Norman Rockwell Museum unveils ProjectNORMAN

12:00AM / Thursday, January 12, 2006Print Story | Email Story

Stockbridge - The Norman Rockwell Museum announces today that it is the recipient of more than $1 million in competitive funding to preserve its rare and unique Norman Rockwell archival collection. The collection contains more than 100,000 items from American illustrator Norman Rockwell's personal and public papers, art, and archives, and is one of the most comprehensive artist archives in the nation. The Museum has received initial funding from several government and private foundation sources to initiate Phase II of what is projected to be a ten-year-project. To date, the Museum has received funding for the project in the amount of $296,500 from Save America's Treasures; $146,715 from the IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services); $25,000 from the NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities); $ 25,000 from the Stockman Foundation; $75,000 from The Henry W. Luce Foundation; and $500,000 from an anonymous foundation. "ProjectNORMAN, as we fondly call this endeavor, has been recognized as a national model in archival and collections management," noted Laurie Norton Moffatt, Museum director. "In addition to all the fascinating information it reveals about Norman Rockwell, the collection is a window into 20th-century-American visual culture, a trove of images, artifacts, and ideas, that provides for in-depth research into American popular culture and history." The Museum's archival preservation project, named ProjectNORMAN (New Media On-line Rockwell Management Art and Archives Network), is a comprehensive cataloguing, computerization, digitization and publishing program. In addition to preserving what is considered to be one of the nation's most significant art and archive collections, the Museum intends to make Rockwell's personal and public papers, art and archives accessible to scholars and the general public. According to Norton Moffatt, "ProjectNORMAN will enhance education curricula and foster scholarship on Norman Rockwell, provide for the highest stewardship and preservation of our art and archival collections, make accessible online publishing and photographic services, link the Museum collections to other major research collections, and elevate awareness of Norman Rockwell, his contribution to American art, and his singular legacy as a chronicler of 20th-century America. We are thrilled to advance this project." ProjectNORMAN will provide online access to the Museum's original art collection, which numbers over 600 works and to the some 4,000 artworks created by Rockwell throughout his career. In addition, much of Norman Rockwell's extensive archives and ephemera holdings, film and audio footage of Rockwell, his models and family, and a large collection of reference materials, including Rockwell's reference photographs (more than 18,000 acetate negatives and 26,000 positives) will be comprehensively catalogued and digitized. About Norman Rockwell Norman Rockwell was America's premier illustrator for more than six decades. He was the people's painter, depicting scenes from American life for the covers and pages of the nation's most prominent publications. His storytelling pictures portray scenes of human kindness and humorous foibles and often teach about tolerance and American democratic ideals. A weaver of narrative and painterly images, Rockwell had a finely honed sense of what made an image successful in the new, rapidly changing era of mass media into which he came of age. During 65 years of painting, Rockwell created a unique legacy and a body of work that chronicles American life in the 20th century. Born in 1894 in New York City, he studied at the Chase School of Art, the National Academy of Design, and the Art Students League. He found success early when, as a teenager, he was appointed art director of "Boys' Life" for the Boy Scouts of America. At 22, Rockwell painted his first "Saturday Evening Post" cover. He considered the "Post" the "greatest show window in America" for an illustrator and for the next 47 years painted an astounding 321 covers for the popular weekly magazine. The 1930s and 1940s were fruitful decades in Rockwell's career. In 1930, he married schoolteacher Mary Barstow and the couple had three sons, Jarvis, Thomas and Peter. The family moved to Arlington, Vermont, in 1939, and Rockwell's work reflected small-town American life. In 1943, Rockwell painted the "Four Freedoms" paintings. His interpretations of "Freedom of Speech," "Freedom to Worship," "Freedom From Want," and "Freedom From Fear" were enormously popular; the works toured the United States and, through the sale of war bonds, raised more than $132 million for the war effort. That same year, Rockwell lost his Arlington studio to a devastating fire that also destroyed numerous paintings, studies, and his collection of historical costumes and props. The Rockwells moved to Stockbridge in 1953 where, in 1959, Mary Rockwell died. Rockwell published his autobiography, "My Adventures as an Illustrator," in 1960, which was serialized by the "Saturday Evening Post" with the "Triple Self-Portrait" on the first issue's cover. In 1961, Rockwell married Molly Punderson, a retired teacher. In 1963, he began to work for Look magazine and during their ten-year association, Rockwell illustrated some of his deepest concerns and interests including civil rights, America's war on poverty and the exploration of space, creating a visual record of those turbulent times that is unsurpassed in American art. In 1973, Rockwell established a trust to preserve his artistic legacy by placing his works at the Old Corner House Stockbridge Historical Society, later to become the Norman Rockwell Museum. The trust forms the core of the Museum's permanent collections. Rockwell received the nation's highest civilian honor in 1977, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for his "vivid and affectionate portraits of our country." He died at his home in Stockbridge on November 8, 1978, at the age of 84. The Norman Rockwell Museum The Norman Rockwell Museum, located in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, holds the world's largest and most significant collection of works by Norman Rockwell, including more than 600 paintings and drawings, and archival collections of more than 100,000 photographs, letters, and materials. The Museum's campus includes Rockwell's original Stockbridge studio, moved from the center of town, where the artist resided, which stands today as it did in Rockwell's lifetime, with his easel, brushes, books, and furnishings. The Norman Rockwell Museum is the premier museum of artist Norman Rockwell and the illustration arts. The Museum's vision is to integrate the visual communication arts with museums and the public, linking artists, curators, collectors, publishers and visitors to the illustration arts through exhibitions, education and studio programs, and provide greater accessibility to its Rockwell collections. The Museum is one of the few dedicated to a single artist, and it serves as a center for the illustration arts through its exhibitions, collections, programs, and reference/study center. The Museum is the leading curatorial organizer of illustration-based art exhibitions. The exhibition mission of the Museum is to inspire awareness, appreciation and understanding of the art of Norman Rockwell within the larger field of art and illustration. Exhibitions explore the impact and significance of Rockwell's work and examine the history and evolution of the artist's beloved profession, placing him within the context of his colleagues. The Museum's highly regarded exhibition program honors the contribution of historic and contemporary masters in the field, with the highest standards of scholarship and excellence. It seeks to make new contributions to American art scholarship, and to break new critical ground. The mission of the Museum is to promote and advance art appreciation and education inspired by the legacy of Norman Rockwell and the art of illustration. The Museum's mission is unique, as is its commitment to work with practicing illustrators and artists to bring illustration to the forefront of the art world. The Museum has exhibited the work of contemporary illustrators and modern masters such as Winslow Homer, Howard Pyle, Maxfield Parrish, Rockwell Kent, Jessie Wilcox Smith, Currier and Ives, J. C. Leyendecker, Charles Schulz, Fred Marcellino, Robert Weaver, David Macaulay, Barbara Nessim, Teresa Fasolino, Chris Van Allsburg, Kinuko Craft, C. F. Payne, Ruth Sanderson, Eric Carle, Marshall Arisman, Ed Sorell, Thomas Woodruff and Wendell Minor. The Museum's educational programs link its collections and exhibitions with a diverse audience. The Museum offers a unique blend of perspectives and voices in tours, lectures, art activities, performances and workshops. Designed to foster inquiry and dialogue, programs use active learning that is lively, relevant and inspirational, encouraging people of different backgrounds, abilities and ages to explore how Rockwell's art and illustration can help us understand contemporary society and 20th-century American culture through visual communication. The Museum literally grew out of popular demand. In 1967, a group of local citizens, including Norman and Molly Rockwell, joined the effort to save an historic house on Main Street threatened with demolition. The Old Corner House became the Stockbridge Historical Society in 1969, with historical collections exhibited and a few of Norman Rockwell's paintings on view to draw visitors. People learned by word of mouth about the original Rockwell paintings on display and attendance swelled, until the building was no longer adequate or safe for Rockwell's works. The Museum moved in 1993 to its present home, designed by the architect Robert A. M. Stern and situated on 36 picturesque acres overlooking the Housatonic River. Since then, having greatly expanded its exhibition schedule, educational programming and special events, the Museum has become one of the most popular year-round destinations in the culturally rich Berkshires of western Massachusetts. From 1999 to 2002, the Museum and the High Museum of Art organized "Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People," a major traveling exhibition of Rockwell's work, which appeared in Chicago, Washington, Atlanta, San Diego, Phoenix, Stockbridge and New York City. The exhibition was seen by 1.4 million visitors and was accompanied by a lavishly illustrated catalogue with 14 essays by art historians and other scholars, a two-day symposium at the Francine and Sterling Clark Art Institute, and extensive education programming with a standards-based student curriculum for grades pre-K through 12th grade. The exhibition prompted a serious reevaluation of Rockwell's art legacy by scholars and critics nationwide. For more information, the public is invited to call 413-298-4100, ext. 220. Visit the Museum's Web site at www.nrm.org.

iBerkshires.com Text Ads

Summer Camp LIST

Summer Camp 2024! Click to Music, Dance, Theater and more. Summer FUN!!

www.iberkshires.com

Whitman's Crystal Clean

Janitorial Maintenance, Commercial, Schools, Offices, Banks & Retail Properties-Insured 413-441-6002

www.whitmanscrystalclean.com

RIBCO Supply

Check out our great lineup of Boss Plows, and spreaders. 2 Locations Clarksburg & Pittsfield!

ribcosupply.com

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Williams College Gives All-Clear After 'Suspicious' Package Found

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:40PM / Thursday, May 23, 2024

Williamstown Fire and Northern Berkshire EMS stood by at the scene during the investigation of a suspicious package at Williams College's Wachenheim Science Center on Thursday.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A suspicious package that caused the evacuation of Williams College's Wachenheim Science Center on Thursday has been determined to be not dangerous.

A post on the college website at 4 p.m. stated the "device was determined not to be a bomb or other danger."

The college said all buildings, residences and streets are reopened that no further updates will be made.

In a message to the Williams community, President Maud Mandel said she could not speak to some particulars.

"There are limits on what I can share due to the fact that police are continuing to investigate and some facts simply are not known to us," she wrote.

Mandel said a package was delivered just after noon to Wachenheim and the person who opened it immediately called campus safety, who called both the Williamstown Police and Fire Departments.

"The nature and purpose of its contents were unclear and concerning to the people involved," said the president. "As a precaution, we promptly evacuated all academic buildings, residences and streets within a set perimeter. Given that we could not rule out the possibility that the contents were dangerous, the state bomb squad was called in.

View Full Story