POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (May 9, 2005) — A May 28th reading, discussion, and reception with Russell Shorto, author of the current best-selling novel The Island at the Center of the World: the Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan, the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America, highlights three upcoming events to be held in conjunction with the major new exhibition Time and Transformation in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art. Shorto will be joined by historian Charles Gehring, whose decades of research on the 17th century Dutch colony in Manhattan inspired Shorto's novel.
The Island at the Center of the World brings New Amsterdam vividly to life, with its mixed community of Dutch aristocrats, merchants, farmers and seamen, as well as its sizable populations of Jews, Italians, Germans, Africans and Scandinavians, all of whom helped establish Manhattan as the first melting pot of North America. Shorto's book contends persuasively that modern American culture is more firmly rooted in Dutch New Amsterdam — its democratic traditions, ethnic pluralism, and commercial ingenuity — than in the rigid, intolerant Plymouth Colony of New England.
This series of events tied to the exhibition Time and Transformation in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art, will also include talks by Dutch art scholar Erik Löffler, Netherlands Institute for Art History, in The Hague, and Hudson River School art scholar David Barnes. Presented by the Friends of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, all three events will be free and open to the public:
Sunday, May 15, 2005 3:00 p.m.
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
"Ruined Castles in the Dutch Landscape: History and Historic Preservation", a lecture by
Erik Löffler, Assistant Curator of Old Master Drawings, Netherlands Institute for Art History, The Hague (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie,), the world center for research on Dutch art.
Saturday, May 28, 2005 3:00 p.m.
Taylor Hall Auditorium
Reading, discussion, and reception with Russell Shorto, author, The Island in the Center of the World: the Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan, the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America, and Charles Gehring, historian, New Netherlands Project.
Saturday, June 11, 2005 1:00 p.m.
Taylor Hall, Room 203
"Transformed Over Time: The Influence of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art on the Hudson River School," a lecture by art scholar David Barnes, of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site
For more information, call the Friends of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center 845.437.5243, or visit fllac.vassar.edu. For individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations, call the Office of Campus Activities at 845-437-5370.
Organized by Susan Kuretsky, professor of art at Vassar College, Time and Transformation in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art brings together over ninety Dutch seventeenth-century paintings and works on paper from renowned American collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago, in a major examination of themes dealing with the transformative effects of time and circumstance. The exhibition is being seen for the first time at Vassar's Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, in Poughkeepsie, from April 8-June 19, 2005 before traveling to two other U.S. museums through 2006.
Admission to the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center is free and open to the public, Tuesday-Saturday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., and Sunday. 1:00-5:00 p.m. Located at the entrance to the historic Vassar College campus, the Art Center is wheelchair accessible (845-437-5632, fllac.vassar.edu).
Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential, liberal arts college founded in 1861.
Related Links
Time and Transformation in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art
Exhibition Information
http://fllac.vassar.edu/past.html
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
http://fllac.vassar.edu
Directions to Vassar College
http://www.vassar.edu/directions
Arts at Vassar College
http://www.vassar.edu/arts
Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations or information on accessibility should contact Campus Activities Office at (845) 437-5370. Without sufficient notice, appropriate space and/or assistance may not be available.
Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential liberal arts college founded in 1861.
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