by Sandy | Jul 21, 2013 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Culture, Exhibits
The Museum of Fine Arts Boston presents, not the Tom Cruise movie, but, “Samurai! Armor from the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Collection” featuring the extraordinary artistry of the armor used by samurai—the military elite led by the shoguns, or warlords, of Japan from the 12th through 19th centuries.” “…more than 140 objects from the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller collection, including armored horses carrying combat-ready samurai in full regalia. Highlights include helmets of lacquered metal adorned with emblems often inspired by nature—which signaled the status of the wearer, differentiated samurai from each other, and also frightened the enemy on the battlefield—and full suits of exquisitely crafted armor, weapons, horse armor, and accoutrements used for both battle and ceremonies.”
Samurai! Armor from the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Collection
Until August 4, 2013 – Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Avenue of the Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA

by Sandy | Jul 9, 2013 | Art, Blogroll, Exhibits, Museums
“The Met’s current Costume Institute exhibition, PUNK: Chaos to Couture, examines punk’s impact on high fashion from the movement’s birth in the early 1970s through its continuing influence today. Featuring approximately one hundred designs for men and women, the exhibition includes original punk garments and recent, directional fashion to illustrate how haute couture and ready-to-wear borrow punk’s visual symbols.”
PUNK: Chaos to Couture
Until August 14, 2013
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
5th Ave and 86 Street, NYC
by Sandy | Jul 4, 2013 | Blogroll, Books, Culture, Exhibits, Learning
Its that time of year again. This annual event involves over 200 exhibit booths, music, panel discussions and children’s activities. It’s a great way to spend a Friday night / Saturday in the city.
“The vision of the Harlem Book Fair is to partner with local
and national leadership organizations under the banner of literacy
awareness, affirming HBF as the nation’s largest African American
literary event celebrating family literacy, community empowerment,
and community cooperation. “
2013 Harlem Book Fair
Friday July 19 / Saturday July 20, 2013
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
West 135th Street between Malcolm X Blvd and Fredrick Douglas Blvd
by Sandy | Jun 6, 2013 | Art, Blogroll, Culture, Exhibits, Museums

This is just one of the many beautiful Benin bronze figures included in the Metropolitan Museum’s “Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas” exhibits.
“Oba” was the term used for King in Benin, West Africa (now part of Nigeria). I am so grateful that some of this former kingdom’s art has been preserved.
Art can be such a history lesson sometimes. So often it represents what is most important to a people during specific periods of their time.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
5th Ave and 86 Street, NYC
www.metmuseum.org
*Head of an Oba, 16th century (ca. 1550) Nigeria; Edo, Court of Benin (Brass)
by Sandy | May 9, 2013 | Art, Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Culture, Exhibits

The Kinsey Collection: Shared Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey
“Five centuries of African American history, culture and heritage… the exhibition celebrates Bernard and Shirley Kinsey’s passion for collecting objects of extraordinary significance over the 40 years of their marriage.
One of the largest private collections of African American artifacts, documents and artwork, the Kinsey collection of rare books and manuscripts, paintings, prints, sculpture, and photographs includes an early version of the Emancipation Proclamation, correspondence between Malcolm X and Alex Haley, slave shackles, a 1773 first-edition copy of poems by Phillis Wheatley”, and more.
The Kinsey Collection: Shared Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey
Until May 19, 2013
MoAD – The Museum of the African Diaspora
685 Mission Street San Francisco, CA
by Sandy | Mar 25, 2013 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Exhibits, Museums
The Metropolitan Museum of Art launches an exhibit focused on the connection between the art and fashion of the mid- 19th Century. Along with paintings, including some on loan from museums around the world including the Musée d’Orsay, there will be photographs and illustrations from the period.

“Highlights of the exhibition include Monet’s Luncheon on the Grass (1865–66) and Women in the Garden (1866), Bazille’s Family Reunion (1867), Bartholomé’s In the Conservatory (circa 1881, paired with the sitter’s dress)…Monet’s Camille (1866) from the Kunsthalle, Bremen, Renoir’s Lise–The Woman with the Umbrella (1867) from the Museum Folkwang, Essen, and Manet’s La Parisienne (circa 1875) from the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, which have never before traveled to the United States…”
Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity Until May 27, 2013
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
5th Ave and 86 Street, NYC