The Diet of Worms [Read more…] about Poetry: The Diet of Worms
Arts
Historical Society of Woodstock Receives Conservation Grant
The Historical Society of Woodstock has received a 2021 NYSCA/Greater Hudson Heritage Foundation Conservation award of $5,500 for the conservation of the paintings “Hervey White in His Studio” (c. 1926) by Arnold Blanch (1896-1968), and “Landscape” (c. 1910) by Edmund R. Rolfe (1877-1917).
Conservation will be undertaken by Nadia Ghannam Fine Art Conservation. [Read more…] about Historical Society of Woodstock Receives Conservation Grant
Bringing Indigenous Perspectives into Museums
Professor Scott Manning Stevens, a citizen of the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation, is currently working on a book-length project dealing with these issues between Native American nations and museums. While his focus is largely on Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) communities, he hopes this work will serve as a template for broader application amongst other Indigenous cultures and the museums in which they are represented by collections and exhibits. Stevens considers the many challenges for museums in overcoming the legacy of misappropriation and misrepresentation of Indigenous cultures. [Read more…] about Bringing Indigenous Perspectives into Museums
New Book On The Hill: A Tipi In A NYC Shantytown
The book The Hill (Autonomedia, 2021) by Gabriele Schafer traces the steps of how a shantytown went from the anonymity of waist-high huts hidden in the weeds, to a tour-bus, school-group and celebrity stop; from addicts and recluses just getting by, to a drug supermarket; from a close-knit encampment, to a crime scene that entangles everyone from drug dealers, to users, to cops, to Schafer and Nick Fracaro… when one day tragedy strikes.
In the middle of the night on Thanksgiving 1990, the same weekend that the film Dances with Wolves opened, life partners Schafer and Fracaro erected a 25-foot-tall replica of a Lakota tipi in New York City’s then longest-existing shantytown, known as “The Hill,” located at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge at Canal and Chrystie Streets. [Read more…] about New Book On The Hill: A Tipi In A NYC Shantytown
Warren Co Historical Seeks Submissions for Memoirs Project
The Warren County Historical Society (WCHS) is seeking submissions for Warren County Voices, a historical memoirs writing project that will culminate in a book to be published in early 2023. [Read more…] about Warren Co Historical Seeks Submissions for Memoirs Project
Jonathan Swift’s Oyster Test: Oysters, Sex and Culture
At least since Roman times oysters were associated with sex. The most obvious reason for this association is the oyster’s resemblance to the pudendum. Raw oyster was praised as an aphrodisiac. Giacomo Casanova boasted to have eaten fifty at breakfast together with a lady of his fancy.
European painters used oyster as a symbol of fertility and sexual pleasure. Aphrodite (Venus), the Goddess of love and lust, was blown over sea on an oyster shell landing at either Cythera of Cyprus (both islands were regarded by the Greeks as territories of Venus). In “The Birth of Venus” Botticelli painted her approaching the shore on a giant oyster (clam) shell. By then, the associations with female beauty and physical love were well established. [Read more…] about Jonathan Swift’s Oyster Test: Oysters, Sex and Culture
Amsterdam’s Arts: Visual Artists, Actors & Singers
This week on The Historians Podcast, Jerry Snyder of Historic Amsterdam League has stories from a new booklet called Amsterdam’s Arts, focusing on visual artists, actors, singers and more with ties to Amsterdam, New York. [Read more…] about Amsterdam’s Arts: Visual Artists, Actors & Singers
NYS Writers Institute Announces Spring 2022 Events
The NYS Writers Institute has announced its Spring 2022 schedule of events featuring more than two dozen literary luminaries and creative artists, a series-within-a-series titled American HerStory, and a film festival coming to the Capital Region. [Read more…] about NYS Writers Institute Announces Spring 2022 Events
Haudenosaunee Material Culture, 1700-1815 (Virtual Program)
The Schenectady County Historical Society will host “Iroquois/Haudenosaunee Material Culture, 1700-1815,” a virtual program exploring the material culture of the Six Nations Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois, between 1700 and 1815, set for Thursday, February 24th. [Read more…] about Haudenosaunee Material Culture, 1700-1815 (Virtual Program)
Adirondack Experience ‘Artists & Inspiration in the Wild’ Exhibit Gets Boost
The Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake, (ADKX, formerly known as the Adirondack Museum) has received a $500,000 grant from the Challenge Grants program of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), a federal agency. The funds will help support the $2.25M construction cost of a new Artists & Inspiration in the Wild exhibition effort. [Read more…] about Adirondack Experience ‘Artists & Inspiration in the Wild’ Exhibit Gets Boost