th centuries -- seven hundred years of profound political, ecclesiastical, social, and intellectual change in Western Europe and the world. read more... Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 1 MB) Image: Historiated Initial B, depicting scenes from the Life of David. Psalter (The Tickhill Psalter), in Latin. England, Worksop Priory, Nottinghamshire, after 1303-ca.1314. (NYPL SP 26) From Every Stage: Images of America's Roots Music  Bluegrass, folk, blues, zydeco, and cowboy country -- these genres are both America's roots and America's present. From Every Stage is a selection of photographs by noted journalist Stephanie P. Ledgin, revealing performances, practice and jam sessions. Among the performers are John Hartford, Odetta, Pete Seeger, Queen Ida, and Minnie Pearl in venues from the Grand Ole Opry to the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival. Image: Cajun band leader Steve Riley at the 1999 Crawfish Fest, Waterloo Village, Stanhope NJ. Photo by Stephanie P. Ledgin. Prints With/Out Pressure: American Relief Prints from the 1940s through the 1960s  American artists in the mid 20th century were particularly intrigued by relief printmaking, whether woodcut, linocut, or experimental uses of plastic as a printing surface. While some artists continued to work in a realistic, illustrative style, others explored the expressive possibilities of the medium, often in service of abstraction. Among the artists represented in the Library's Print Collection whose work will be on view in the third-floor Print and Stokes Galleries will be Josef Albers, Leonard Baskin, Robert Conover, Werner Drewes, Antonio Frasconi, Naum Gabo, Misch Kohn, Paul Landacre, Boris Margo, Seong Moy, Anne Ryan, Bernard Reder, Luigi Rist, and Louis Schanker. Through the Eyes of the Gods: An Aerial View of Africa  This limited exhibition, sponsored by National Geographic, features aerial pictures of Africa taken by award-winning photographer Robert Haas. For his new National Geographic book, Haas flew across the continent, hanging out of helicopters and light planes to capture an array of spectacular images offering a glimpse of Africa's landscapes, animals, and people. The Juilliard School, 1905-2005: Celebrating 100 Years  A collaboration with The Juilliard School to celebrate the 100th birthday of the esteemed conservatory of dance, music, and theater. Exhibition Brochure (PDF) "I Am With You": Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass (1855-2005)  This exhibition commemorates the 150th anniversary of the publication of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. Whitman revised and added to his great poem throughout his life, and the exhibition will feature first and rare editions of the major versions, as well as manuscript drafts, books, and trial proofs annotated in the poet’s hand, drawn primarily from the holdings of the Library's Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature. read more... Malcolm X: A Search for Truth  Malcolm X: A Search for Truth will provide the first opportunity for the general public to examine materials from the Malcolm X collection. The Malcolm X collection is unique in that it contains a wide range of speeches, sermons, radio broadcasts, diaries, correspondence, and other documents handwritten by Malcolm X or typed and edited at his direction. Most significantly, Malcolm X: A Search for Truth will offer the public fresh new insights into the nature of his thoughts and development, as well as his multifaceted, at times seemingly contradictory, persona and personality. Opt In to Advertising's New Age  This exhibition focuses on the history of advertising, from print and radio to television and the Internet. Showcasing some of the most creative ads of all time, the exhibit also provides a vision of the ways in which technology will continue to be an integral part of how marketers and consumers experience advertising well into the future. The seminal advertising from each era – print, radio, television, and the Internet – will be brought to life through the devices that enabled them to be, all against a backdrop displaying the historical and cultural context in which the technologies first flowered. A large-screen monitor, set within a bezel of large offset letter blocks, will display the great milestone print advertisements from the 1900s to the present day. A gigantic radio will play the famed ads from the 1920s to the present, with the dial tuning in to each decade. And an oversized television will play some of the most decisive and effective television ads of all time. The exhibit will culminate with an interactive encounter that will allow users to experience the future of advertising, which embraces a synergy across all media, linked by the Web. Though the exhibit begins in a distant era, it will aptly demonstrate how all the ads and technologies remain very vital and important in today’s marketplace. By the end of the experience, viewers will also understand how creativity has always been the key to success when mastering any new advertising technology. The exhibit, produced in collaboration with the Online Publishers Association, runs in conjunction with Advertising Week in NYC – a week-long celebration of advertising in New York. A Community of Artists: 50 Years of the Public Theater  In conjunction with the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the New York Shakespeare Festival and Public Theater I LA GALIGO: From the Sulawesi Epic to the Stage  An exhibition of photographs and texts documenting the Indonesian island cultural epic and Robert Wilson's production of I LA GALIGO at the Lincoln Center Festival, July 13 - 17, 2005. America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures: The First 100  An exhibit developed by the Dance Heritage Coalition representing the first 100 American Dance Treasures, among them, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts read more... Image: Ruth St. Denis in her solo Tagore Poem, 1929. Photo by Soichi Sunami. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dance Division. Before Victoria: Extraordinary Women of the British Romantic Era  Before Victoria, drawn from the Pforzheimer, Berg, and Print Collections of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, will bring together literary and cultural history, and explore the transformation of British society through the lives of a number of remarkable women, some well-known today and some almost totally forgotten. In the half-century or so before Victoria came to the throne in 1837, a woman alone taking an active public role became unacceptable to the majority of her compatriots, male and female. This did not stop women of the Romantic period from making contributions of surprising magnitude and number to Britain’s public culture -- contributions that have too often been overlooked. read more... The Declaration of Independence The Library is honored to safeguard a fair copy of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson's hand. In the days immediately following ratification on July 4, 1776, Jefferson made several copies of the text that had been submitted to the Continental Congress, underlining the passages to which changes had been made. The Library's copy is one of two known to survive intact, a third survivor being fragmentary. It is shown together with the first Philadelphia printing and the first New York printing of the final version issued by Congress. These versions are complemented by the earliest newspaper printings; the second official version ordered by Congress, published by a woman printer in Baltimore; and a letter from Franklin to Washington mentioning that the Declaration was being drafted. "We hold these truths ...," a dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence, is a 14-minute film that is shown continuously in the South Court Visitors' Theater. Admission is free. The Subway at 100: General William Barclay Parsons and the Birth of the NYC Subway  Celebrating the centennial of the opening of the New York City subway system in 1904, this exhibition both salutes William Barclay Parsons, the first chief engineer of the subway, and recognizes the importance of the subway system to the life and growth of the city. The exhibition focuses on Parsons as a collector, prominent New York City personage, military engineering specialist, educator, and, primarily, as chief engineer of the New York City subway system. Tracing the planning and financing stages of the project, the exhibition includes correspondence between Parsons and August Belmont, the major financier of the project, as well as photographs of the signing of the original contract. The construction phase of the subway system is documented by images of Parsons turning the first shovelful of earth and others showing the actual tunnel and street digging. Other items on view include images of the beautiful iron artwork supplied by the Hecla Iron Works, publications and documents illustrating station ceramic work and station design, and the first subway tickets. read more... Image: Inspection of City Hall Subway Station, 1904. Courtesy of Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc. Drawings by Charles Addams  This exhibition is part of an ongoing, rotating selection of darkly humorous drawings by cartoonist Charles Addams, featuring many that appeared in The New Yorker. These drawings were donated to the Library by The Lady Colyton and Marilyn Addams. Their care and exhibition are supported by an endowment established through a gift from The Lady Colyton. I Am the Rose: Passover Imagined in the Collections of The New York Public Library  With this exhibition, the Library celebrates the addition to its illuminated manuscript holdings of a distinguished 20th-century example of the genre, the gift of New York philanthropists Sandra, Daniel, and Elihu Rose and their families. The manuscript, in three volumes, is the result of eighty years of extended family seders in the homes of Joseph and Anna Rose and Samuel and Belle Rose and their descendants. read more... Milton Avery: The Flying Pig and Other Winged Creatures  Milton Avery (1885-1965) was one of the foremost modernist American painters, recognized for his uniquely spare style combining figurative realism and lyrical abstraction with an extraordinary sense of color. In addition to painting, Avery produced nearly sixty drypoints, lithographs, and woodcuts in sporadic periods from 1933 to 1963. In 1946, at the instigation of his friend, painter Mark Rothko, Avery created his only illustrations, a set of eight witty and colorful gouache paintings for a children’s book entitled Paul, which remained unpublished during the artist's lifetime. Acquired in 2001 for the Library's Spencer Collection through the generosity of Milton Avery's family, the original illustrations for Paul will be exhibited publicly for the first time. The illustrations will be shown along with a selection of Avery’s prints, acquired for the Print Collection from 1948 to 2004. Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 745 KB) In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience By boat, on foot, by train, car, and plane, Africans and their descendants have crossed oceans and land, sailed up and down rivers, and put down roots and pulled them up again. Like Maya Angelou, Harry Belafonte, Wyclef Jean, Barack Obama, Edwidge Danticat, Ossie Davis, Colin Powell, 35 million African Americans are heirs to migrations that have shaped this country and the African Diaspora. With images, manuscripts, photographs, maps, and music, In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience tells the story of a people whose movements over the last 500 years, both coerced and willing, inspired a culture and shaped a nation. For public program information and exhibit hours, visit www.schomburgcenter.org.
Image: Stephanie S. Hughley (photo by Keith Hadley) Beyond the Rainbow: Music of Harold Arlen  A multi-media tribute to composer and songwriter Harold Arlen on the 100th anniversary of his birth. read more... Image: Harold Arlen singing. Courtesy of S. A. Music. DISCO: A Decade of Saturday Nights  interactive exhibit from Experience Music Project, Seattle, on the culture and music of the influential social dance genre read more... Image: Disco: A Decade of Saturday Nights. Experience Music Project Faith and Legacy: The Hellenic World from the Collections of The New York Public Library  In conjunction with the Hellenic Festival in New York, The New York Public Library is presenting a highly selective exhibition of approximately 25 important manuscripts and printed books in Greek and other languages as enduring reflections of contributions from Greece to the world in religion, literature, philosophy, history, science, and art, shaping civilization over an enormous span of centuries. The manuscripts and books are drawn from the Special Collections of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, and several will be exhibited for the first time at the Library. read more... Image: The man who promised the impossible. In Aesop's Fables, f. 10r. Spencer Collection, The New York Public Library Decoration in the Age of Napoleon: Empire Elegance Versus Regency Refinement  Two distinctive movements, now known as the Empire Style and the Regency Style, were born out of the formal Neoclassicism that dominated late eighteenth-century European building and decoration. These styles were stimulated by the rivalry of France and England and their rulers. Napoleon I (1769-1821), self-styled Emperor of the French, assumed the throne in 1804 and immediately launched an ambitious art and design program that lasted until his reign ended in 1815. Across the English Channel, the Prince Regent, the future King George IV (1762-1830), also proved to be an active patron of the arts. Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 4.4 MB) Image: "Clock in bronze doré on ebony base." Watercolor and pen original drawing in French Goldsmith's Designs, ca. 1800. Paris, ca.1800. Art & Architecture Collection, The New York Public Library. Bedlam Days: The Early Plays of Charles Ludlam and The Ridiculous Theatrical Company  Photographs by Argentian filmmaker and artist Leandro Katz documenting seven early productions of Charles Ludlam and the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, 1968 - 1975. read more... Image: Charles Ludlam, photographed by Leandro Katz, 1971. The Newtonian Moment: Science and the Making of Modern Culture  Isaac Newton is a legendary figure whose mythical dimension perpetually threatens to overshadow the actual man. The story of the apple falling from the tree may or may not be true, but his revolutionary discoveries and their importance to the Enlightenment era and beyond are undeniable. The Newtonian Moment: Science and the Making of Modern Culture will explore the many facets of Newton's colossal accomplishments, as well as the debates over the kind of knowledge most worth having that these accomplishments engendered. read more... Image: An orrery, a mechanical model of the solar system. Engraving in The General Magazine of Arts and Sciences, 1755. General Research Division, The New York Public Library. James Gillray  The golden age of English caricature, from the late 1770s to the second decade of the 19th century, encompasses the life of its leading exponent, James Gillray (1756-1815), who contributed in no small measure to the brilliance and audacity of the political, personal, and social satires of this period. Gillray subjected all the key political figures of his day, along with the King, the Queen, the Prince of Wales, and assorted aristocracy, to his witty, telling, and often outrageous exaggerations, elaborations, and confabulations, and, in the process, transformed what was then the new genre of personal caricature into high art. With James Gillray, more than 160 of the artist's prints and drawings will be on view in the third-floor Print and Stokes Galleries. read more... Image: "Midas transmuting all into gold paper," handcolored etching, 1797. Drawings by Charles Addams This exhibition is part of an ongoing, rotating selection of darkly humorous drawings by cartoonist Charles Addams, featuring many that appeared in The New Yorker. These drawings were donated to the Library by The Lady Colyton and Marilyn Addams. Their care and exhibition are supported by an endowment established through a gift from The Lady Colyton. Romare Bearden: From the Studio and Archive  Drawing on the collections of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and collectors Russell Goings and Evelyn N. Boulware, this exhibition explores aspects of Harlem Renaissance painter Romare Bearden’s approaches to developing his craft. On display are selected works by Bearden, as well as rarely seen drawings, books and sketchbooks from the artist's personal library. Image: The Siren's Song, painting by Romare Bearden. From the collections of Russell Goings and Evelyn N. Boulware. World Music in Focus: An Exhibition Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of World Music Institute  In this multi-media exhibition, The World Music Institute (WMI) and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts have collaborated to showcase WMI's 20-year history as this nation's leading presenter of traditional music and dance from around the world. Featured will be the images of Jack Vartoogian, Linda Vartoogian, and Ira Landgarten, three prominent photographers who have documented WMI concerts for many years. The exhibit will also introduce new audiences to a wide range of music from many cultures and regions through concert videos from the WMI archive; traditional instruments from around the world, on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Newark Museum; and interactive kiosks with music samples. read more... Image: Ravi Shankar performing on a sitar at the Alice Tully 70th Birthday celebration, May 16, 1990. Photograph by Ira Landgarten. Copyright Ira Landgarten. A Literary Christmas Miscellany from the Berg Collection  Special Display: A Christmas display of literary materials from the Library's Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature. Featured are Charles Dickens's prompt copy of A Christmas Carol, from which he gave his public readings; books with Christmas themes by T. S. Eliot and Edmund Wilson; and Christmas greetings by James Joyce, Sean O'Casey, E. E. Cummings, and Maurice Sendak. Image: A portrait of Dickens, drawn in pencil, dry brush and crayon, heightened with white, by an unidentified artist, ca. 1869. Berg Collection. Mirrors to the Past: Ancient Greece and Avant-garde America  American artists have long been moved by the august cultures of ancient Greece. Motivated by the enlightened minds that produced works of incomparable beauty and emotional resonance, they in turn forged new directions, discarded rules, and redefined their art forms. This multimedia exhibition, which draws on rare material housed in all four research divisions of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, focuses on the liberating force of archaic and classical Greece and the countless 20th-century American choreographers, theater artists, composers, visual artists, and designers it inspired. read more... Image: Isadora Duncan at the Parthenon theater, 1904. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Image ID: WWM9916/ISADORA/0058VA Mexico Now: Contemporary Dance Posters and Mexico Now: Sounds of Mexico  At the end of the 1970s and during the 1980s, a new wave of Mexican choreographers and dancers could be seen in parks, plazas, streets, fountains, church atriums, and other public sites, finding new audiences and alternative performance spaces. The independent groups of contemporary dance, as they call themselves, include, among others, Antares, Asaltodiario, Barro Rojo, Cebra, and Contradanza. Their work is characterized by a search for new styles, forms, techniques, and themes to reflect the social, political, and economic climate of change in Mexico. Posters and photographs were donated by the companies to Americas Exchange Program for Dance for the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, as part of a continuing collaborative effort. Posters will be mounted in the Plaza corridor gallery; additional archival and multi-media artifacts will be on display in the Dance Division, on the third floor. In addition, Sounds of Mexico, an exhibition of artifacts and audio material, is on display in the Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, on the third floor. These exhibitions are part of the city-wide Mexico Now Festival, a project of Arts International. Image: Mexico Now, a citywide festival of contemporary Mexican arts and culture, will present the work of over 100 Mexican filmmakers, architects, writers, dance, theater, music, and visual artists at 28 of New York City's leading arts venues in November 2004 . Mexico Now is a project of Arts International, the nation's only nonprofit organization solely devoted to international arts exchange. More information is available at www.mexiconowfestival.org. hiphoproots: origins and impact  In celebration of Hip-Hop Month, the Hip-Hop Archive Project presents an exhibition focusing on the historical value of hip-hop and its preservation. The exhibition will feature hip-hop artifacts from the collections of Cold Crush Brother A.D. Harris and photographer Joe Conzo. Archives Image: Photograph by Joe Conzo Jewes in America: Conquistadors, Knickerbockers, Pilgrims, and the Hope of Israel  Acknowledging a pair of pamphlets once as influential as they now seem bizarre -- the English Protestant Thomas Thorowgood's Jewes in America; or, Probabilities that the Americans are of that race, and the Dutch rabbi Menasseh ben Israel's Hope of Israel -- this exhibition is the Library’s contribution to New York's yearlong celebration of the 350th anniversary of the arrival, in September 1654, of the first Jews in this city, and thus in the future United States. read more... Image: Thomas Thorowgood, Iewes in America, or, Probabilities That the Americans Are of That Race. London: Printed by W. H. for Tho. Slater, 1650. Rare Books Division, from the Lenox Library. The City and The Theatre In tribute to Mary Henderson’s recently re-issued definitive history of theater in New York City, The City and the Theatre, this exhibit of photographs and architectural renderings follows The Great White Way from 41st Street up to 52nd Street in a fascinating look at the evolution of Broadway’s theater buildings from their beginnings to the present day. Among the many legendary buildings highlighted are the old Metropolitan Opera, the Belasco, the Empire, and the Alwin. On display are original architectural drawings by Anthony Dumas (1910s to 1930s) juxtaposed, in the cases of surviving theaters, with nighttime photographs by Christopher Frith of their current incarnations. Also on view are contemporary drawings by Stanley Stark of old theaters that have been integrated into new buildings, including the Gershwin, the Marquis, and the new Broadway theaters. Ademola Olugebefola at Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors  New York artist Ademola Olugebefola spends his Augusts at the free performances of the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival. This exhibit focuses on recent art inspired by his sketching at modern dance presentations by Donald Byrd/The Group (of their In a Different Light: Duke Ellington, August 16, 2000) and Monte/Brown Dance (August 17, 2001); and at jazz concerts by Abdullah Ibrahim and Mary Stallings (August 24, 2001) and The Mingus Big Band (August 23, 2002). Image: Ademola Olugebefola's impressions of the piano improvisations of Ibrahim Abdullah, August 24, 2001. Lest We Forget: The Triumph Over Slavery  The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 2004 as the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition, and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has elected Lest We Forget: The Triumph Over Slavery to be its official travelling exhibit, highlighting the triumph of the principles of liberty, equality, and the dignity of human rights. |
