Tag: DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com

Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center 8 Yogi Berra Drive Little Falls, NJ 07424

lol Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center

8 Yogi Berra Drive

Little Falls, NJ 07424

(973) 655-2378

https://yogiberramuseum.org/

Open: Sunday 12:00pm-5:00pm/Monday & Tuesday Closed/Wednesday-Saturday 12:00pm-5:00pm

Fee: Adults $10.00/Children under 18 $5.00/Veterans and Montclair State College students free

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g46574-d3267390-Reviews-Yogi_Berra_Museum_Learning_Center-Little_Falls_New_Jersey.html?m=19905

The front of the museum

I went to the Yogi Berra Museum for the first time and I really enjoyed myself not just as a Yankee fan but learning the life behind the man. I did not know very much about Yogi Berra and his life but it is an interesting look at someone’s life and how his sport molded him to be the player and the family man he was in life.

The entrance to the museum for a life well lived

I never realized he was born in St. Louis and how his life in baseball came about. The museum takes Yogi Berra’s life from the time he was born and his family life growing up to how he became a ball player to his life in the minors and then to his life as a Yankee.

The career of Yogi Berra

The movie theater

He really was the ultimate leader and Yankee at the golden years of the team when they won five consecutive championships.

The case lines at the Museum

The museum also covered his post player life and his time coaching the Mets and winning other championships. It was also interesting to see how his family life shape him. He had been married over 60 years to his wife and had three boys and eleven grandchildren and how close he was with his family. I also liked his interaction with the new players and mentoring young players.

Taking a picture with ‘The Captain’ Derek Jeter

The best pictures that stood out was his photo with Derek Jeter and the second was the group photo of the three perfect game pitchers and catchers with Yogi Berra and Don Larsen in the middle of the photo.

The pitchers and catchers with the ‘perfect game’

That captured the true spirit of the Yankees. They knew how to win.

Memorabilia at the Museum

What was fun to see is all the World Series Rings that he won on display. It was a tribute to such a storied career and life. The Yogism’s that he was quoted as saying as “It ain’t over till it’s over” told of his character and his spirit in life.

The growing accomplishments in his life

The one thing that stood out in the museum was that it was the story of a man who had a life well lived and had the balance of family, career and friends along the way that showed how even from humble beginnings you can achieve great things. He even got the Medal of Freedom after his death in 2015 which showed the effect he had on people.

All the World Series rings he won

For any true Yankee fan, I highly recommend a visit to the museum, not just for the pictures and stores and baseball memorabilia but to see a person who was his own man in life.

The statue of Yogi Berra outside the museum

Hats off to Yogi Berra that the town of Montclair would honor one of its citizens in such a way. It is really was a great museum.

The Yogi Berra Museum on the Montclair University Campus

The handprints of the family

History of the Museum: (Wiki)

The Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center is a museum on the main campus of Montclair State University in Little Falls, NJ. It serves to honor the career of Yogi Berra, who played for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The museum which contains artifacts from Berra’s career, opened on December 4th, 1998. It is adjacent to Yogi Berra Stadium.

“The Friends of Yogi Inc”, a nonprofit organization, raised two million through donations to build the museum to honor Yogi Berra, who played his entire Major League Baseball career for the New York Yankees. John McMullen, the owner of the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League was among the museum’s benefactors. The museum was built adjacent to Yogi Berra Stadium, which hosts the New Jersey Jackals, a Minor League Baseball team in the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball and the Montclair State Red Hawks baseball team.

The museum was dedicated in October 1998, with fellow Baseball Hall of Famers Ted Williams and Larry Doby in attendance. It opened to the public on December 4th. In 2010, IKON 5 Architects redesigned the museum and Brian Hanlon sculpted a statue of Berra to go in front of the museum.

The entrance to the museum

Berra had feuded with Yankees owner, George Steinbrenner since Steinbrenner fired him 16 games into the 1985 season. Berra refused to be involved in Yankees events, including Yankee games. In January 1999, Berra and Steinbrenner resolved their feud with a public event at the Yogi Berra Museum.

Berra frequented visited the museum for signings, discussions and other events. It was his intention to teach children important values such as sportsmanship and dedication, both on and off the baseball diamond.

On October 8th, 2014, a burglary occurred at the museum, in which a team of “professional” thieves stole specific pieces of Berra’s memorabilia.

Exhibits: (Wiki)

The museum contains items from Berra’s career, including baseball cards, a jacket worn by Berra while throwing out the first pitch of Game 1 of the 2009 World Series, two of his MLB MVP awards and all ten World Series rings he received as a player. Following the resolution of Berra’s feud with Steinbrenner, the Yankee loaned the Commissioner’s Trophy from the 1998 World Series to the museum.

The statue signed by visiting ball players

In 2013, the museum teamed up with Athlete Ally to develop an exhibit called “Championing Respect”. which aims to support the inclusion of LGBT athletes in sports. An exhibit in 2014 celebrated the 75th Anniversary of Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech.

The museum offers a wide range of school and public programs on all aspects of sports and society. It conducts guided school tours and education programs, provides off-site assemblies on anti-bullying and sportsmanship and also collaborates with Montclair State University on programs examining topical issues in media and sports.

Yogi Berra with Babe Ruth

In promoting the values of respect and sportsmanship, the Museum in partnership with Investors Bank and the Super Essex Conference, developed a Best Teammate Award program in 2013, recognizing outstanding leadership by student-athletes. The museum also offers an array of summer camps, including youth baseball and softball camps.

(This information comes from Wiki)

After a visit to the museum, I stopped in the stadium behind the museum and watched Montclair University’s Baseball team play Stockton University.

The Yogi Berra Stadium at Montclair State University

I relaxed with a $1.00 hot dog and Coke and watched the game at Yogi Berra Stadium. It was a great way to spend the afternoon. It was fun to just relax in the afternoon and watch people having a good time.

I think watching the game with a good hot dog and Coke is the best.

The Museum of Sex 233 Fifth Avenue (@27th Street) New York, NY 10016

The Museum of Sex

233 Fifth Avenue (@27th Street)

New York, NY 10016

(212) 689-6337

Open: Sunday-Thursday 10:30am-11:00pm/Friday & Saturday 10:30am-12:00am

Fee: General Admission $20.50/$3.00 off for Students, Seniors and Military

Homepage

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60763-d525259-Reviews-Museum_of_Sex-New_York_City_New_York.html?m=19905

The Museum of Sex at 233 Fifth Avenue.

I made my first visit to the Museum of Sex in New York City and highly recommend it. I have to admit it is different but what I like about the museum is that it doesn’t try to hide the subject and it also just doesn’t jump out at you. It is an interesting progression in art and I saw this in the exhibition “The History of Pornography”, where the films were set up in order since the Victorian times. Sometimes it had to go underground due the times but pornography has been around since the days of the media.

The exhibition shows early pictures and viascopes of sexual acts and the early films date back to the Silent era. The exhibition covers from the Silent era to present times and the advancement of sex in films once the Hayes Code was broken in the 1960’s. With the relaxed rules and the mainstream films of “Tie Me Up Tie Me Down” and “Deep Throat”, you can see the progression of this as an art form and progression of the way the films were made.

Another great exhibition that I saw was “Punk Lust: Raw Provocation 1971-1985”. This show matches nicely with the current show on the “Punk Movement” at the Museum of Arts & Design. It was interesting to see the posters, flyers, clothes and hear the music of the era. Just at the height of the ‘Sexual Revolution’ and into the fragments of the Disco era came a new sound and way to dress that started in the early 80’s before the progression of the Reagan years in Washington DC, this movement came with a new sound with Punk, New Wave and Technographic and a new way to dress provocative without being too revealing.

“Punk Lust” exhibition

As the museum was quoted saying: “The survey looking at the way Punk Culture used the language of sexuality, both visually and lyrically, to transgress and defy, whether in the service of political provocation, raw desire or just to break through the stifling gender norms and social expectations that punks refused to let define them.”

“Punk Lust” exhibition

On a more recent trip to the museum, three exhibitions were open and all very interesting, highlighting different types of eroticisms. These countered different parts of the artworld. Also, in the post-COVID era, all the interactive displays opened up and I was able to visit and experience each of these as well. These are the most fun!

The Andy Warhol exhibition:

“Looking at Andy Looking” exhibition:

(from the museum website)

This exhibition will explore themes of intimacy and voyeurism, including the depiction of homosexual desire, in Warhol’s early years of filmmaking. In films and footage from 1963-64, we witness the artist beginning to figure out what he could do and say with his newest plaything: the 16mm camera.

“Looking at Andy Looking”

(from the museum website)

Filmmaking is a mechanical art, but it can capture real people on the surface and below. Andy Warhol (1928-1987) lived much of his life “on the surface.” He embraced mechanical techniques like screen-printing, photography, and film, but Andy himself was not a machine. Behind the cool, detached persona was the highly personal—and above all queer—perspective of an inveterate experimenter.

The exhibition I saw was the “Artifact” exhibition from the Museum of Sex’s collection of items exploring how we look at sexual encounters. What is sex and how does a play a role in our lives?

“Artifact: Selection from a Secret Collection”

(from the museum website)

Gathered from the Museum of Sex’s permanent collection of more than 15,000 objects as well as from other notable collections and institutes of antiques, medical history and sexology, Artifact (xxx): Selections from Secret Collections presents an intimate exploration of how sex manifests across culture through art, science, and design. An early vibrator made in Great Britain, a lotus shoe worn by a woman in China, and a Braille issue of Playboy magazine provide insight into prevailing belief systems and societal taboos across geography and time.

Hugh’s Hefner’s smoking jacket

Jeweled Bra

(from the museum website)

Fulfilling a wide range of functions from artwork, medical devices and pop-culture mementos to guidebooks and accessories used for enhancing pleasure or pain, these objects tell the stories of the expansive yet nuanced influence of sexuality throughout history.

Candy pants from the 1970’s

Deep Throat Memorabilia

The memory of the movie a movie ‘Deep Throat’’

Intercourse Chair

Another exhibition that I enjoyed on my last trip to the Museum of Sex was the “I Licked it, It’s Mine” exhibition on exotic paintings and sculpture.

The ‘Licked it, it’s Mine’ exhibition sign

(from the museum website)

What does it mean to be “consumed” by lust, or to “possess” another? The artists Oh de Laval, Shafei Xia, and Urara Tsuchiya explore every manner of appetite, from sublimated yearning to all-consuming hunger. United by an irreverent, tongue-in-cheek approach to the erotic and a flair for fantasy, the paintings and ceramic sculptures in this exhibition move between pulpy melodrama and decorative daintiness.

Along the way, sexuality is experienced as love, but also as competition, involving our animal natures—and sometimes even the swapping of human and animal roles.

The gallery for ‘I licked it, it’s mine’ exhibition

The literature from the exhibition explaining the works

These were some of my favorite works from the exhibition:

The exotic works

The unusual works

The unique paintings and ceramics

One of my favorite pieces from the exhibition. I thought this was quite exotic.

I walked next through Carn-O-Rama and experienced the workings behind the scenes of a traveling carnival reaching the suburbs. I always thought it was just lights, rides and cotton candy. There is more to it than that.

After my visits to the three galleries, I took a took to the interactive section of the museum and experienced Funland, where I walked though Stardust Lane and all the lights and sounds of the mirrored rooms.

A Video walk through Funland is a lot of fun. It really pleases the senses.

I next took a trip to Super Funland and this was my trip through Stardust Lane. This is all lights and mirrors and it was an unusual walk through the museum that challenges the senses. Walking through Super Funland is a voyage in the wild with mirrors and music.

It get pretty interesting walking through here.

In another video walk through of Funland, I met a lot of interesting people on my walk through the museum. It really puts you into a interesting mood.

The pathway around the museum took me to other interactive exhibitions. Jump for joy was a very interesting interactive world of different sexual parts and mood lighting.

The ‘Jump for Joy’ exhibition

Then I walked through ‘Lucky Land’

Then I walked through and climbed ‘The Pink Palace’, a series of colored features that led through what looked like another sexual parts. This is called the ‘ClimbX”.

The colored building blocks of the exhibition of “ClimbX”

The colored blocks of the exhibition “ClimbX”

Another object to climb through on your way out of the exhibition.

It really is an interesting museum to visit. You really have to stop and enjoy the pleasures of each floor. You have to take the time experience all the sights and sounds. The funny part of leaving the museum is that there is an exotic food vendor on Fifth Avenue with the most unusual items he sells.

The Erotic Waffle food truck just outside the museum. Not your kids food truck. The truck sold sexual organ pastries, waffles and other exotic items. You have to stop by when you are in the neighborhood!

History of the Museum of Sex:

(This comes from the Museum of Sex History Website)

The Mission of the Museum of Sex is to preserve and present the history, evolution and culture significance of human sexuality. The museum produces exhibitions, publications and programs that bring the best of current scholarship to the wildest possible audiences and is committed to encouraging public enlightenment, discourse and engagement.

The Museum of Sex

The Beginning:

When the Museum of Sex first emerged on New York City’s Fifth Avenue on October 5th, 2002, it was without precedent in the museum world. In the development of its inaugural award winning exhibition NYCSEX: How New York Transformed Sex in America, the Museum created a board of comprised of leading scholars and historians. The Museum’s advisory board has guided curators and guest curators towards research resources, pertinent collections and exhibition relevant artists. Advisors such as Steven Heller, Timothy J. Gilfoyle, PhD, Mike Wallace PhD and June Reinisch, Director Emeritus for The Kinsey Institute for Research on Sex, Gender and Reproduction as well as institutional collaborations with New York University’s Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, New York Historical Society and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum have contributed to making the Museum of Sex one of the most dynamic and innovative institutions in the world.

Design has played a pivotal role in both exhibition development and execution with world-renowned design firms such as Pentagram Design Inc, Casson Mannand 2×4, helping to transform the galleries and historic building over the last six years. The museum’s building, built in the area of New York formerly known as the “Tenderloin,” a district of NYC made notorious by the 19th century for its bordellos, dance halls, theaters and saloons, serves as a New York City landmarked site.

Our Work:

Since its inception, the Museum of Sex has generated over 30 exhibitions and 6 virtual installments, each in keeping with the Museum’s mission of advocating open discourse surrounding sex and sexuality as well as striving to present to the public the best in current scholarship, unhindered by self-censorship. With each new exhibition, lecture series, event and publication, the Museum of Sex is committed to addressing a wide range of topics, while simultaneously highlighting material and artifacts from different continents, cultures, time periods and media.

Our Collection:

The Museum’s permanent collection of over 20,000 artifacts is comprised of works of art, photography, clothing and costumes, technological inventions and historical ephemera. Additionally, the museum houses both a research library as well as an extensive multimedia library, which includes 8mm, Super 8mm, 16mm, BETA, VHS and DVD’s. From fine art to historical ephemera to film, the Museum of Sex preserves an ever-growing collection of sexually related objects that would otherwise be destroyed and discarded due to their sexual content.

Our Public:

In a short time, the Museum has received attention from academic institutions, major publications, media outlets and celebrities, positioning the Museum of Sex within the realm of academia and pop culture alike. The Museum has been featured in numerous publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Esquire and Time and on television broadcasts ranging from CNN to IFC to NBC’s Law & Order Criminal Intent. Award-winning advertising campaigns in print and television media have sealed the Museum’s arrival as a cultural touchstone.

Accolades continue to pour in from visitors and the press in every corner of the world, inspiring the Museum of Sex to continually surpass its own high expectations. Future planned exhibitions and events-the likes of which have never been offered by any other institution-are guaranteed to captivate and resonate, securing the Museum of Sex a well-deserved, distinguished place in history (Museum of Sex History)

Ukrainian Institute of America 2 East 79th Street New York, NY 10021

Ukrainian Institute of America

2 East 79th Street

New York, NY 10021

(212) 288-8660

https://ukrainianinstitute.org/

Open: Sunday 12:00pm-6:00pm/Monday Closed/ Tuesday-Saturday 12:00pm-6:00pm

Fee: Adults $8.00/ Seniors $6.00/ Students with current ID $4.00/Children under 12 Free/ Members Free

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60763-d5953575-Reviews-Ukrainian_Institute_of_America-New_York_City_New_York.html?m=19905

The Ukrainian Institute of America at 2 East 79th Street

I was really impressed by the Ukrainian Institute of America on a recent visit. I must have passed this building a hundred times on my way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and never thought twice of it. I was sorry I did as you will miss a lot by not walking in. The galleries are really impressive and the main gallery on the bottom gives you an interesting look at the history of the Ukrainian.

The first floor gallery discusses the formation of the country, a bit about its history and its ties to Europe and to Russia, its religious past and the current state of affairs of the country including its recent split of the eastern sections of the country and Crimea to Russia. Its a country in turmoil considering they want to join the European Union. It is a country in flux and on the cusp of entering the 21st Century with some of its past still tugging at it. Like all countries, it will prevail on the will of it’s people. There is a lot of solid history here and a country ready to enter its future.

The artwork of artist Vasyl Diadyniuk

The second and third floor galleries are full of art work from Ukrainian artists that is on sale and each of the galleries is dedicated to certain artists selling their works at somewhat hefty prices. Still you get to see the developments of the artists both here and abroad.

The forth floor is dedicated to special exhibitions. There are two shows going on now. One is by artist Vasyl Diadyniuk and another show is by artist Alexander Archipenko.

The artwork of artist Alexander Archipenko

The Museum has an interesting history.

Ukrainian Institute of America History:

The Ukrainian Institute of America Inc. is a non-profit organization whose primary mission is to showcase and support Ukrainian culture. To that end, the Institute affords the general public an opportunity to learn about Ukraine and how the Ukrainian spirit expresses itself, with special emphasis on the creative arts.

Founded more than fifty years ago by William Dzus, a prominent Ukrainian industrialist and philanthropist, the Institute sponsors:

*Art exhibitions

*Music concerts

*film screenings

*theater presentations

*Poetry readings

*Lectures and symposia

*Educational programs

*Children’s events

*Documentation center

The history of the building:

The building that is home to the Institute, the National Historic Landmark Harry F. Sinclair House is one of the few remaining examples of the splendid mansions that prominent citizens of New York City built in the 19th Century. The mansion was built in 1897 for Isaac D. Fletcher, a wealthy banker and broker, by the architect C.P.H. Gilbert. Executed in Gothic Revival style, the building is richly decorated with intricate crockets, carvings, moldings, pinnacles and other exquisite details. Six stories high, partly surrounded by a dry moat, the Institute features stately rooms that are magnificently proportioned and lavishly finished (Institute History).

The C.P.H. Gilbert house

In 1887, manufacturer, Isaac D. Fletcher, commissioned famed Gilded Age architect, C.P.H. Gilbert to design the mansion. When Mr. Fletcher died, left this mansion and his art collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which sold it to Harry F. Sinclair, founder of Sinclair Oil Company and also famous for his involvement in the Teapot Dome affair. The last private owner was Augustus Van Horne Stuyvesant Jr., the last descendant of Peter Stuyvesant, who was the first governor of New Amsterdam, today’s New York City bought the house in 1930 and lived here with his sister, Anne. The house was sold as part of the estate when Mr. Stuyvesant died in 1953. The Ukrainian Institute of America acquired the mansion in 1955 (Institute History).

A key goal of the Institute is to continue to preserve this extraordinary fragment of the city’s history for the benefit of all citizens of New York. The house still retains its wooden moldings and the house looks as if its residents just moved out.

American Folk Art Museum 2 Lincoln Square (Columbus Avenue between 65th and 66th Streets) New York, NY 10023

American Folk Art Museum

2 Lincoln Square (Columbus Avenue between 65th and 66th Streets)

New York, NY 10023

(212) 595-9533

https://folkartmuseum.org

Open: Sunday 11:30am-6:00pm/Monday & Tuesday Closed/Wednesday-Friday 11:30am-6:00pm

Admission: Free

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60763-d266582-Reviews-American_Folk_Art_Museum-New_York_City_New_York.html?m=19905

I recently visited the American Folk Art Museum in New York City for the “Made in New York City” exhibition and it is a very interesting and engaging museum. The artwork for the museum was a combination of painting, sculpture, pottery and metal work created at different periods of the City’s history. It really showed the extent of manufacturing in New York City and the craftsmanship that was once here.

The entrance to the museum

I recently visited the American Folk Art Museum in New York City for the “Nation”exhibition and it is a very interesting and engaging museum.

The main gallery of the museum with early American art

The main gallery with one of the revolving shows

The artwork for the museum was a combination of painting, sculpture, pottery and metal work created at different periods of the City’s and the Country’s history.

Some of the permanent works were made in the Tri-state area. It really showed the extent of manufacturing in New York City and the craftsmanship that was once here.

The ‘Folk Nation’: Crafting Patriotism in the United States’ exhibition

https://folkartmuseum.org/exhibitions/folk-nation

(from the Museum website)

Patriotism in the United States draws from the American Folk Art Museum’s rich collections to explore links between vernacular art and the construction of an American sense of self. Introducing visitors to the concept of “folk” as a category developed in conjunction with the art and antiques markets, this exhibition positions works as multilayered in their meanings, imbued with cultural significance by not only their creators, but also their collectors and subsequent owners. Americans have long preserved objects as a way of telling stories about themselves. Beginning after the Revolutionary War and gathering momentum in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, people turned to early American things to construct a national history and sense of collective identity—an impulse often driven by lingering insecurity about the young nation’s perceived cultural provinciality compared to Europe (Folk Art Museum.com).

One of the painting’s that stood out to me was more contemporary approach to the Statue of Liberty, entitled ‘Miss Liberty reaches out to the persecuted’. A different approach to folk art.

The painting ‘Miss Liberty reaches out to the persecuted’ by Reverend Benjamin Franklin Perkins

The description of the painting

Some of the interesting things you will see are the paintings by artists in both Colonial New York and from the Hudson River School of prominent New Yorkers through its first 200 years of history. You will see how the styles of art have changed over the years.

Also there is a lot of metal work in the ways of signs and rods for the front of doors and for the roofs. The woodwork carvings that once graced the front doors of merchants all over the City is now a lost art. Here you could see the works of German and Russian carvers and the craftsmanship that was put into every piece. It was interesting too to see the racial themes and stereotypes that were used in the art.

Several revolving shows were being featured on a recent trip to the museum such as ‘Nation’ and ‘Self Made’, themed shows for the 250th Anniversary of the Country.

The show ‘Self Made’ A century of inventing artists’

https://folkartmuseum.org/exhibitions/self-made

(From the museum website)

Self-Made: A Century of Inventing Artists takes a critical look at the historical definition of the “self-taught artist” in the United States from the early twentieth century to today. The exhibition examines how artists without academic training have depicted, conceptualized, and identified themselves on their own terms. In doing so, it aims at challenging reductive, long-standing narratives that have cast these artmakers as amateurs or isolated geniuses working out of time, without lineage, influence, or artistic networks (Folk Art Museum.com).

The sixty artists featured here largely worked outside conventional art-school, gallery, museum, and peer-exchange systems. Their practices are rooted in diverse sites of learning, from professional expertise to community-based traditions. Drawn primarily from the American Folk Art Museum’s collection, this selection of artworks brings together outstanding examples of paintings, sculptures, photographs, videos, and artists’ notebooks by key national and international figures—many of them recent or rarely seen acquisitions (Folk Art Museum.com).

The exhibition is organized around three methods of artistic “self-making” and self-fashioning: self-portraits, alter egos, and autobiographies. Each gallery unfolds chronologically, providing grounding for the artists’ intentions. The works function as primary documents: firsthand accounts of the self, authored by the self. Akin to diaries or other personal statements, they call for close attention, asking viewers to “look at me, in this way, that I have chosen.” By centering the makers’ perspectives and aesthetic choices, Self-Made shifts the focus away from the viewer’s role in completing the creative act and places it squarely on the artist’s agency (Folk Art Museum.com).

Some of the paintings that stood out seemed to be self-portraits.

The painting ‘Untitled’

The painting ‘Untitled’

The museum takes different approaches to the way art is portrayed.

Another program that the museum does well is they have afternoon Jazz Wednesdays and Free Concerts on Friday nights.

There are family programs, walking tours, curator talks and lectures as part of the museum programming so there is something for everyone.

The American Folk Art Mission:

(From the Museum website)

Since 1961, the American Folk Art Museum has been shaping the understanding of art by the self-taught through its exhibitions, publications and educational programs. As a center of scholarship and by showcasing the creativity of individuals whose singular talents have been refined through experience rather than formal artistic training, the museum considers the historical, social and artistic context of American culture. Its collection includes more than seven thousand artworks dating from the eighteenth century to the present, from compelling portraits and dazzling quilts to powerful works by living self-taught artists in a variety of mediums (Museum bio).

Self-Taught art, past and present, tells empowering stories of everyday life. The field of American folk art was first defined at the turn of the twentieth century by collectors, professional artists, critics, dealers and curators whose search for an authentic American Art seemed to be finally answered in works that presented a nuanced of national identity, faith, progress, ingenuity, community and individuality. Under the umbrella of “folk art” expanded to also include artists working in the present. For the last twenty years, the term self-taught has more regularly come to address these artists, whose inspiration emerges from unsuspected paths and unconventional places, giving voice to individuals who may be situated outside the social mainstream. Those individuals have been active participants in the shaping of American visual culture, influencing generations of artists and establishing lively artistic traditions (Museum History).

American Folk Art Museum History:

(From the Museum website)

The museum of Early American Folk Arts as it was known initially held its first exhibition in a rented space on 49 West 53rd Street in 1961. The museum’s collection was launched in 1962 with the gift of a gate in the form of an American flag, celebrating the nation’s centennial. The gift reflected the museum’s early focus on eighteenth and nineteenth century vernacular arts from the northeast America.

In 1966, after receiving a permanent charter, the museum expanded its name and mission. As the Museum of American Folk Arts, it looked beyond the traditional definitions of American folk art. Its exhibitions and collection began to reflect “every aspect of the folk arts in America-north, south, east and west.” Founding curator Herbert W. Hemphill Jr. “expanded the notion of folk art beyond traditional, utilitarian and communal expressions.” Under his direction, the museum began to champion idiosyncratic and individualistic artwork from the fields of traditional and contemporary folk art. In doing so, the museum ushered in a new era in the field of twentieth-century folk art (Museum History).

The 1990’s brought new focus to the diversity and multiculturalism of American Folk Art. Offering a more inclusive vision. the museum began to present African American and Latino artworks in their exhibitions and permanent collections. Director Gerard C. Wertikin announced American folk art’s common heritage as “promoting an appreciation of diversity in a way that does not foster ethnic chauvinism or racial division.” (Museum History).

The museum further established its broadened outlook with the 1998 formation of the Contemporary Center, a division of the museum devoted to the work of 20th and 21st century self-taught artists as well as non-American artworks in the tradition of European art brut. In 2001, the museum opened the Henry Darger Center to house 24 self-taught artist’s works as well as a collection of his books, tracings, drawing and source materials (Museum History).

The gift shop

In 2001, the museum chose its current name, American Folk Art Museum. Recognizing that American Fold Art could be fully understood in an international context, the word American functions as an indication of the museum’s location, emphasis and principal patronage rather than as a limitation on the kind of art it collects, interprets or presents. The museum’s current programming reflects this shift in focus. Past exhibits have included folk arts of Latin America, England, Norway, among other countries and continents (Museum history).

Don’t miss this amazing little museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

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