'Imprinted: Illustrating Race' at Norman Rockwell Museum

08:28AM / Wednesday, June 08, 2022Print Story | Email Story

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — Norman Rockwell Museum announced "Imprinted: Illustrating Race," an exhibition on view June 11 through Oct. 30, 2022.

This special exhibition examines the role of published images in shaping attitudes toward race and culture. More than 150 works of art and artifacts of widely circulated illustrated imagery will be on view, produced from 1590 to today.

According to a press release, the exhibition will explore harmful stereotypical racial representations that have been imprinted upon people through the mass publication of images and the resulting noxious impact on public perception about race.

It culminates with the creative accomplishments of contemporary artists and publishers who have shifted the cultural narrative through the creation of positive, inclusive imagery emphasizing full agency and equity for all.

A concurrent marquis installation debuts recent paintings by award-winning illustrator and author Kadir Nelson. Conceptualized and created during the COVID-19 pandemic, these works capture the artist's reflections on today's national and world events.

"Imprinted: Illustrating Race" is co-curated by guest Curator Robyn Phillips-Pendleton and the Museum's Deputy Director/Chief Curator, Stephanie Haboush Plunkett. Phillips-Pendleton is the Interim Director of the MFA in Illustration Practice program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), and University of Delaware Professor of Visual Communications; she has written and spoken widely on the theme of this exhibition. They are joined by a distinguished panel of national advisors including 10 academic scholars, curators, and artists with expertise related to the focus of the exhibition's thesis.

"Published images hold powerful sway on shaping our cultural attitudes. Images can uplift, as Norman Rockwell's work did, and they also can be deployed to establish negative and demeaning attitudes, as often happened with intention during formative centuries of published images in the United States. As our nation redresses a renewed era of racial reckoning, it is important to examine how systems of publishing were used to form commonly held beliefs and attitudes. Published illustration had a role in framing the United States racial attitudes – it is also a powerful tool for reframing stereotypes and celebrating this country's strength in many cultural identities. We are grateful for the support of many partners, who are making this exhibition possible, from outstanding scholar contributors to our sponsors," said director/CEO Laurie Norton Moffatt.

Funding for the project is provided by Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw's Hearthland Foundation, Mellody Hobson and George Lucas; Major Sponsor Travelers, and from Sponsors Berkshire Bank, The Dr. Robert C. and Tina Sohn Foundation, Upper Housatonic Heritage Area, Mass Humanities with funding made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and additional support from TD Charitable Foundation for curriculum development, and Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund, for the catalogue.

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Lee Wants Bioremediation in Housatonic River Vernal Pool Study

05:24AM / Thursday, September 03, 2026

LEE, Mass. — The town has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric to include PCB bioremediation in its vernal pool study on the Housatonic River.

Lee officials are urging the EPA to require GE to add a bioremediation treatment arm to the vernal-pool study or provide the public with a clear explanation for why such testing is being excluded.

"This is exactly the kind of question EPA and GE should be asking before final remedy decisions are locked in," Select Board Chair Bob Jones said in a statement released to the press. "The town is not asking to slow the cleanup. We are asking EPA and GE to make the cleanup smarter, less destructive, and more protective over the long term."

An open house was held in Pittsfield earlier this summer for the Vernal Pool Pilot Study on Reach 5A of the Housatonic River, a five-mile stretch between the river's confluence and Lenox border.

EPA has required GE to conduct a Vernal Pool Pilot Study as part of the Housatonic River Rest of River remediation, comparing excavation and restoration with activated-carbon-based treatments, including a product called SediMite and powdered activated carbon, the town said.

Ten vernal pools will be cleaned of polychlorinated biphenyls in total, five with excavation and five with active carbon, and seven additional vernal pools will be monitored as controls. Construction will be complete around October, but the pools will be left to their natural processes and monitored with surveys and sampling for three years.

The Lee PCB Advisory Committee wrote a letter calling for the 21st-century approach it said could reduce long-term toxicity, avoid unnecessary destruction of sensitive habitats, and improve the effectiveness of the cleanup.

It states that Lee supports the study's purpose and agrees that EPA and GE must understand how cleanup activities affect sensitive vernal-pool ecosystems.

"The current pilot includes 10 treatment pools and seven control pools, while local officials understand that roughly 100 vernal pools may occur in the broader remediation corridor," the Aug. 27 letter reads.

"That makes the pilot study consequential: the methods tested now could shape how many sensitive wetlands are excavated, reconstructed, treated, or left with PCBs managed in place."

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