News
July 2, 2015Albany Institute of History & Art exhibitions, programs, and events: July-August 2015
The following is a listing of current exhibitions appearing at the Albany Institute of History & Art from July through August 2015, as well as a listing of family programs, special events, lectures, presentations, book signings and other related activities. All dates, times and details are subject to change and should be confirmed prior to publication or broadcast. For additional details, press kits, photography, or other information, please contact Aine Leader-Nagy, (518) 463-4478, ext. 408, or at leader.nagya@albanyinstitute.org.
MUSEUM INFORMATION
HOURS ADMISSION
Wednesday 10AM–5PM Adults $10
Thursday 10AM–8PM (Free admission 5–8PM) Seniors $8
Friday 10AM–5PM Students $8
Saturday 10AM–5PM Children 6-12 $6
Sunday NOON–5PM Under 6 Free
Monday Closed Members Free
Tuesday Closed Discounts for veterans and AAA members
Free parking is available in the museum’s lot at the corner of Elk and Dove Streets.
Note: Free admission for active military personnel and their families Memorial Day-Labor Day 2015 as part of the Blue Star Museum Program
exHIBITIONS
CURRENT
Triple Play: Baseball at the Albany Institute
Closes July 26, 2015
The museum’s current exhibition Triple Play: Baseball at the Albany Institute, is sure to draw fans from far and near. Triple Play is composed of three separate exhibitions, filling more than 5,000 square feet of gallery space. It includes 450 historical objects and images celebrating our passion for the sport. Baseball: America’s Game, organized by Bank of America’s Art in our Communities Program, is a multimedia exhibition featuring over ninety historic photographs, illustrations, baseball artifacts, and audio/video installations from the past one hundred years that bring to life the history of this American sport.
The Albany Institute has complemented this exhibition with two community-supported exhibitions that bring together over three hundred objects, including stadium relics, vintage baseball cards, photographs, historic film
footage, uniforms, and more.
Play Ball! A History of Baseball in the Capital Region, explores the rich culture of baseball in the Albany, Troy, and Schenectady area–a region which has a connection to baseball from its beginning in the nineteenth century. This exhibition contains artifacts from the 1860s to the present, including: the Troy Haymakers, Albany Senators, Albany Black Sox, the Schenectady Blue Jays and the Mohawk Colored Giants, through the Colonie A’s, Albany-Colonie Yankees, the Diamond Dogs and the Tri-City ValleyCats. Many items were borrowed from regional fans, community collectors, and museums, as well as from the collections of the Albany Institute of History & Art.
The Clubhouse: Baseball Memorabilia, pays tribute to baseball’s fans and the collections they have built to honor their favorite sport. Rare objects, photographs and personal mementos have been gathered from fans who have generously shared their baseball treasures for all to enjoy. Included are seats, a Mets locker once belonging to Ryan Church, and a five foot bronze letter “E” from the facade of the original Yankee Stadium built in 1923. Fenway Park is also represented by two chairs from that stadium’s first base grandstand. One particular highlight for Albany residents and baseballs fans alike is the 1917 World Series uniform and other artifacts from Albany native Meldon “Mellie” Wolfgang, who pitched for the Chicago White Sox from 1914 to 1918.
Triple Play: Baseball at the Albany Institute is sponsored by an Anonymous Donor, the Michael & Margaret Picotte Foundation, CDPHP, Times Union, the Albany County Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Wallace and Jane Altes. Baseball: America’s Game Sponsored by Bank of America Art in our Communities Program. Play Ball: A History of Baseball in the Capital Region Sponsored by Courtney and Victor Oberting III. The Clubhouse: Baseball Memorabilia Sponsored by Lois and David Swawite. Second Floor Galleries
Walter Launt Palmer: Painting the Moment
Closes August 16, 2015
Artist Walter Launt Palmer (1854–1932), the son of Albany sculptor Erastus Dow Palmer, has enjoyed a revival of interest in the art world over the last several years. It’s now common to see his paintings in art magazines and at major auctions across the country, bringing record prices for his oils and watercolors. As an artist who preferred living and working in his home community of Albany, rather than New York City, Palmer carried forward the creative genius that emerged in the region generations earlier with the Hudson River School and his father’s own sculpture. The Albany Institute holds one of the largest public collections of work by Walter Launt Palmer, including oil and watercolor paintings, pastels, and drawings, as well as letters and photographs. The exhibition, Walter Launt Palmer: Painting the Moment, presents for the first time in more than a decade the broad range of Palmer’s work, offering a visual overview of his life, travels, and artistic interests.
Walter Palmer, known as Wallie among friends and family, grew up in a household and community well connected with the arts. The portrait painter Charles Loring Elliot gave the young boy his first set of paints at age twelve, and a few years later the period’s most respected landscape artist, Frederic Edwin Church, tutored the young man. Palmer began exhibiting his work in the early 1870s, but it was his travels in Europe with his family in 1873 and 1874 that exposed him to the great masters and to new trends in art. He met, for example, the younger American painter John Singer Sargent, who was working in Italy, and remarked in a letter that “his style is bold & vigorous.” Palmer adopted a similar style for some of his early paintings. In 1876, he returned to Europe again to continue studies with the Parisian painting master Charles-Émile-Auguste Carolus-Duran.
After his return to Albany in 1877, Palmer began painting his first significant series: building interiors. Palmer’s interiors are rich in detail and invite close inspection. He lavished attention on the textiles, ceramics, furniture, and wall decorations that filled well-furnished parlors, libraries, and hallways. He even painted the dining room at Appledale, the Palmer family home, where he included one of his sisters seated in a rocking chair beside the fireplace.
Palmer traveled to Europe for a third time in 1881 specifically “to paint some of the fine ‘interiors’ that are entirely lacking in our own country,” as noted in a letter to the Albany Argus. There, he did find many fine interiors that became the subject of his canvases, but it was during this stay in Europe that the city of Venice caught his attention. The pastel colors of buildings, water, and the moisture-laden atmosphere captivated the artist. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s Palmer painted numerous oils and watercolors of this Italian city, including the Piazza San Marco, St. Marks Basilica, and the Grand Canal.
By the mid-1880s Palmer began working on yet a third series: winter scenes. His winter paintings captivate viewers with their serenity and masterful tonal subtleties. Fir trees and barren branches droop under the weight of freshly fallen snow and ice glistens on half-frozen streams in a way that captures the immediacy of the moment. Palmer, in fact, has often been called the “painter of the American winter.” Most of his winter scenes he painted from memory, and he continued to paint these popular landscapes until his death in 1932.
The exhibition includes works from all three of Palmer’s major series, and also includes oils and watercolors from other travels and other interests. A select number of works from private collections enhance the exhibition and help broaden the artist’s creative life. Hearst Gallery
OPENINGS
The Anaglyphs of Eric Egas
August 15, 2015–October 25, 2015
Allowing the viewer to participate and enter into spaces created by his printed photographs is at the center of Eric Egas’ work with anaglyphs, which are three-dimensional stereoscopic images that trick the eye into seeing depth with the aid of 3D glasses. Egas’ anaglyphs evolved from his work with installations that enclosed the viewer within multiple changing images to evoke imaginary worlds between dream and memory. In this experiential exhibition, Egas engulfs viewers in situational modalities through the selection and placement of anaglyphs that explore human relationships with nature, the meaning of the absurd, human aggression, and aesthetic impulses. 3D glasses are provided! Second Floor Galleries
ONGOING
Ancient Egypt
Egyptologist and Guest Curator Dr. Peter Lacovara has incorporated the research and scientific discoveries revealed in the GE Presents: The Mystery of the Albany Mummies exhibition into a new exhibition about Ancient Egypt that opened in August 2014. Visitors to the museum will continue to enjoy the story of the Albany Mummies, learn about the history of Ancient Egypt, and see how the intersection of new science, technology, and scholarship changes how we learn. In addition to the story of Mummy Ankhefenmut, themes and topics in the new galleries include: Egyptian History and Civilization; The Nile and the Environment; Crafts and Professions; Food and Drink; Gods and Goddesses; and Preparing for the Afterlife.
Jabbur and Heinrich Medicus Galleries
The hudson river school and the nineteenth-century landscape
Artists of the Hudson River School painted and sketched a variety of landscapes during the fifty-year period from 1825 to 1875. The American wilderness, which has now come to define the school, represents only one. These same artists similarly painted scenes of rural farms and gardens, manufacturing facilities and scenic tourist sites. Their works portray a visual history of the American landscape during decades of rapid change and transformation. This exhibition draws from the Albany Institute’s collection and includes paintings by several artists associated with the Hudson River School, including Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, Frederic Church, Jasper Cropsey, James and William Hart, Alfred Thompson Bricher, and others. Third Floor Round and Square Galleries
NINETEENTH-Century AMERICAN SculpturE
Erastus Dow Palmer and His Protégés: Launt Thompson, Charles Calverley, and Richard Park
Designed to showcase the museum’s nationally known collection of mid- to late nineteenth-century sculpture, this exhibition features twenty plaster, marble, and bronze sculptures and framed bas-reliefs by Albany sculptor Erastus Dow Palmer and his three studio assistants and protégés, Launt Thompson, Charles Calverley, and Richard Park. Sculpture Court
Traders and Culture: Colonial Albany and the Formation of American Identity
The character and culture of Albany and the Upper Hudson Valley have roots in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the early inhabitants of the region, and their beliefs, relationships, and interactions. This exhibition looks at those diverse peoples who shaped colonial Albany, and the objects that reflect their interests, values, commercial and social interactions. Colonial Gallery
A GATHER OF GLASS: Selections from the Museum’s Collection
The exhibition includes a selection of blown, molded, pressed, and cut glass pieces from the Institute’s collection, many manufactured in the northeast United States. A selection of colored glass showcases the American predilection for both clear glass pieces, and vibrant, experimental glass of many hues. Atrium
ROBERT HEWSON PRUYN: An Albanian in Japan, 1862-1865
This small library exhibition features highlights from the Albany Institute’s collection of private papers from Robert Hewson Pruyn (1815-1882), the second U.S. minister to Japan appointed by President Abraham Lincoln. The papers include detailed weekly correspondence with family that recount Pruyn’s travels, his audience with the Japanese Tycoon, and the travails of his diplomatic mission in Japan during the Bakumatsu era. Included are some of the earliest photographic views of Yedo (Tokyo), 1863. Lobby
LECTURES, FAMILY PROGRAMS, SPECIAL EVENTS
JULY
FIRST FRIDAY
Friday July 3 | 5-8PM
The Albany Institute will be open for extended hours. Explore the galleries, visit with friends, and shop in our museum store! Free admission
SUMMER ART PROGRAM
Artful Mornings – Wearable Art
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
July 7, 8, and 9, 9AM-Noon
Don’t hide your art away; wear it with pride! Join us to decorate your own t-shirts, hats, and more as we explore the world of textile art. We’ll take inspiration from some of the museum’s collections and objects on display in Triple Play! Baseball at the Albany Institute. Tuition includes materials and museum admission. Registration is required and space is limited. Register online at albanyinstitute.org. Per week: $45 members, $60 non-members
ART + HISTORY MEET UP- 1791 Club July Meet Up
WEDNESDAY, JULY 8 | 5:30PM
The Albany Institute of History & Art wants to work closer with 21-40somethings who are looking to engage with local art + history. AIHA has two mummies in our collection and we’ve invited our friend Dr. Peter Lacovara (he’s an Egyptologist) for a special tour/ Q+A session. Afterwards, we’ll walk to a nearby spot for happy hour specials. $10 per person (food + drink on your own) RSVP by 7/7 to Nicole Peterson at (518) 463-4478 ext 414 or petersonn@albanyinstitute.org. Register online at albanyinstitute.org.
SUMMER ART PROGRAM
‘Tute for Tots – Big & Little
Friday, July 10 | 10AM–11:30AM
In our first week we’ll explore size scale in a big and little theme. We’ll play with non-standard measuring units as we learn basic measuring skills and create our own artwork by exploring how many small shapes we can fit and glue into one larger shape. Tuition includes materials and museum admission. Registration is required and space is limited. Register online at albanyinstitute.org. $8 members, $10 non-members
SUMMER ART PROGRAM
Artful Mornings – Paint!
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
July 14, 15, and 16 | 9AM–Noon
Brush with greatness this week as you get creative with paint. We’ll try out paint mediums like tempera and watercolor plus experiment with brushstrokes, paint additives, and resist as we create our own masterpieces. Tuition includes materials and museum admission. Registration is required and space is limited. Register online at albanyinstitute.org. Registration full
LECTURE – Van Gogh and Nature
Thursday, July 16 | 6PM
Richard Kendall, Clark Art Institute, Curator at Large
Exhibition curator Richard Kendall will discuss the research and origin of the exhibition and catalogue as well as the significance of its theme. Fundamental to the project has been a close study of the artist’s work throughout his career and his rarely discussed preoccupation with the natural world, from flowers, birds, and insects to the majestic landscapes of rural Holland and the south of France. Still underestimated in many approaches to Van Gogh’s art is his passion for reading, which included guides to nature, poetry that addressed the countryside, and literally hundreds of novels in Dutch, English, and French that celebrated rural life in an age of expanding towns and cities. This issue will also be explored in the lecture, which will be illustrated with works from Van Gogh and Nature and other sources. Free admission
SUMMER ART PROGRAM
‘Tute for Tots – Dark & Light
Friday, July 17 | 10AM–11:30AM
This week we’ll explore dark and light by discovering the value scale in art. We’ll have fun with paint as we mix tints and shades with white and black. Tuition includes materials and museum admission. Registration is required and space is limited. Register online at albanyinstitute.org. $8 members, $10 non-members
SUMMER ART PROGRAM
Artful Mornings – Paper Craft
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
July 21, 22, and 23 | 9AM–Noon
Discover the field of book art as we create our own crafty book designs. We’ll make decorative book cover designs through techniques like paste paper and paper marbling, and create books in accordion and clamshell formats. Tuition includes materials and museum admission. Registration is required and space is limited. Register online at albanyinstitute.org. Per week: $45 members, $60 non-members
SUMMER ART PROGRAM
‘Tute for Tots – Soft & Rough
Friday, July 24 | 10AM–11:30AM
Let’s get hands on as we explore textures and our sense of touch! We’ll create texture collages with both soft and rough surfaces and enjoy sensory play while discovering and sorting items by texture. Tuition includes materials and museum admission. Registration is required and space is limited. Register online at albanyinstitute.org.
$8 members, $10 non-members
SUMMER ART PROGRAM
Artful Mornings – Lovely Landscapes
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
July 28, 29, and 30 | 9AM–Noon
Join us for a tree-rific time as we take in the natural beauty of landscapes. We’ll draw upon the work of Walter Launt Palmer and the museum’s Hudson River School paintings as inspiration as we create our own lovely landscape art. Tuition includes materials and museum admission. Registration is required and space is limited. Register online at albanyinstitute.org. Per week: $45 members, $60 non-members
SUMMER ART PROGRAM
‘Tute for Tots – Wet & Dry
Friday, July 31 | 10AM–11:30AM
Splish splash! We’ll compare wet and dry scenes in the galleries and enjoy wet art in the studio. We’ll see what happens when you spray water on dry marker drawings and special art tissue paper. We’ll also explore using sponges in our art and play. Tuition includes materials and museum admission. Registration is required and space is limited. Register online at albanyinstitute.org. $8 members, $10 non-members
AUGUST
SUMMER ART PROGRAM
Artful Mornings – Choose Your Own Art-venture
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
August 4, 5, and 6 | 9AM–Noon
This week, we’ll go on an adventure and set up the studio for choice-based creative art. Choice-based art is also called T.A.B., which stands for Teaching Artistic Behavior, and is designed to strengthen children’s creative thinking skills. A theme or artistic challenge is presented with choices of art materials and methods to complete their projects. Tuition includes materials and museum admission. Registration is required and space is limited. Register online at albanyinstitute.org. Per week: $45 members, $60 non-members
FIRST FRIDAY
BOOK READING AND BOOK SIGNING – A Not Too Greatly Changed Eden: The Story of the Philosopher’s Camp in the Adirondacks
Friday, August 7 | 6PM
James Schlett, Journalist, Author, Poet
Join award-winning journalist, James Schlett for a reading of selections from his recently published book, A Not Too Greatly Changed Eden: The Story of the Philosopher’s Camp in the Adirondacks, published by Cornell University Press. The book recounts the story of a group of artists, poets, and philosophers who ventured into the heart of the Adirondacks in 1858 to camp, hike, hunt, and converse. This “philosopher’s camp” helped spark the transcendentalist and preservationist movements in America. The book includes a color insert featuring twelve paintings by Hudson River School artists, including Thomas Cole, Frederic E. Church, Asher B. Durand, and Sanford Gifford. Free admission
SUMMER ART PROGRAM
‘Tute for Tots – Flat & Form
Friday, August 7 | 10AM–11:30AM
What is form? The opposite of flat! Together we’ll discover art that is flat and art that pops out and then create our own work that will truly stand out. Tuition includes materials and museum admission. Registration is required and space is limited. Register online at albanyinstitute.org. $8 members, $10 non-members
SUMMER ART PROGRAM
Artful Mornings – Art in 3-D
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
August 11, 12, and 13 | 9AM–Noon
Watch your art take form as you build 3-D skills. We’ll build works in clay, wire, papier-mâché, and more as we create work that truly stands out. Tuition includes materials and museum admission. Registration is required and space is limited. Register online at albanyinstitute.org. Per week: $45 members, $60 non-members
ART + HISTORY MEET UP- 1791 Club August Meet Up
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12 | 5:30PM
The Albany Institute of History & Art wants to work closer with 21-40somethings who are looking to engage with local art + history. AIHA’s Executive Director (and former Chief Curator) Tammis Groft will take attendees behind-the-scenes in a special tour to show some of her favorite pieces in the collection. Space is limited. Afterwards, we’ll walk to a nearby spot for happy hour specials. $10 per person (food + drink on your own) RSVP by 8/11 to Nicole Peterson at (518) 463-4478 ext 414 or petersonn@albanyinstitute.org. Register online at albanyinstitute.org.
SUMMER ART PROGRAM
‘Tute for Tots– Cold & Warm
Friday, August 14 | 10AM–11:30AM
Join us for a truly cool art class as we dive into the theme of cold and warm. We’ll look for cold and warm scenes in the galleries and then get hands on in the studio to test techniques like using frozen paint in our work. Tuition includes materials and museum admission. Registration is required and space is limited. Register online at albanyinstitute.org. $8 members, $10 non-members
SUMMER ART PROGRAM
Artful Mornings – A Step Back in Time
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
August 18, 19, and 20 | 9AM–Noon
Travel back to ancient Egypt and discover artifacts and symbols in the museum’s ancient Egypt exhibition. We’ll explore papyrus, ceramics, and other ancient materials and make our own versions of jars and scrolls in the art studio! Tuition includes materials and museum admission. Registration is required and space is limited. Register online at albanyinstitute.org. Per week: $45 members, $60 non-members
SUMMER ART PROGRAM
‘Tute for Tots – Up & Down
Friday, August 21 | 10AM–11:30AM
Together we’ll explore the opposite theme of up and down. We’ll stretch our bodies and look for artwork in the galleries that is up high and down low. In the studio we’ll have a blast trying out the up, down, over, and under motion of simple weaving. Tuition includes materials and museum admission. Registration is required and space is limited. Register online at albanyinstitute.org. $8 members, $10 non-members
SUMMER ART PROGRAM
Artful Mornings– What a Relief!
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
August 25, 26, and 27 | 9AM–Noon
In relief sculpture, the material is slightly raised or carved above a flat background. We’ll be inspired by the museum’s nineteenth century sculpture court and create multiple types of relief sculpture with materials like clay, plaster, and found objects. Tuition includes materials and museum admission. Registration is required and space is limited. Register online at albanyinstitute.org. Per week: $45 members, $60 non-members
SUMMER ART PROGRAM
‘Tute for Tots– Messy & Neat
Friday, August 28 | 10AM–11:30AM
What better are opposites than messy and neat? We’ll practice our determination and concentration by neatly matching lines and shapes, and then get a little loose and wild with some unusual painting techniques. Tuition includes materials and museum admission. Registration is required and space is limited. Register online at albanyinstitute.org. $8 members, $10 non-members
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Founded in 1791, the Albany Institute of History & Art is New York’s oldest museum. Its collections document the Hudson Valley as a crossroads of culture, influencing the art and history of the region, the state, and the nation. With more than 35,000 objects and one million documents in the library, it is an important resource for the region, giving our community a sense of the part the Hudson Valley played in the American story, and our own place in history. Permanent and temporary exhibitions are open year-round and create a sense of place, allowing visitors to meet the people who helped shape this region. Over 25,000 people visit the Albany Institute of History & Art every year, enjoying the collections, workshops, school programs, and lectures, helping to build an understanding of the history and culture of our region. Among the museum’s best-known and most-loved collections are the 19th century Hudson River School landscape paintings by artists like Thomas Cole and Frederic Church, the 19th century sculpture collections, and, of course, the famous Albany Mummies that came to the museum in 1909 and have been on view ever since. For more information, please visit www.albanyinstitute.org and be sure to follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/albanyinstitute) and Twitter (@AlbanyInstitute).
