Conference at Indiana University Explores the Magic of Lantern Slides

Indiana University will host the 14th annual convention of the Magic Lantern Society of the USA and Canada on May 20-23, 2010. The Magic Lantern Society collects, preserves and shares information on the lantern devices that were invented during the 17th century and were used to entertain and educate audiences prior to the creation of film.

Members of the public are invited to attend the free or low-cost public sessions, which include an exhibit at the Lilly Library, two shows at the Fine Arts Auditorium, a silent film screening with live piano in Whittenberger Auditorium and a “Magic Lantern Spectacular” at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. Terry Borton, a fourth-generation lanternist and the only professional lanternist in America, will take part in the performances.

For more information, please see Indiana University’s press release (quoted here) or the Magic Lantern Society’s complete conference schedule.

The History of the Color Pink

Pink Is for Battleships: A history of a decidedly unladylike color by Slate writer Jude Stewart explores the history of the color pink from children’s toys to kamikaze planes. Click the image above to launch the slide show.

Now Serving Intelligentsia!

We are now providing Intelligentsia coffee in the VRC! Stop by and have a cup. We brew a fresh batch every morning around 9am, and are happy to brew more in the afternoons by request.

As always, the suggested donation is: 25 cents per cup of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate and 25 cents per cookie or treat.

Help us be green – please bring your own mug!

The Voice of CWAC

Please consider adding the new Art History Department blog, The Voice of CWAC, to your RSS subscriptions. News and announcements of interest to the Cochrane-Woods Art Center community will be posted regularly.

World Digital Library

The Library of Congress, with the help of UNESCO, recently launched the World Digital Library, an online collection of primary source materials. Contributions have been made by partner institutions in many countries. Content includes, but is not limited to: maps, manuscripts, prints, photographs, architectural drawings, and recordings. The site functions in seven different languages and can be browsed by Place, Time, Topic, Type of Item, and Institution. Browsing results within the Arts & Recreation topic, for example, can then be narrowed by place, time, additional topics, item type, or institution.

Objectives of the World Digital Library include:

  • Promote international and intercultural understanding;
  • Expand the volume and variety of cultural content on the Internet;
  • Provide resources for educators, scholars, and general audiences;
  • Build capacity in partner institutions to narrow the digital divide within and between countries.

Many high-quality images are available for download. Some rare books are also scanned in their entirety and available as PDFs, including this second Augsburg edition of Aesop’s Fables.

Congratulations!

The Visual Resources Association (VRA) recently honored Amanda Rybin, our new Image Cataloger, with a Tansey Travel Award. This award will support Amanda’s attendance at the VRA’s 27th Annual Conference in Toronto in March. Congrats, Amanda!

Top 20 (or so) Art Blogs

This list of the best art blogs for exhibition reviews and other art news was compiled by Joy Garnett, Associate Library Manager, Robert Goldwater Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art (let me know your favorites, and I’ll add them to this site):

  • Wooster Collective

    The Wooster Collective was founded in 2001. This site is dedicated to showcasing and celebrating ephemeral art placed on streets in cities around the world.

  • Two Coats of Paint

    Two Coats of Paint posts reviews, commentary, and background information about painting and related subjects on one easily accessible site. TCOP is maintained by Sharon L. Butler.

  • PaintersNYC

  • Newsgrist

    NEWSgrist was started in March 2000 as an e-zine devoted to the politics of art and culture in the digital age. For four years it was distributed entirely by email subscription. In April 2004 it morphed into a blog.

  • Modern Art Notes

    Tyler Green’s blog about modern and contemporary art. This is my chronicle of my thoughts of and passions for modern and contemporary art. It’s updated pretty much every weekday, and occasionally on weekends when something particularly irks or emboldens m

  • Modern Art Obsession

    A NYC Modern Art Obsessed Collector – The Rants of a Completely Obsessed NYC Modern Art Collector

  • jameswagner.com

    James Wagner lives in New York and writes about art and politics on jameswagner.com. He is the editor, along with Barry Hoggard, of the arts calendar ArtCal.

  • Happy Famous Artists

    happy famous artists are an artistic collective combining ideas of intelligensius anarchus and jeff blind

  • greg.org: the making of, the making of: movies, art, &c., by greg allen

    On greg.org, I document my filmmaking and writing projects, which currently include a series of documentary-style shorts, an animated musical, and a couple of feature film scripts. I also expand on ideas and inspirations related to my work. So I publish i

  • Grammar.police

    Kriston Capps writes G.p from the District, where he lives with his dog and roommates. He was born in Texas, raised on brisket, and lives for Longhorns football.

  • Gallery Hopper

    Your guide to the best of fine art photography, galleries and events in New York City and beyond.

  • Eyebeam reBlog

    The Eyebeam reBlog is a community site focused on art, technology, and culture. The guest reBlogger is filtering feeds provided by artists, curators, bloggers, and news sites. With the touch of a button the reBlogger selects material to share with the Eye

  • Bureaux. The Editors’ Blog at petiteMort.org

    Bureaux is a place where the editors and the readers of petiteMort can share thier thoughts with other readers of petiteMort.

  • bloggy

    Barry Hoggard lives in New York and writes about art and politics on bloggy.com. He is the editor, along with James Wagner, of the arts calendar ArtCal. He also operates a platform for hosting artist and gallery website

  • Bad at Sports

    Contemporary Art Talk. Bad at Sports online is powered by Canadian Willpower 2.3.1 and Chicagoian Knowhow by Duncan Richard and Christopher

  • Art Fag City

    As relevant as Eric Fischl. New York art news, reviews and gossip. Art Fag City is Paddy Johnson.

  • Art21 Blog

  • artreview.com

    artreview.com is a unique blend of editorial and community content, combining the insight and critical weight of some of today’s most important artworld voices with the input and opinions of everyday enthusiasts from around the world.

  • artblog

    by roberta fallon and libby rosof

  • ArtCal – The opinionated guide to New York art galleries

Welcome Back!

We’ve made many improvements over the summer in the classrooms and our digital image collections. Our new digital image delivery system offers over thirty thousand images created at the VRC as well as the AMICA digital image collection of 108,000+ high quality images from American art museums.

If you have questions about using these images in classroom presentations, please contact the VRC. We can show you how to use digital image collections (Luna Insight, AMICA, ArtStor, Saskia), presentation software (Powerpoint, Keynote, ArtStor OIV), classroom and scanning equipment.

Edmonia Lewis Sculpture Discovered in Public Library

From the Paris-Bourbon County Public Library:

Sometimes hidden treasure turns up in unexpected places – such as your own front door, or the public library of a small town in Kentucky. The Paris-Bourbon County Public Library is proud to announce the discovery – right on its own doorstep – of a “lost” fine art work entitled The Bride of Spring, a sculpture created by Edmonia Lewis in the late 1870s.

For more than 30 years, visitors to the Paris-Bourbon County Public Library in Paris, Kentucky, routinely passed through a small, bright entry foyer – rarely giving a thought to the graceful white statue tucked into a corner by the door. Dressed in flowing veils decorated with floral garlands, this “pretty lady” guarded the library entrance in relative obscurity, drawing occasional glances of admiration and sometimes serving as a prop for seasonal decorations or children’s games.

In late 2006, Estill Curtis Pennington, an internationally-known fine arts historian and consultant, returned to Bourbon County from abroad and visited the library. Though he had passed by the statue many times in the past, something on this visit piqued Pennington’s curiosity and he decided to make a closer inspection; an inscription on its base led to positive identification. The Bride of Spring – also known as The Veiled Bride of Spring – is of carved marble, and stands 48” tall including the attached platform base. It is in overall good condition and is now protected by a custom-made glass display box.

read more…