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Visit • About • Exhibitions • Calendar • Support • Shop “Compass: Folk Art in Four Directions,” organized by the American Folk Art Museum, opens June 20 at the South Street Seaport Museum. To celebrate this exciting exhibition, which features nearly200 objects from the museum’s collection, we will be hosting a Members Opening Reception on Wednesday, June 20, at 6 pm. Not a member? to join today! The museum’s new Masterworks lecture series continues this month. This series of talks examines art and artists represented in the current exhibition Jubilation|Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined from multiple perspectives and is free to the public. Wednesday, June 13, Dr. Valerie Rousseau leads The Weight of Ghosts: Raphaël Lonné, Adolf Wölfli, and Augustin Lesage. These three artists are among the masters of art brut studied early on by Jean Dubuffet and the Compagnie de l’Art Brut. This talk emphasizes their creative process and ingenuity in reshaping elements of their histories—personal and collective—into a complex new visual world. Exhibitions Compass: Folk Art in Four Directions June 20–October 5 at the South Street Seaport Museum Organized by the American Folk Art Museum In the early years of the Seaport district, the world was still a vast enigma, and tales of far-off places stirred the imagination. Commercial expeditions yielded exotic goods while ordinary seamen were granted opportunities to experience customs and landscapes very different from their own. “Compass: Folk Art in Four Directions” draws on the collection of the American Folk Art Museum to illuminate the development of the Seaport through four key themes installed in Schermerhorn Row, an early mercantile block. More> Jubilation|Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined (through September 2, 2012) Life is not lived in black and white: reality may have the tinge of dreams and dreams an air of reality. This provocative tension exists between the experiential nature of early American folk art and the fantastical imagery it often displays—between what is real and what is imagined. The same is true of the work of contemporary self-taught artists, which may introduce unique—and sometimes puzzling—expressions that illuminate the iconoclastic nature that is the flip side of the collective American psyche. More> Click here for the exhibition installation images. Highlights from the Historical Society of Early American Decoration (on continuous view) The American Folk Art Museum is home to the collection assembled over many decades by the Historical Society of Early American Decoration. The Society was founded in memory of Esther Stevens Brazer (1898–1945), a direct descendant of one of Maine’s pioneering families in the tin industry. The Society is dedicated to preserving the techniques of early American decoration in a variety of mediums through their own re-creation of historical forms and through the collection of original works, including decorated tin, furniture, and other objects, as well as stencils, tools, and ephemera related to the development of these arts in America. 9/11 National Tribute Quilt (on continuous view) The 9/11 National Tribute Quilt represents the response of the Steel Quilters of United States Steel Corporation to the events of September 11, 2001. This small quilt club conceived the monumental undertaking, ultimately receiving quilt blocks from all fifty states as well as Canada, Spain, Denmark, and Australia. The quilt measures eight feet high by 30 feet wide, and is constructed of 3,466 blocks in six panels. The four central panels form a montage of the twin towers of the World Trade Center against the New York City skyline. These are flanked by panels dedicated to the lives extinguished on the four flights and at the Pentagon. Each three-inch-square block bears the name of one person who perished in the disaster. More> Please note: The National Tribute Quilt will be on view at the museum through August 12, after which it will be on view at the Boca Raton Museum of Art as part of the American Folk Art Museum traveling exhibition “Politics NOT As Usual: Quilts With Something to Say.” Collection Highlight and Folk Art Fun Map of the Animal Kingdom will soon be on display in Compass: Folk Art in Four Directions. In the Litchfield Academy, the study of geography and history was considered important in expanding the minds of their charges, improving their memories, and giving them a wider perspective on the world. Geography was integrated into the ornamental arts, where students drew maps in ink and shaded the boundaries with watercolor in a manner similar to this example. This unusual Map of the Animal Kingdom shows animals and some peoples native to regions around the globe. It closely follows a pictorial atlas map published by W.C. Woodbridge of Connecticut in 1831 that was intended for use in the classroom. The map is framed with delicate theorem painting of roses with thorny stems and leaves, a technique that relied upon the use of hollowcut stencils to create the modular forms. MAP OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM / artist unidentified / probably New England / 1835 / watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper / 26 x 34 3/4 in. / American Folk Art Museum, promised gift of Ralph Esmerian, P1.2001.269 / photo courtesy Sotheby’s, New York Come Craft with Us! Make it Thursday is back this month with three accessory projects to liven up your summer wardrobe. Come to the museum Thursdays for hands-on workshops and discussions with leaders in the DIY community. Enjoy a glass of wine, meet fellow craft enthusiasts, and spend a creative evening with us! Kirsten of the popular Studs and Pearls blog will lead a Braided Thread and Chain Bracelet project on June 14. The museum will welcome back Kat Roberts of We Can Re-do It on June 21, to teach visitors how to refashion old jewelery pieces into fantastic Recycled Bangles. And staff members will lead a fun do-it-yourself Embroidered Cocktail Ring project on June 28. 6 to 7:30 pm Free for museum members $10 for non-members Includes refreshments Space is limited. Tickets may be purchased online. For workshop information and to reserve member tickets, contact Courtney Wagner at 212. 265. 1040, ext. 304, or cwagner@folkartmuseum.org Calendar of Events Wednesday, 6/13 2 pm Guitar Afternoon Bill Wurtzel and guests 6 pm Masterworks: A Series of Talks The Weight of Ghosts: Raphaël Lonné, Adolf Wölfli, and Augustin Lesage Thursday, 6/14 1 pm Public Tour Gallery guides 6 pm Make It Thursday Braided Thread & Chain Bracelet with Studs & Pearls Friday, 6/15 5:30 pm Free Music Fridays Avi Wisnia, Julie Kathryn, Elin Ruth Tuesday, 6/19 1 pm Closer-Look Tour Curator emerita Lee Kogan Wednesday, 6/20 2 pm Guitar Afternoon Bill Wurtzel and guests Thursday, 6/21 1 pm Public Tour Gallery guides 6 pm Make It Thursday Recycled Bangles with We Can Re-do It Friday, 6/22 5:30 pm Free Music Fridays Dave Doobinin, Nick Africano, Halle and the Jilt Tuesday, 6/26 1 pm Closer-Look Tour Curator emerita Lee Kogan Wednesday, 6/27 2 pm Guitar Afternoon Bill Wurtzel and guests Thursday, 6/28 1 pm Public Tour Gallery guides 6 pm Make It Thursday Embroidered Cocktail Ring A VIEW OF MR. JOSHUA WINSOR'S HOUSE & C. (detail) / Rufus Hathaway (1770–1822) / Duxbury, Massachusetts / 1793–1795 / oil on canvas, in original painted wood frame / 28 x 32 3/16 x 2 in. framed / American Folk Art Museum, promised gift of Ralph Esmerian, P1.2001.53 © 2000 photo John Bigelow Taylor, New York AURORA (detail) / artist unidentified / New England / c. 1818–1822 / watercolor on silk with applied gold foil and paper label, in original gilded wood frame / 21 3/8 x 24 5/8 in. framed / American Folk Art Museum, gift of Ralph Esmerian, 2005.8.46 / photo © 2000 John Bigelow Taylor, New York NATIONAL TRIBUTE QUILT (detail) / organized and assembled by the Steel Quilters / Pittsburgh / 2002 / cotton and mixed media / 8 x 30 ft. / American Folk Art Museum, gift of the Steel Quilters: Kathy S. Crawford, Amber M. Dalley, Jian X. Li, and Dorothy L. Simback, with the help of countless others in tribute to the victims of the September 11, 2001, attack on America, 2002.14.1 SEA CAPTAIN / attributed to Sturtevant J. Hamblin (act. 1837–1856) / probably Massachusetts / c. 1845 / oil on canvas / 27 1/8 x 22 1/4 in. / American Folk Art Museum, gift of Robert Bishop, 1992.10.2 / photo by John Parnell, New York MAP OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM / artist unidentified / probably New England / 1835 / watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper / 26 x 34 3/4 in. / American Folk Art Museum, promised gift of Ralph Esmerian, P1.2001.269 / photo courtesy Sotheby’s, New York connect with us   This e-mail was sent from American Folk Art Museum Immediate removal with ® Secure. To forward this e-mail to a friend or colleague, . To change your e-mail address or update preferences, .