The Festive City
Now through July 14, 2013
Buonanno Works on Paper & Tsiaris Photography Galleries, RISD Museum of Art
Come see The Festive City, on view at the RISD Museum of Art, featuring materials from the Brown University Library’s Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, the RISD Museum, and the collection of Vincent J. Buonanno (Brown ’66). The exhibition features prints and books that record how cities were transformed by the urban festivals of early modern Europe. The Festive City originated in an undergraduate seminar taught at Brown in Spring 2012. It was co-curated by RISD curator Emily Peters and Brown University professor Evelyn Lincoln. Students working with Professor Andries van Dam collaborated with the RISD Museum graphics and computing staff and used Microsoft Surface technology to make pages of the festival books available to viewers.
Persian Paintings from the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection
Now through May 10, 2013
John Hay Library, Bopp Seminar Room (3rd Floor)
Accompanying the course “What is Islamic Art” with instructor Shiva Balaghi, selections from the Library’s Special Collections, including 10 illuminated gouache miniatures depicting military scenes and leaves from illuminated manuscripts, are on display. Stop by to examine these unique, historical works.
2013: Verdi Year Wagner Year
Now through late-May 2013
Orwig Music Library
The year 2013 is the 200th anniversary of two of the most central nineteenth-century opera composers: Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner. Although they never met and their lives took very different courses, each came to be emblematic of the national music of their home countries: Wagner and Germany, Verdi and Italy. Modern reinterpretations of their operas have stretched the limits of human imagination, and remain critically controversial. In this exhibit, Orwig celebrates its collections relating to both of these composers, highlighting the acquisition of a new Tristan und Isolde facsimile manuscript in December 2012.
Centennial Images: The Balkan Wars, 1912–1913
February 18 – May 10, 2013
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, Foyer
Prints and watercolors of military scenes from the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 will be on view in the Foyer of the Rock. Make sure to take a firsthand peek at these special materials from the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection. You can also explore the collections online.
Stamps of the European Microstates: Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, & Vatican City
February 25 – May 18, 2013
John Hay Library, Military Collection Gallery (3rd Floor)
Stop by the galleries on the third floor of the John Hay Library to view a display of European stamps from the Webster Knight and Champlin Stamp Collections. While you’re there, make sure to explore the permanent exhibit of 5,000 miniature military soldiers. The soldiers are set in 96 cases marching from left to right, starting with ancient Egyptians and leading up to Queen Elizabeth II.
A Picture of Avant-Garde Russia: The Rite of Spring and the Ballets Russes in 1913, Selections from the Bryson Dance Collection
Monday, March 4 – May 31, 2013
John Hay Library, Gammell Gallery
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, a work commissioned for the Ballets Russes in Paris. With the music, choreography, sets and costumes all designed by Russian artists on a Russian theme, and the production under the direction of the renowned Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev, the Rite of Spring gave Paris a taste of modernism in a distinctively Russian key. This Spring exhibition celebrates the artistic innovations of the Rite with a selection of works illuminating the original Paris production of 1913, drawn from the Brown University Library’s Bryson Dance Collection. This exhibit is one of a series of events taking place in Rhode Island this spring to mark the FirstWorks presentation of the Joffrey Ballet’s recreation of the original ballet; the Joffrey’s performance will take place on March 19th at the Providence Performing Arts Center. Also included in the series of events is a public discussion at the Providence Athenaeum on March 1st of the political and cultural context from which the Rite of Spring grew.
Contact: Jennifer Braga | 401-863-6913