I finally fulfilled my goal of visiting Historic New England’s Codman Estate by attending the intriguing “House of Mirth – House of Codman” program on October 16. The program featured two illustrated lectures and an abridged house tour. Originally built around 1740, five generations of …
Margaret Aiken, Program Developer, Lifelong Learning at the Science Museum of Minnesota and M.A. Museum Education (G’10), invites museum studies students to get involved in Experimonth, a month-long blogging experiment that brings an artist, a scientist, and citizens together to use data and observation to …
Find out about exciting local exhibitions and programs that make a connection with “Here and There.”
Here: First, encounter remnants of everyday life in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius in “A Day in Pompeii,” at the Museum of Science.
There: Next, head up to the peak of Mount Olympus and spend some time among the gods in “Aphrodite and the Gods of Love,” at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.
Both exhibitions feature fascinating objects on loan from Italy. This is an amazing opportunity to visit them in our own backyard. The exhibitions are open until February 12 and February 20, respectively.
Hot off the presses, and this sounds really interesting (though I have an admitted fascination with disaster preparedness). As a recognized leader in the field of emergency preparedness for cultural institutions, the New England Museum Association and COSTEP-MA (Coordinated Statewide Emergency Preparedness for Massachusetts) invite …
Continuing our fun series of museums featured in the movies, here’s a clip from the classic 1986 movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Ferris, his girlfriend Sloane, and his best friend Cameron, skip a day of school and cruise around Chicago. Hijinks ensue. This scene, set …
Imagine that each person in your family has 36 coupons per year as a clothing allowance. A coat might require fifteen coupons, while a scarf might require 2 coupons. How far can you stretch those coupons? What do you do if a clothing item gets damaged? What do you do when children grow out of the clothes they already have? These were real concerns for the British public in June 1941 when clothing rationing was put into effect. Despite these limitations, however, there was a surge of colorful clothing and propaganda scarves. The exhibition, “Beauty as Duty: Textiles on the Homefront in WWII Britain,” gets its title from these items.
Set against a backdrop of grim, gray walls, the cheerful colors and eye-catching prints of the dresses and scarves on exhibit really stand out like beacons. Likewise, after years of wartime hardship, these fashions were created to catch the eye and boost morale. Though these items were made to meet standards of utility and austerity (limited fabric, buttons, and trim), they are examples of making the best of very little. Not only for beauty, many of the scarves contain messages of patriotism and support for Allied forces and reminders of safety and discretion. Through the use of textiles, photographs, video, and materials distributed by the British government, the exhibition sets up the juxtaposition of determined positivity during a dark period of struggle for the British public. The exhibition can be viewed at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston through May 28, 2012.