Very rarely am I asked to give behind-the-scenes tours as Jeanne and Cindi usually do them, but this past Friday I got to take a small group of Ukrainian journalists on one. They were here as part of a media partnership program with The Daily Press. You can read more about that HERE.
Wanting to pull something from their country, I searched and searched and was only able to come up with one piece, a print of Odessa, which actually shows the city at a time when it was part of Russia.
On October 28th was the Bronze Door Society annual dinner where museum employees present projects and BDS votes to see who they will fund. This year we had six excellent project proposals, from purchasing new objects, conserving artifacts already in the collection, and photography equipment. This was my first year presenting and I was asking for money to conserve my favorite painting, Kaiser Wilhelm II Among the Pyramids. I won’t go into the history of the ship or painting as you can read about that HERE.
I am thrilled to say that I am one of the three winners of that night and that this amazing painting will finally receive the conservation it deserves! The piece has been in terrible condition as long as it’s been here and because of this we have been unable to display it. A big THANK YOU to the Bronze Door Society for their annual dinner and for providing money for projects like mine! You guys rock!
For those who are interested in viewing our Buttersworth Exhibition, B is for Buttersworth, F is for Forgery, you only have a few more weeks to do so!
The last day for the exhibition will be Sunday, April 26, 2015. It has enjoyed great success with our visitors who are determined to figure out which painting is the forgery! It’s also allowed people to truly appreciate the wonderful works of art created by James Buttersworth. So don’t forget to stop by and check them out before the 26th!
Construction of our old Small Craft Building. About 11 years ago it was replaced with a newer, more efficient building where a good amount of our small craft is now displayed.
This image shows men in our ship model shop repairing a group of our figureheads on January 23, 1940. Many of our figureheads came to the museum in rough shape and so needed a bit of work to make sure that they were stable enough to be displayed. As our old photos show, we used to have a large number of them on the wall of our Great Hall.
After being on loan for a year, our painting of Christopher Columbus painted ca 1910 by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida has returned!!
The painting has been traveling with the Sorolla & American exhibition that was organized by the Meadows Museum in Dallas, Texas. After going to the Meadows Museum, it went to the San Diego Museum of Art and then to Fundación MAPFRE in Madrid. No matter how hard I tried, I could not convince them to send me with the painting to Madrid. Shucks!!
