Exhibit: Rarely Seen Paintings by Eva Hesse

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Eva Hesse Eva Hesse Spectres 1960, an exhibition of rarely seen paintings by the artist Eva Hesse (1936-1970), will be presented in the Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art beginning September 16, 2011. Created when Hesse was just 24 years old, this group of eighteen semi-representational oil paintings, while standing in contrast to the works for which she is well known, nonetheless constitutes a vital link to her later Minimalist sculptural assemblages. Although several recent museum exhibitions of Hesse’s work have featured a few of these paintings from 1960, none have considered them as a group, all together.

There are two distinct groups within the Spectres series. In the first, the paintings are intimate in scale and the loosely rendered figures are gaunt, standing or dancing in groups of two or three yet disconnected from one another. The second group, in traditional easel-painting scale, presents both odd, alien-like creatures and certain depictions that resemble the artist herself.

The exhibition considers these evocative, spectral paintings not merely as self portraits but as states of consciousness&#8211thereby opening a dialogue about Hesse’s aspirations versus the nightmares and visions that remained constant throughout her life. Working against critical commentary that has seen these works as abject exercises in self deprecation, Eva Hesse Spectres 1960 examines them as testimony of private struggle.

Born in Hamburg in 1936, Eva Hesse and her family left in 1938 to escape the fate of Germany’s Jews and settled in New York City. She was determined to become an artist from an early age, striving at first to be a painter. Later she began to create startlingly original sculptural configurations that exploited the properties of cheesecloth, rubber, plastic, tubing, cloth, and other materials. Hesse achieved a level of success attained by few women of the time. In 1963 she had her first solo show- by 1968 she had gallery representation. She died in 1970 of a brain tumor. Two years after her untimely death, the Guggenheim Museum held a retrospective of her work&#8211its first for a woman.

Eva Hesse Spectres 1960 was organized by E. Luanne McKinnon, Director of the University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque. The Brooklyn Museum presentation is organized by Catherine Morris, Curator, of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. The works in the exhibition come from both public and private collections.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue co-published by the University of New Mexico Art Museum and Yale University Press (2010). It includes color reproductions of all of the works in the exhibition, along with new scholarship in four essays by: E. Luanne McKinnon, Director, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque- Elisabeth Bronfen, Global Distinguished Professor of German, New York University, and Chair of American Studies, University of Zurich- Louise S. Milne, Lecturer at the Napier University and the Centre for Visual Studies, Edinburgh College of Art- and Helen Molesworth, Chief Curator, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.

Eva Hesse Spectres 1960 is organized by the University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, in collaboration with the Estate of Eva Hesse.

Illustration: Eva Hesse (American, born Germany, 1936-1970). No title, 1960. Oil on canvas. 36 x 36 inches (91.44 x 91.44 cm). Collection of Barbara Bluhm-Kaul and Don Kaul, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Event highlights Lucretia Mott, 19th Century Activist

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Lucretia Coffin Mott was one of the most famous and controversial women in nineteenth-century America. Mott was viewed in her time as a dominant figure in the dual struggles for racial and sexual equality. In the first biography of Mott in thirty years, historian Carol Faulkner reveals the motivations of Mott’s activism and interest in peace, temperance, prison reform, religious freedom, and Native American rights. Mott was among the first white Americans to call for an immediate end to slavery. Her long-term collaboration with white and black women in the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society was remarkable. Mott was known as the &#8220moving spirit&#8221 of the first women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls in 1848. She envisioned women’s rights not as a new and separate movement, but rather as an extension of the universal principles of liberty and equality.

At 2 p.m. Sunday, August 28, Carol Faulkner Ph.D. will discuss her new biography Lucretia Mott’s Heresy: Abolition and Women’s Rights in Nineteenth-Century America and sign books at the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum, 5255 Pleasant Valley Road, Peterboro NY. Mott was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005 in the first group to be honored.

Dr. Faulkner is Associate Professor of History at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, and author of Women’s Radical Reconstruction: The Freedmen’s Aid Movement. Attention to Mott grew out of Faulkner’s interest in the anti-slavery and women’s rights movements and she became even more interested in Mott when she won a National Historical Publications and Records Commission fellowship to work on Mott’s letters. Faulkner is also a member of the Cabinet of Freedom for the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum.

The Mott program is the second of two Peterboro programs observing Equality Day. At 2 p.m. on Saturday, August 27 Penny Colman will discuss her new book Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: A Friendship that Changed the World at the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark, 4543 Peterboro Road, Peterboro.

Admission to both programs is two dollars. Stewards and students are free. The Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark and the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum are open from 1 – 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays from May 14 to October 23 in 2011.

New Executive Director Named for Adk Museum

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Kevin J. Arquit, Chairman of the Board of the Adirondack Museum has announced that the Board of Trustees has unanimously confirmed the appointment of David M. Kahn as the new Executive Director.

“The Board was very fortunate to identify Kahn as the museums next Director,” said Arquit. “This is an exciting time for the Adirondack Museum to bring in someone as accomplished as David because he has devoted his entire career to the museum profession. His skills, experience, and passion for history will undoubtedly continue to move the museum forward as a rich cultural resource and intellectually engaging place.”


A native New Yorker, David Kahn will be coming to the Adirondack Park from San Diego, C.A. He is currently Executive Director of the San Diego History Center, and prior to going to San Diego, Kahn was Director of three other institutions. He was Executive Director of the Brooklyn Historical Society from 1982 &#8211 1996. While he was there, the institution built a national reputation for its community history projects that focused on topics ranging from new Chinese immigrants to the Crown Heights Riots. From 1996 – 2006 David served as Executive Director of the Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford, the seventh oldest historical organization in the United States. During his tenure, the Society’s annual operating budget grew from $1.7 million to $5 million and the institution quadrupled its audience to 70,000.

In May 2006 David assumed the directorship of the Louisiana State Museum in New Orleans. While in Louisiana he was responsible for 13 facilities and secured major grants including $1.4M from the National Science Foundation for an exhibition about Hurricane Katrina and $2M from the National Park Service for a jazz center.

Throughout his career, David has been involved in a wide variety of professional activities. He has served on peer grant review panels for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York Council for the Humanities, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Smithsonian Institution. He was Vice President of the New York State Association of Museums from 1992-1995 and is currently Vice President of the Balboa Park Cultural Partnership. He has been an Editorial Board Member of the journal Curator since 1994 and he has served on two Ford Foundation Advisory Committees, “Documentation, Editing, and Archives” (1998) and “Expanding the Civic Role of the Arts” (1996 –1997). David has moderated panels and presented professional papers at numerous history museum conferences in San Francisco (2009), New Orleans (2008), Vienna (2007), Amsterdam (2005), Sao Paulo (2004), Luxembourg (2000), Istanbul (1999), Quebec (1999), Bonn (1996), and Harrogate (1996). He has published articles in Curator and Museum News as well as a series of travel pieces about Japan (a personal interest) in The New York Times. He earned both a B.A. Magna Cum Laude and a M.A. in Art History from Columbia University.

&#8220I am absolutely thrilled that the Adirondack Museum’s Board has chosen me to lead the organization into the future,” said Kahn. “The challenge for me will be to take what is obviously already a great institution and to find even more new and innovative ways for it to serve its many visitors and the community. I look forward to working with the museum’s dedicated board, its professional staff, and its many volunteers and donors.&#8221

David Kahn will assume the position of Executive Director, Adirondack Museum on September 5, 2011.

Event Marks 1850 Fugitive Slave Act Protest

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In August 1850 Gerrit Smith and Frederick Douglass organized a two day convention of abolitionists to protest Congressional debate on the proposed Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. 2,000 people attended the meeting in Cazenovia which Ezra Greenleaf Weld captured in the famous daguerreotype image owned by the Madison County Historical Society in Oneida NY. At 2 p.m. on Sunday, August 21, the 151st anniversary of the first day of that Cazenovia Convention, Norman K. Dann Ph.D. and W. Edward Edmonston Ph.D. will present Protest to the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act.

Norm Dann, professor emeritus Morrisville State College, will provide a brief chronology of the events that led to the second of two laws to return escaped slaves, and outline the horrendous intent and the dreadful impact of the law on slaves and free citizens. Dann is the author of Practical Dreamer: Gerrit Smith and the Crusade for Social Reform (2009), a Steward at the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark, and a founder and member of the Cabinet of Freedom for the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum.

Bill Edmonston holds Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and taught for four years in the School of Medicine, Washington University (St. Louis) before coming to Colgate University where he taught Neuroscience/Psychology for 29 years. While at Colgate he was named New York Professor of the Year and a National Gold Medalist in the CASE Professor of the Year Awards program (1988). Edmonston also held a Fulbright teaching fellowship (1982) at the University of Erlangen, Germany.

Edmonston has published three professional books, one book on the American Civil War, and two mystery novels. From 1989 to 2005 Bill and his wife Nellie, had a small publishing firm (Edmonston Publishing, Inc.) that specialized in original journals and memoirs of the American Civil War. Learning of the Cazenovia Fugitive Slave Law Convention through the publishing company’s participation in the Annual Peterboro Civil War Weekend, Edmonston became especially curious about two aspects of that convention: 1) The Edmonson sisters, and 2) the lack of a pictorial depiction of the meeting other than the well-known daguerreotype.

The Edmonson sisters, who escaped slavery and who were in attendance at the Cazenovia meeting, had lived in the same area of Montgomery County, Maryland, where Bill’s ancestors had resided and held slaves. Knowing that the family name is variously spelled, Edmonston set upon a search for a possible common ancestor with the Edmonson sisters.

In 2010 Bill created an oil painting of the central figures of the Cazenovia Convention daguerreotype and donated it to the Gerrit Smith Estate NHL. Bill took up painting about a dozen years ago, and paints “whatever strikes my fancy,” including landscapes, seascapes, cityscapes, still-life, people, and trompe l’oeil. Bill’s oil paintings have appeared in shows in Cooperstown, Utica, Old Forge, Albany and other venues in the upstate region. His works are in private collections in Philadelphia, New York City, Virginia Beach, Munich, Germany and the Central New York area.

The public is encouraged to attend the program at the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark, 4543 Peterboro Road / 5304 Oxbow Road, Peterboro NY. Admission is two dollars. Students are free. This program is one of a series of programs provided by the Stewards for the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark during 2011 and partially supported by a PACE grant from the Central New York Community Foundation. The Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark and the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum are open from 1 – 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays from May 14 to October 23 in 2011.

Admission to each site is two dollars. Stewards and students are free. For more information: Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark, 4543 Peterboro Road, Peterboro NY 13134-0006 www.gerritsmith.org 315-684-3262 and National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum, 5255 Pleasant Valley Road, Peterboro NY 13134-0055 www.AbolitionHoF.org 315-684-3262

Illustration: Oil painting created by Bill Edmonston of 1850 Cazenovia Convention organized to protest the Fugitive Slave Bill.

Olana Offers Painting Workshop Aug 17-19

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The Olana Partnership will offer an adult workshop Mixed Media Painting with the Impressionists this Wednesday, August 17 through Friday, August 19, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Wagon House Education Center. Learn the basics of watercolor, oil pastels and acrylic paint with artist Patty Tyrol. Discover how to layer and build up surfaces through mixed media. Participants will be inspired by Olana’s picturesque views as they work in the landscape.

Patty Tyrol is an artist who received her BFA and MA in printmaking from SUNY New Paltz. Tyrol has taught adults and children at Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY and in public school settings. Tyrol has been making prints and teaching for 30 years. Most recently, she was the artist in residence at the National Seashore in Provincetown, Cape Cod where she worked and produced a body of cyanotype work that will be shown in November at Unison’s Water Street Market Gallery in New Paltz.

Cost of the workshop is $15 per class, or all three classes for $40 for members of The Olana Partnership, or $20 per class or all three classes for $50 for non-members. Register by contacting Sarah Hasbrook, Education Coordinator for The Olana Partnership, at [email protected] or call (518) 828-1872 x 109.

Olana State Historic Site is located at 5720 State Route 9G in Hudson, NY 12534.

Wagon House Education Center programming is made possible in part through support provided by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State agency- the Hudson River Bank & Trust Foundation- the Educational Foundation of America- the John Wilmerding Education Initiative, and the members of The Olana Partnership.

The eminent Hudson River School painter Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900) designed Olana, his family home, studio, and estate as an integrated environment embracing architecture, art, and landscape. Considered one of the most important artistic residences in the United States, Olana is a landmark of Picturesque landscape gardening with a Persian-inspired house at its summit, embracing unrivaled panoramic views of the vast Hudson Valley.

Olana State Historic Site, a historic site administered by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Taconic Region, is a designated National Historic Landmark and one of the most visited sites in the state. The Olana Partnership, a private not-for-profit education corporation, works cooperatively with New York State to support the restoration, development and improvement of Olana State Historic Site. To learn more about Olana, please visit www.olana.org.

The Story of Hemlock and Canadice Lakes

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Part 2 of The Finger Lakes Museum’s three-part inaugural program series, Back from the Brink- The Story of Hemlock and Canadice Lakes, will be presented at the Finger Lakes Wine Center in Ithaca on Thursday, August 18th at 7:00 p.m. The series highlights the natural and cultural history of the only two undeveloped Finger Lakes.

Lima Town Historian Douglas Morgan will present, “Blue Blood to Blue Water”, a forgotten view of what Hemlock and Canadice—the only two undeveloped Finger Lakes—looked like between 1875 and 1945. It is a remarkable story of quaint cottages, elegant summer homes, bustling resort hotels, and passenger-ferrying steamboats—and the City of Rochester’s need of a new source for clean drinking water. Morgan’s program will include a slide presentation of antique photographs that help tell his story.

Part 3, “Lakes Go Wild”, will be presented in the Finger Lakes Wine Center on Thursday, September 1st at 7:00 p.m. It will tell about watershed protection efforts that began more than a century ago and detail the trials and tribulations that eventually evolved into the 7,000-acre Hemlock-Canadice State Forest in 2010. A slide presentation will accompany this final program chapter.

According to museum board president, John Adamski, Part 1 of the series, “From the Brink of Extinction”, which was presented at the Wine Center on Saturday, August 6th, “told the story of the successful restoration of the bald eagle—a conservation effort that began in the Finger Lakes Region and spread across the nation.” He added, “People were excited to see Liberty, a live bald eagle, in-person, and were enthusiastic about The Finger Lakes Museum’s vision.”

Each of the “Back from the Brink” presentations is free and open to the public but pre-registration is requested. Donations are welcome.

The Finger Lakes Museum is an initiative to build a premier educational institution in Keuka Lake State Park to showcase the cultural heritage and ecological evolution of the 9,000 square-mile Finger Lakes Region. It was chartered by the New York State Board of Regents in 2009 and is operating from offices in a former elementary school in Branchport, NY, which it purchased from the Penn Yan Central School District in January.

The Museum’s Board of Trustees has launched a Founders Campaign to raise $1 million to retain design professionals and other consultants, hire staff, and pay for day-to-day operations. With a donation of $100 or more, anyone can become a Museum Founder and have their name permanently inscribed on the Founders Wall in the lobby of The Finger Lakes Museum. Donors will also receive a Founder certificate and decal.

For more information on the Founders Campaign or to pre-register for these programs, visit our website at www.fingerlakesmuseum.org or call us at 315-595-2200.

Photo: A 1910 Reunion at the Hemlock Lake Resort Springwater.

NY Folklore Society Graduate Student Conference

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For over 65 years, the New York Folklore Society (NYFS) has held an annual conference, typically with guest speakers, such as master artists and academic scholars, who have addressed a particular theme. This year, in collaboration with Binghamton University’s English Department, NYFS invites graduate students to present their work on legends and tales. In this way, students will be given a platform at a local conference to share their work and connect with other young academics from around the state. The NYFS seeks to encourage young scholars to continue their studies and become active contributors to the fields of folklore, ethnomusicology, anthropology and more. This conference presents students with the opportunity for feedback on works-in-progress and mentorship from the academy.

Theme: Legends and Tales

Legends and tales present characters under duress in extraordinary circumstances. They preserve cultural patterns and facilitate social change. Legends such as “The Vanishing Hitchhiker” and “The Killer in the Back Seat” have a kernel of truth- tales such as “Little Red Riding Hood” and “The Armless Maiden” are clearly fictional but have complex layers of meaning. When legends and tales inspire literature and films, they bring richly resonant traditions to the minds of readers and viewers.

This multidisciplinary conference welcomes papers about legends and/or tales from graduate students in literature, folklore, anthropology, American studies, cultural studies, film studies, ethnic studies, gender studies, social and cultural history, and other fields. The conference organizers especially encourage papers related to the cultural traditions of New York State.

The NY Folklore Society Graduate Student Conference will be held November 12, 2010

at Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY.

Students are encouraged to submit proposals by August 15- the final deadline for submission is September 15.

More information can be found online.

Family Paddle History Tour on the Hudson

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In conjunction with its summer exhibit, Harnessing the Hudson, the Chapman Historical Museum is sponsoring a Family Paddle Tour on the Hudson River in collaboration with Moreau Lake State Park. The program will take place on Saturday, August 27th at 10 am and last about three hours. Guided by a Moreau Lake State Park Naturalist, the program will explore the history and ecology of the Spier Falls hydroelectric dam built in 1903.

Members of the public are invited to bring their own canoe or kayak- lifejackets are required. Moreau Lake State Park has a limited number of kayaks available to rent at $15. Food and water are recommended. Advance reservations are required to participate. Cost is $3/person. For additional information and reservations call Moreau Lake State Park at 793-0511.

Photo: Participants in Hudson River Paddle Tour, July 9, 2011. Courtesy Chapman Historical Museum.

New Director of Albany Institute Named

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The Albany Institute of History & Art has announced that David Carroll has been selected as its next Director, succeeding Christine Miles who announced in January her intention to resign from the Institute once a new Director is in place.

“I am honored to have been selected to serve the Albany Institute of History and Art as its next Director,&#8221 says Carroll. &#8220The Institute has an impressive history of bringing exciting and relevant programs to this region and I look forward to working with the Board and talented staff to advance this important work.”

David Carroll has held the position of Executive Director for the Western Museum of Mining and Industry in Colorado Springs, Colorado since 2005. Prior to that, Carroll held positions of Director of Membership at the Art Institute of Chicago, Director of Development at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago and Associate Director of Administration at the Indiana University Art Museum, which provides him a range of valuable experience.

Most recently as the Executive Director of the Western Museum of Mining & Industry, Carroll has dramatically increased membership and attendance as well as transformed donor relationships which greatly increased grant support and annual giving. Under his leadership, this museum has expanded its educational programming and become a significant partner in the tourism of the Pike’s Peak region. He has served on numerous state and local commissions and committees involving heritage tourism, art, and history throughout his career. Carroll received his B.S. in Management Information Systems from Colorado State University in 1988, followed by a M.A. in Arts Administration from Indiana University in 1997.

“What really set Carroll apart beyond his energy was his passion for storytelling,” tells George R. Hearst III, Chair of the Albany Institute Board of Trustees. “In line with the Albany Institute’s own mission, Carroll understands how to integrate objects and exhibitions into the context of the local environment, which he has done successfully at the Western Museum of Mining and Industry. As his skills complement areas where the Institute already has strength, there will be a very solid team in place under Carroll’s leadership.”

The process of recruiting a new Director commenced in January with the appointment of a Search Committee, comprised of Trustees and members of the community, and the hiring of a national recruitment firm. Ultimately, the Albany Institute Search Committee selected Carroll from a field of 38 candidates from across the country including Hawaii, Maine, Connecticut, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Colorado. Carroll impressed the Search Committee with his appreciation for the relationship between history and art, which is essential to the Institute’s mission. Additionally, he recognized the importance between an institution and its role in the community.

“We were very fortunate to have such a group of high-quality candidates from all over the country,” says Rosemarie V. Rosen, Chair of the Search Committee and Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees. “David is very special and brings us a unique mix of technical and creative skills. In addition, he has a real enthusiasm and excitement and will be a tremendous asset as we build the future of the Institute.”

“Speaking for myself and our entire staff, I am delighted and excited about the Albany Institute’s choice of David Carroll as the next Director of the Albany Institute,” says current Director Christine Miles. “David brings with him a refreshing approach and vision, great people-skills, and the invaluable experience of knowing how to engage the many publics that this museum serves every day.”

The Search Committee, which was formed in January 2011 to begin the process of selecting a new Director for the Albany Institute of History & Art following the announcement by Christine Miles of her upcoming resignation, included: Phoebe Powell Bender, Michael Conforti, Denise Gorman, Barbara K. Hoehn, Robert Krackeler, David Allen Miller, Victor Oberting III, Rosemarie V. Rosen (Committee Chair), I. David Swawite, Christine Ward, and Judith White.

New Academic Book Takes on Mad Men

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Since it premiered in July 2007, the AMC cable network’s &#8220Mad Men&#8221 series has won many awards and been syndicated across the globe. Its imprint is evident throughout contemporary culture—from TV advertisements and magazine covers to designer fashions and online debate. Its creator, Matthew Weiner, a former executive producer on &#8220The Sopranos,&#8221 has again created compelling, complex characters, this time in the sophisticated, go-go world of Madison Avenue of the 1960s, with smoking, drinking, and the playing out of prejudices and anxieties of an era long neglected in popular culture. As editor Gary R. Edgerton and a host of other well-known contributors demonstrate in this new title, Mad Men: Dream Come True TV, Mad Men is a zeitgeist show of the early twenty-first century.

Edgerton, who is Chair of the Communications and Theater Arts Department at Old Dominion University in Virginia, has edited this book to provide an academic yet still engaging read that sheds light on the appeal and attraction of the television series, as well as it’s cultural import.

Mad Men: Dream Come True TV features essays that analyze and celebrate the cutting edge TV series. It also includes an interview with the show’s Executive Producer Brett Hornbacher and an episode guide. The book presents essays under five parts: Industry and Authorship, Visual and Aural Stylistics and Influences, Narrative Dynamics and Genealogy, Sexual Politics and Gender Roles, Cultural Memory and the American Dream.

The book is part of the Reading Contemporary Television Series which offers a variety of intellectually challenging responses to what is happening in television today. Other books in the series have tackled CSI, Deadwood, Desperate Housewives, Lost, Sex and the City, The L Word, Six Feet Under, The Sopranos, Doctor Who, 24 and more.

Gary R. Edgerton’s previous books have included The Essential HBO Reader (with Jeffrey P. Jones) and The Columbia History of American Television. He is co-editor of the Journal of Popular Film and Television.

Note: Books noticed on this site have been provided by the publishers. Purchases made through this Amazon link help support this site.