Tag Archive "free-library-of-philadelphia"
Talk: Documentary PIX of Philadelphia at the Free Library
Today’s your last chance to do a truly civic feel-good thing–bid in a silent auction on a photo or print to help support the Free Library’s Prints and Pictures Collection.
Never too much Michael Taylor–talk at Free Library
I can never get too much of Michael Taylor, the energetic curator of Modern Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Apparently, the Free Library has the same idea. So they invited him to take a walk down the Parkway to speak for their summer talk series–Become a Philadelphia Insider: Leaders of key Philly Institutions provide an inside view of how they work. Here’s the info on Michael’s talk: July 21 Mounting A Blockbuster Art Exhibit The Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Michael Taylor, explains how such a show is selected ... More » »
Poetry trifecta in Philadelphia
Poets make great art critics. As metaphor-makers themselves they respond to the metaphorical realm of visual art in a direct way and can often write eloquently about it.
Malcolm Gladwell on human capital: Free Library author lecture
Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and the new book Outliers Each year the Free Library author events turn up some nuggets. The talks, which Steve and I attend with our buddies Ed and Ann are like entertainment for the academic set–standup with footnotes. We’ve seen John Updike (post), Atul Gawande, Kazuo Ishiguro (post), Norman Mailer, Jhumpa Lahiri, Louise Erdrich, Calvin Trillin and many more. Best is when the authors are great extemporaneous speakers, as some are. John Updike, Calvin Trillin and, of course, Norman Mailer are (or were, RIP John and Norman) in that group. So is Malcolm ... More » »
Picture Books: Sendak on Sendak and Beyond This Time and Place: Children’s Books in England
Maurice Sendak preliminary design for cover of Where the Wild Things Are (1963), courtesy Rosenbach Museum and Library, © Maurice Sendak I love illustrated books; they’re one of the ancillary pleasures of being around small children. Art historians have lots of books with pictures but they’re not the same. By luck or intention, two exhibitions currently in Philadelphia present a wonderful range of illustrated books for children. Maurice Sendak, illustration from Where the Wild Things Are (1963) © Maurice Sendak The Rosenbach Museum and Library has drawn on it’s archive of the artist’s work to present the major retrospective exhibition, ... More » »
Treasure trove at the Free Library: A talk with Karen Lightner
Karen Lightner at her desk Museums are not the only permanent collections of art in town. I was reminded of this while I was talking to Karen Lightner, who heads the Print and Pictures Collection at the Free Library. I stopped in to talk with her while I was looking at the Continuum: Photography in Philadelphia, which Lightner curated. The exhibit is an annual show mounted each year to coordinate with the Robert F. Looney Memorial Event. Looney was curator of prints and photographs at the library from 1963 to 1986, and his wise choices are part of the reason ... More » »
