40th anniversary year of exhibitions, programs, and events at Norman Rockwell Museum
Building on 40 years as both a regional museum and national resource, Norman Rockwell Museum is bringing the art of illustration to more people than ever in 2009. The Museum will present its 100th exhibition and welcome its five millionth visitor to Stockbridge this year. During 2009, the Museum will host five exhibitions and will travel seven shows organized in Stockbridge to museums in 10 states.
(Media-Newswire.com) - STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — Norman Rockwell Museum today announced its 40th anniversary year of exhibitions, programs, and events, as well as the founding of a major new initiative in illustration art and the launch of the public phase of its comprehensive fundraising campaign.
Building on 40 years as both a regional museum and national resource, Norman Rockwell Museum is bringing the art of illustration to more people than ever in 2009. The Museum will present its 100th exhibition and welcome its five millionth visitor to Stockbridge this year. During 2009, the Museum will host five exhibitions and will travel seven shows organized in Stockbridge to museums in 10 states. Norman Rockwell Museum will go online with a significant portion of its vast archives this fall, making a “first wave” of 40,000 archival objects accessible to audiences worldwide via the Web as part of an ongoing digital publishing project known as ProjectNORMAN.
Also announced today is the formation of the Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies ( RCAVS ), the nation’s first research institute devoted to the art of illustration. In development since 2003, RCAVS builds on Norman Rockwell Museum’s extensive work in the field of illustration art and ties together new initiatives and existing programs such as ProjectNORMAN. See separate release.
The Museum’s comprehensive campaign entered its public phase today. The campaign, Sharing Rockwell’s Legacy, has been quietly underway for three years. Since 2006, the Museum has received donations, pledges, and bequests, as well as gifts of art, totaling $18 million—nearly three-fourths of the Museum’s $25 million goal. See separate release.
The Museum’s 2009 exhibitions explore and celebrate the art and creative process of Norman Rockwell. In May, Rockwell’s studio will be reinstalled for the first time since 1986, when the Museum moved the building to its campus from downtown Stockbridge. At that time, the studio was arranged to reflect the working space as it was when Rockwell died in 1978. This spring’s reinstallation will take visitors back to 1960, when Rockwell was working on Golden Rule, his iconic plea for tolerance among peoples of the world. As a prelude to the reinstallation, the Museum is presenting the photographic exhibition Artists in Their Studios, on view from February through May.
This summer, Norman Rockwell Museum will bring home to Stockbridge its traveling exhibition, American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell, the Museum’s major Rockwell retrospective. The exhibition includes paintings and drawings from 1914 through 1970, capturing the sweep of the artist’s long and prolific career. Also this summer, the Museum will present a retrospective of sculptor and art historian Peter Rockwell’s career. Rockwell is the youngest son of Norman Rockwell.
In the fall, an intriguing exhibition that pairs Norman Rockwell’s photographic references and original artwork will offer further insight into the artist’s working process and considerable skill as a photographer.
“Our 40th anniversary extends our commitment to sharing Rockwell and illustration art with an ever-widening audience,” says Laurie Norton Moffatt, Director/CEO of Norman Rockwell Museum. “From our grassroots founding in the Old Corner House on Main Street in Stockbridge, the Museum has grown into an American institution. We have welcomed millions of visitors through our doors, and shared our collections with millions more through traveling exhibitions at venues across the United States and the world. In 2009, we will be making our collections accessible to a worldwide audience through the Web, and bringing new attention and scholarly resources to the field of illustration art within the context of America’s rich visual culture.”
“Our 40th year gives us a chance to look back and look forward,” says Daniel M. Cain, President of the Museum’s Board of Trustees. “We celebrate our role as the steward of the art, archives, and ideals of a major figure in American art, even as we find new ways to share those cultural resources with new audiences.”
Highlights of Norman Rockwell Museum’s 40th Anniversary Year
February
Artists in Their Studios
February 7 through May 25, 2009 The interplay between artists and their studios is the subject of a major exhibition opening this winter at Norman Rockwell Museum. Artists in Their Studios presents a behind-the-scenes view into the lives of over 75 noted American artists through hundreds of rarely exhibited photographs and primary source materials from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, as well as an intimate selection of photographs of the studios where Rockwell worked during the long span of his career.
May
A Day in the Life: Norman Rockwell’s Stockbridge Studio
Opening on May 2, 2009 The studio that Norman Rockwell used during the last 21 years of his life and the site where he created some of his most enduring paintings will be reinterpreted for the first time since the artist passed away in 1978. The studio reopens this spring with A Day in the Life: Norman Rockwell’s Stockbridge Studio, an installation that recreates the interior as it was in 1960, when the artist was working on his iconic painting olden Rule.
Stockbridge Community Breakfast
May 2, 2009 All members of the Stockbridge and Glendale communities will be welcomed to the Museum for a special breakfast honoring the Museum’s 40th anniversary and its enduring ties with the Town of Stockbridge.
World Rhythms: A Free Community Day Celebration
May 3, 2009 All are invited to the Museum for a festive Community Day, a multicultural celebration in the spirit of Norman Rockwell’s painting Golden Rule. Outdoor performances and activities will explore the region’s diverse traditions.
June
Inaugural Gathering of RCAVS Network
June 2009 The Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies will host its first gathering of partners in the RCAVS network. This group of institutions will define priorities and methods for collaboration and partnership within the field of illustration art.
July
American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell
July 4 through September 7, 2009 Norman Rockwell Museum’s major retrospective of the artist, American Chronicles, comes home to Stockbridge for the summer. The exhibition explores Rockwell’s unparalleled role as an American icon-maker and storyteller, and traces the evolution of Rockwell’s art throughout his career—from carefully choreographed reflections on childhood innocence in paintings such as No Swimming ( 1921 ) to powerful, consciousness-raising images like The Problem We All Live With ( 1964 ), which documents the traumatic realities of desegregation in the American South. After the summer, American Chronicles resumes its nationwide tour through 2013.
All-American Independence Day Festival
July 4, 2009 The Museum’s popular family festival in celebration of the Fourth of July, this year timed to kick off the opening of American Chronicles.
40th Anniversary Celebration
July 9, 2009 The Museum’s 40th anniversary celebration is a family-friendly early evening party honoring the founders of the Old Corner House, the Museum’s first home. Founding families, including Peter Rockwell, youngest son of Norman Rockwell, and his family will be in attendance.
The Fantastical Faces of Peter Rockwell: A Sculptor’s Retrospective
July 11 through October 25, 2009 The works of noted sculptor and art historian Peter Rockwell will be exhibited on Norman Rockwell Museum’s grounds and galleries. As a young man, Peter had no interest in pursuing a career as an artist because art was “too much in the family.” Today, Peter Rockwell’s vibrant, animated works, inspired by circus acrobats, animals in motion, gargoyles, and monsters are featured in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, The Bridgeport Museum of American Art, and Norman Rockwell Museum.
September
First Annual RCAVS Symposium
September 2009 A scholarly symposium focused on illustration art collection.
November
Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera
November 7 through May 24, 2010 The evolution of Rockwell’s iconic images are depicted—frame by frame—in multiple series of the artist’s photographs, which he took as he planned his paintings. Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera will reveal the processes Rockwell used in developing the compositions of his paintings and the people who posed for the characters that inhabit them. Organized by curator and author Ron Schick, Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera is the first exhibition and publication to undertake an in-depth study of Norman Rockwell Museum’s newly digitized photography archive.
Launch of ProjectNORMAN
November 2009 In 2003, the Museum initiated ProjectNORMAN, a comprehensive cataloging and digitization project that has resulted in the digital preservation of 40,000 archival objects to-date from the Museum’s vast trove of over 200,000 images, objects, and documents. This “first wave” of images and associated information will go online in November 2009, available to scholars and the public worldwide via a dedicated portion of the Museum’s Web site.
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