Michael C. Rockefeller Wing: Collections of the Arts of Africa, the Ancient Americas, and Oceania @ Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Michael C. Rockefeller Wing

Collections of the Arts of Africa, the Ancient Americas, and Oceania

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Opening Date: May 31, 2025

The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that it will reopen the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing on May 31, 2025, following the completion of a major renovation. The wing includes the collections of the Arts of Africa, the Ancient Americas, and Oceania, and, when complete, will feature over 1,800 works spanning five continents and hundreds of cultures. These three major world traditions will stand as independent entities in a wing that is in dialogue with neighboring gallery spaces. The galleries have been closed to the public and under renovation since 2021.

Designed by WHY Architecture in collaboration with Beyer, Blinder, Belle Architects LLP, and with The Met’s Design Department, the reimagined galleries have been designed to transform the visitor experience and incorporate innovative technologies that will allow The Met to display objects in new ways. In galleries dedicated to each of the distinct collection areas, design elements reference and pay homage to the architectural vernaculars of each region.

The reinstallation of all three collection areas—Arts of Africa, the Ancient Americas, and Oceania—will also reflect new scholarship, undertaken in collaboration with international experts and researchers. Digital features and new wall text will allow for deeper contextualization of objects. Highlights of the collections that are well known to long-time visitors to The Met will be showcased in innovative ways with a completely new gallery design, which will also incorporate filtered daylight through a custom-designed, state-of-the-art sloped glass wall on the south facade, adjacent to Central Park. Additionally, across each collection there will be objects on view for the first time, including major new acquisitions of historic and contemporary art in the Arts of Africa galleries; a gallery dedicated to light-sensitive ancient Andean textiles, which will be the first of its kind in the United States; and several new commissions for the Oceania galleries by Indigenous artists and a range of new digital features that will present contemporary perspectives.

About the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing

The Met’s Michael C. Rockefeller Wing includes the three distinct collections—the Arts of Africa; the Ancient Americas; and Oceania—displaying them as discrete elements in an overarching wing that is in dialogue with the Museum’s collection as a whole.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the American statesman and philanthropist Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller assembled a fine-arts survey of non-Western art traditions that included the ancient Americas as well as areas of the world not represented in the Museum’s collection, notably African and Oceanic art. In 1969, it was announced that Rockefeller’s collection would be transferred to The Met as a new department and wing. Opened to the public in 1982, the addition was named after Nelson Rockefeller’s son, Michael C. Rockefeller, who was greatly inspired by the cultures and art of the Pacific and pursued new avenues of inquiry into artistic practice during his travels there. Among the wing’s signature works are the striking Asmat sculptures he researched and collected in southwest New Guinea.

Arts of Africa Galleries

The reenvisioned installation will reintroduce visitors to The Met’s collection of sub-Saharan African art through a selection of some 500 works organized to survey major artistic movements and living traditions from across the subcontinent. The new galleries will present original creations spanning from the Middle Ages to the present, including artworks such as a 12th century CE fired clay figure shaped in Mali’s Inner Niger Delta to the fiber creation Bleu no. 1 (2014) by Abdoulaye Konaté (born 1953, Diré, Mali), a critically acclaimed innovator based in Bamako, Mali. One-third of the works, which are new acquisitions given by donors to celebrate The Met’s capital project, will be on display at The Met for the first time.

The reconceived galleries anchor this extraordinary collection within regional architectural vernaculars and pay tribute to Africa’s distinctive cultural landmarks—such as a soaring ceiling spanned by a succession of horizontal baffles that suggest ribbing to pay homage to one of Africa’s most celebrated structures: the Great Mosque of Jenne in Mali—while highlighting connections to other major world traditions. The new galleries, which are immediately adjacent to those of Greek and Roman Art and European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, will underscore Africa’s ancient visual traditions and its historical connections with Europe going back to the Renaissance.

The reinstallation is grounded in contemporary research and exchanges with a network of international experts based in the United States and across sub-Saharan Africa. A major component of the expanded contextualization is a digital initiative that introduces Africa’s distinctive cultural landmarks in a series of original films produced with Ethiopian-American filmmaker Sosena Solomon that will be displayed in the gallery as well as online and that was undertaken in partnership with the World Monuments Fund (WMF).

Arts of the Ancient Americas

The reinstallation is organized around some 700 works selected to foreground the artistic legacy of Indigenous artists from across North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean prior to 1600 CE. This extraordinary collection will be reintroduced for a new generation of visitors while reflecting contemporary scholarship and research and providing greater illumination of the ancestral arts of the Americas.  The new galleries will include monumental stone sculptures and exquisite metalwork and will also include refined ceramic vessels; shimmering regalia of gold, shell, and semiprecious stone; and delicate sculptures of wood.

The new galleries for the Arts of the Ancient Americas are across from the Modern and Contemporary Art galleries and adjacent to those dedicated to the arts of the Oceania. Drawing inspiration from ancient American architectural traditions, the design incorporates stone platforms that echo the layout of landmarks from Mesoamerica and the Andean region, from the rectilinear plazas of Central Mexico to the U-shaped, enfolding arms of sacred architecture of Peru’s North Coast. A highlight will be a new gallery devoted to ancient American textiles and featherwork, which will frame a 3,000-year history of achievements in the fiber arts.

The new installation is the result of a close collaboration with colleagues across Latin America over the past eight years. The renovated galleries will reflect recent advances in scholarship, incorporating knowledge about artists, their materials, their techniques, and their social roles and newly revealed relationships between regions. They will also expand the scope to consider Indigenous traditions in the Viceregal (Colonial) period. The galleries also benefit from new perspectives on indigenous concepts of the natural world as well as nuanced perceptions of gender roles. Indigenous texts—ancient, historical, and modern—have informed the curatorial narrative, enriching the interpretation and appreciation of the works in the collection.

Joanne Pillsbury, the Andrall E. Pearson Curator of the Arts of the Ancient Americas, said, “Since the Museum's founding, the presence of these works at The Met has reflected shifting sensibilities about the place of ancient American art in a global history of art. Over the last 30 years, we’ve seen a revolution in our understanding of the Inca, the Classic Maya, and the other great cultures that thrived in Latin America before the 16th century, including the identification of specific, named artists. It has been exciting to work with scholars from across the Americas to reconceive the galleries in light of this new knowledge.”

Arts of Oceania Galleries

The reimagined galleries reintroduce The Met’s iconic collection of Oceanic art presenting over 500 years of art from this expansive region, newly framed in Indigenous perspectives and celebrating the unceasing creativity of Oceania’s finest visual artists.

The new galleries will feature over 650 stellar works from the Museum’s remarkable collection of Oceanic art, drawn from over 140 distinct cultures in a region of astonishing diversity, which covers almost one-third of the earth’s surface and continues to capture the global imagination. These include monumental artworks from the large island of New Guinea and the coastal archipelagos that stretch beyond its shores to the north, central, and eastern Pacific, as well as the two neighboring regions of Australia and Island Southeast Asia, whose Indigenous communities all share a common ancestry. A significant set of acquisitions substantively broaden the media and cultural scope of works presented in the galleries. These include works that expand the curatorial narrative, recalibrating and balancing the former focus on ceremonial architecture and men’s ritual practice, by broadening the collection to include the work of women, especially fiber work by senior female artists from Australia and New Guinea.

The galleries for the Arts of Oceania are organized around a stunning new diagonal trajectory through the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing designed to foreground ancestral connections and Indigenous temporalities, offering perspectives on art that reach deep into Oceania’s past while also acknowledging ongoing manifestations of its agency in the present. The newly designed layout establishes visual sightlines that emphasize the dynamic interactions between adjacent Island groups, which have paved the way toward innovation and creativity in the artistic sphere, with a soaring installation of Asmat art to the north and the iconic Kwoma ceiling, illuminated by natural light, to the south. These are linked by a suite of smaller, more intimate focus galleries designed for close looking and reflection where visual resonances reinforce the long-standing relationships between Austronesian-speaking peoples who are deeply connected, not separated, by the ocean. Written and digital narratives placed throughout the galleries elevate Indigenous voices, foreground the latest developments in interdisciplinary scholarship, and emphasize the continued creativity of Oceania’s Indigenous artists through the lenses of global history, storytelling, and Pacific oratory and performance.

Maia Nuku, John A. Friede and A. J. Hall Curator for the Arts of Oceania, said, “The Met’s collection of Oceanic art is unusually expansive in terms of breadth and range. This gives us a rare opportunity to present art from across the entire region of Oceania, astonishing artworks that were created in the last 500 years by descendants of the early Austronesian-speaking voyagers who settled this last region of the world in waves of migration that began 3,500 to 5,000 years ago. The conceptual framing of our new galleries for Oceania responds directly to the unique spatial and relational dynamics of Oceania: horizon lines, the arching dome of the sky, and islands tethered in a vast ocean—these are the coordinates that guide and shape life in this compelling landscape. The dynamic new layout is enhanced by architectural features specifically designed to frame the installation of artworks in vertical and horizontal planes. This formal arrangement for landmark works provides strong visual cues that emphasize connectivity and speak directly to the distinctive ways that Oceanic peoples approach life and use art to navigate physical and spiritual worlds.”

The renovation of the galleries was overseen by Alisa LaGamma, Ceil and Michael E. Pulitzer Curator of African Art and Curator in Charge of The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing and Doris Zhao, Project Manager.

The Arts of Africa team includes: Alisa LaGamma, Ceil and Michael E. Pulitzer Curator of African Art and Curator in Charge of The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, Jennifer Peruski, Assistant Curator; Sandro Capo-Chichi, Senior Research Associate; and Imani Roach, Assistant Curator (2021-2024).

The Arts of the Ancient Americas team includes: Laura Filloy Nadal, Curator of the Arts of the Ancient Americas; Joanne Pillsbury, Andrall E. Pearson Curator of the Arts of the Ancient Americas; and Hugo Ikehara Tsukayama, Senior Research Associate.

The Arts of Oceania team includes: Maia Nuku, the Evelyn A. J. Hall and John A. Friede Curator for Oceanic Art; Sylvia Cockburn, Senior Research Associate; and Maggie Wander, Senior Research Associate (2022–24).

The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing team includes: David Rhoads, Christine Giuntini, Lauren Posada, Raychelle Osnato, Damien Marzocchi, Jessi Atwood, Matthew Noiseux, Paige Silva, Lydia Shaw.

The conservation of these collections was overseen by Lisa Pilosi, Sherman Fairchild Conservator in Charge with conservators Dawn Kriss, Sara Levin, Amanda Chau, Katharine Fugett, Teresa Jiménez-Millas, Caitlin Mahony, Marijn Manuels, Katherine McFarlin, Nick Pedemonti, Carolyn Riccardelli, Netanya Schiff, Chantal Stein, Ahmed Tarek, Marlene Yandrisevits, with additional help from the Objects Conservation Department, as well as a team of conservation preparators dedicated to the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing collection: Matthew Cumbie, Nisha Bansil, Johnny Coast, Jennifer Groch, Lindsay Rowinski, Nina Ruelle, Barbara Smith and staff preparators Warren Bennet, Andy Estep, Jacob Goble and Frederick Sager.

The Met’s Design team, overseen by Alicia Cheng, Head of Design, includes: Patrick Herron, Alexandre Viault, Tiffany Kim, Anna Rieger, Maanik Chauhan, Sarah Parke, Clint Coller, Jourdan Ferguson, Amy Nelson, with support from Rebecca Forgac.

The design of the Michael C Rockefeller Wing was led by WHY Architecture, in collaboration with The Met’s Design Department. Beyer Blinder Belle was the executive architect and led the design of the exterior sloped glazing wall. The construction was managed by AECOM Tishman. The team collaborated with engineers including Kohler Ronan, Thornton Tomasetti, and Arup. The cases were fabricated by Goppion. The design and construction process was led by Justin Mayer (Senior Project Manager, Capital Projects) and Mabel Taylor (Associate Project Manager) of The Met's Capital Projects department overseen by Jhaelen Hernandez-Eli (Vice President, Capital Projects).

"The complete renovation of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing reflects The Met’s profound commitment to—and deep expertise—in caring for and expanding understandings of the works in the Museum’s collection. Together with our collaborative and community-based approach to curating these collections, the transformation of these galleries allows us to further advance the appreciation and contextualization of many of the world’s most significant cultures,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer. “When the wing first opened in 1982, it brought a much broader perspective on global art history to The Met, and this thoughtful and innovative reimagining reflects our ambition to continually expand and even complexifying narratives. We’re deeply grateful to the many artists, scholars, community leaders and cultural figures who are partnering with us on this essential and ongoing work, and we look forward to unveiling these stunning galleries to visitors across New York City and the world this spring.”

Kulapat Yantrasast, Founder and Creative Director of WHY Architecture, commented: “The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing affirms WHY’s belief that museums are true sites of empathy. Spaces where visitors from many different places can encounter and appreciate the artworks from other cultures around the world. Through our design with The Met, we hope to highlight the diversity and distinction within these rich collections while providing a welcoming and memorable sense of place. Natural light and visual connections to Central Park are essential to the reimagined wing, and moments of discovery are so crucial when we design art spaces. We hope that visitors remember what they experience and where that happens.”

Alisa LaGamma, Ceil and Michael E. Pulitzer Curator of African Art and Curator in Charge of The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, said: “The primary goal of this considerable institutional project is to deepen appreciation for the greatness of the art displayed within. While the creation of the wing asserted the place of the arts of sub-Saharan Africa, the Ancient Americas, and Oceania in the world’s leading museum, the edition you will soon experience underscores their autonomy from one another and foregrounds the artists responsible for those achievements. The new galleries devoted to three major collections presented in the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing allow us to reintroduce them with to the public enriched with a wealth of contextual detail. Those layers of information range from artist bios to interviews with experts in the region that relate the works presented to specific historical sites in the form of audioguide commentary and documentary films produced as an integral part of the experience.”

Jhaelen Hernandez-Eli, Vice President of Capital Projects at The Met, commented: “Our buildings are works of art themselves, mediating the relationship between the environment, our collections, and the communities we host. The redesign of the wing addresses the most critical issues of our time, from carbon footprint reduction to the emphasis on local materials and artisanship. The project manifests the collective work and shared values of our architects and engineers—WHY Architecture, Beyer, Blinder, Belle Architects LLP, Kohler Ronan, Thornton Tomasetti and Arup—as well as our local trades shepherded by AECOM Tishman. Together, we prioritized job creation and workforce training, reuse of materials, and the reduction of energy consumption while ensuring that the resulting architecture supports our collection and inspires our public."

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

www.metmuseum.org

Arts de l’Islam : 18 expositions - 18 villes - Un passé pour un présent - Une coproduction Réunion des musées nationaux - Grand Palais et musée du Louvre

 Arts de l’Islam 

Un passé pour un présent 

18 expositions - 18 villes : Angoulême, Blois, Clermont-Ferrand, Dijon, Figeac, Limoges, Mantes-la-Jolie, Marseille, Nancy, Nantes, Narbonne, Rennes, Rillieux-la-Pape, Rouen, Saint-Denis, Saint-Louis à La Réunion, Toulouse, Tourcoing

20 novembre 2021 - 27 mars 2022

Arts de l’Islam

Un passé pour un présent

Affiche de l’exposition © H5

Depuis sa création en 2012, le département des Arts de l’Islam du Louvre offre au public une immersion au sein des cultures islamiques, de l’Espagne à l’Inde, du VIIème au XIXème siècle, et révèle l’importance des échanges anciens, étroits et féconds tissés entre la France et l’Orient. Témoins artistiques et historiques, les œuvres d’art illustrent la diversité culturelle et confessionnelle au sein du monde islamique depuis treize siècles. Elles sont le reflet de la circulation des idées et des hommes mais aussi de l’héritage pluriel du patrimoine français. Face aux fanatismes religieux, la culture se doit d’être sans relâche un rempart et un levier pour transmettre, ouvrir à l’autre, redonner des clés de compréhension de passés croisés pour construire un avenir partagé.

C’est dans cette perspective que le ministère de la Culture a demandé au musée du Louvre et à la Réunion des musées nationaux – Grand Palais d’organiser à l’automne 2021 un projet destiné à un très large public, et aux jeunes générations en particulier, pour poser un nouveau regard sur les arts et les cultures de l’islam.

Du 20 novembre 2021 au 27 mars 2022, 18 expositions dans autant de villes de France sont ainsi présentées au public, dans un musée, une médiathèque, une bibliothèque, un espace culturel.

Pour chaque accrochage, 10 œuvres, à la fois historiques et contemporaines, issues du département des Arts de l’Islam du musée du Louvre et de collections nationales et régionales, incarneront la richesse des cultures de l’Islam et leur inscription dans l’histoire de France depuis plus de 1 300 ans. Plus de 180 œuvres au total sont ainsi présentées au public : une lampe de mosquée du XIe siècle provenant de Jérusalem (musée du Louvre), un chandelier de l’époque de Saladin signé par un artiste de Mossoul racontant la vie de Jésus (musée du Louvre), des boîtes de toilettes en ivoire du XIIIe siècle ayant appartenu aux duchesses de Bourgogne, provenant de l’abbaye de Cîteaux et aujourd’hui au musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, une œuvre de l’artiste Hiwa K, One room apartment (FRAC Normandie) ou bien les Collages de Topak Ev de l’artiste française d’origine turque Nil Yalter.

Cette initiative vise également à éclairer le public sur la grande diversité des territoires et des populations concernées par l’Islam. La civilisation islamique est autant arabe que turque, indienne qu’iranienne, asiatique ou maghrébine… Les œuvres présentées feront valoir une large variété de pratiques et sensibilités artistiques, évoquant des scènes de vie, la nature, le désir amoureux, un simple décor de palais ou de mosquée.

Si l’exposition Arts de l’Islam, Un passé pour un présent incite à la curiosité, la manifestation est peut-être avant tout une invitation à venir s’émouvoir. Rien n’empêche d’ailleurs quiconque de vouloir s’organiser un tour de France en 18 étapes pour découvrir autant de témoignages livrés par ses œuvres. Dialogue entre les œuvres passées et présentes, chaque exposition propose une œuvre d’un artiste contemporain d’un pays du monde islamique, reflet d’une vision du monde actuel et du rapport à leur héritage.

Une attention particulière sera portée à la médiation culturelle grâce à la conception de plusieurs outils pédagogiques : un livret d’une quinzaine de pages présentant l’exposition, des cartels développés, la diffusion d’un film dans chaque lieu d’exposition offrant une échappée dans les pays d’origine de ces œuvres et un site internet de ressources numériques compatible au format smartphone et consultable notamment durant la visite des expositions. En outre, une programmation culturelle associée à l’exposition est mise en œuvre dans chaque ville (conférences, débats, spectacles vivants, cinéma…), animée par des équipes de médiateurs et, dans certains lieux, par des étudiants de l’école du Louvre. Un espace de discussion pouvant accueillir entre 20 et 30 personnes est intégré à chaque exposition.

S’appuyant sur une étroite collaboration avec le ministère de l’éducation nationale, de la jeunesse et des sports, chacune de ces expositions a été spécifiquement conçue pour s’adresser aux élèves et à leurs professeurs. Un plan national de formation, décliné dans chacune des académies d’accueil des expositions, sera proposé à l’automne afin d’accompagner les professeurs dans l’appropriation des œuvres présentées et les aider à construire des séquences pédagogiques pluridisciplinaires, associant notamment éducation artistique et culturelle et éducation morale et civique. En contribuant à la formation des professeurs sur la connaissance de la civilisation islamique et de l’histoire de ses relations avec la France et l’Europe, ce plan a vocation à enrichir la culture humaniste des élèves et à nourrir leur rapport à l’altérité qui sont au fondement de l’Ecole. 

Lieux d'exposition dans chacune des villes :

Musée du Papier  

134 rue de Bordeaux, 16000 Angoulême

Bibliothèque Abbé-Grégoire

4-6 place Jean-Jaurès, 41000 Blois

Musée d'art Roger-Quilliot

Quartier historique de Montferrand

Place Louis-Deteix, 63100 Clermont-Ferrand

Musées des Beaux-Arts

Palais des Ducs et des États de Bourgogne

Place de la Sainte-Chapelle, 21000 Dijon

Musée Champollion - Les Ecritures du Monde

Place Champollion, 46100 Figeac

Galerie des Hospices

2 rue Félix Eboué, 87000 Limoges

Musée de l'Hôtel-Dieu

1 rue Thiers, 78200 Mantes-la-Jolie

Bibliothèque l'Alcazar 

58 cours Belsunce, 13001 Marseille

Galerie Poirel

3 rue Victor Poirel, 54000 Nancy

Passage Sainte-Croix

9 rue de la Baclerie, 44000 Nantes

Chapelle des Pénitents Bleus

3 place Roger-Salengro, 11100 Narbonne

Musée des Beaux-Arts

20 Quai Émile Zola, 35000 Rennes

Médiathèque L'Échappée

83 avenue de l’Europe, 69140 Rillieux-la-Pape

Musée de la Céramique

1 rue Faucon, 76000 Rouen

Musée d'art et d'histoire Paul Éluard

22bis rue Gabriel Péri, 93200 Saint-Denis

Musée des arts décoratifs de l'océan Indien

Domaine de Maison Rouge

17a chemin Maison Rouge, 97450 Saint-Louis

Musée des Arts Précieux Paul-Dupuy

13 rue de la Pleau, 31000 Toulouse

Maison Folie Hospice d'Havré

100 rue de Tournai, 59200 Tourcoing

Commissariat général de l’ensemble des expositions :

Yannick Lintz, directrice du département des Arts de l’Islam du musée du Louvre

Une coproduction Réunion des musées nationaux - Grand Palais et musée du Louvre

expo-arts-islam.fr

New York, New Music: 1980-1986 @ Museum of the City of New York

New York, New Music: 1980-1986

Museum of the City of New York

Opens June 11, 2021

JANETTE BECKMAN

LL Cool J NYC. 1985

Courtesy of the photographer

Museum of the City of New York, the city’s storyteller for almost 100 years, today shared details for New York, New Music: 1980-1986, a new exhibition that revisits the music scene of early 1980s New York City. The exhibition examines this transformative era through the lens of emerging pivotal music genres and the influence they played on New York’s broader cultural landscape. Opening in advance of MTV’s 40th anniversary in August, the exhibition highlights diverse musical artists—from Run DMC to the Talking Heads, from Madonna to John Zorn— to explore the broader music and cultural scene, including the innovative media outlets, venues, fashion, and visual arts centered in the city during that time.

“The early 1980s were a time of significant transition in New York, with the city facing crime, urban decay, and homelessness. And yet, despite those challenges, it was also a particularly fertile time for music and other creativity in New York City,” says Whitney Donhauser, Ronay Menschel Director and President, Museum of the City of New York. “The musical innovations of this time period are a great example of the resilience of the city and the importance of art and creativity as forces of transformation.”

New York, New Music: 1980-1986 is organized around a series of key “moments” and features more than 350 objects, including video footage, photography, artifacts, and ephemera. such as:

• Photographs by Janette Beckman, Martha Cooper, Joe Conzo, William Coupon, Bob Gruen, Laura Levine, Ebet Roberts, Chris Stein and others

• Flyers for Beastie Boys; Bad Brains; Sonic Youth; Teenage Jesus; The Feelies; and Gray and DNA at CBGB

• An MTV Music Awards Moon Person Award Statue

• Vinyl Records from Madonna, Funky 4+1, Liquid Liquid, and Konk

• A Zoot Suit and hat worn by Kid Creole

• A t-shirt and other ephemera from Keith Haring and DJ Larry Levan’s “Party of Life” event at Paradise Garage

• Guitars from Tim Wright, Arto Lindsay, and Richard McGuire

• “Merman” costume worn by Joey Arias in “Mermaids on Parade” at Danceteria

• Music videos and rare concert footage including Grand Master Flash; Fort Apache Band; Lounge Lizards; Cyndi Lauper; and more.

“During the 80s, there was a community-driven musical renaissance in New York City. It was an era of creativity and genre-defying performance that, in my mind, stands as one of the most influential in musical and cultural history,” says Sean Corcoran, curator of prints and photography, Museum of the City of New York. “That wide range of music –from no wave to pop to hip-hop to salsa to jazz, mixed in a dynamic arts scene that stretched across clubs and bars, theaters, parks, and art spaces– provided fertile ground for a musical revolution — one that continues to influence pop culture to this day.”

Those performances and moments, some with long-lasting influence, others that brought together a confluence of performers and underscored the fluidity of the participants in the cultural scene, are  highlighted in the main gallery of New York, New Music. Viewed together, these examples provide a sense of the innovation, energy, and cross-pollination of musical ideas that was happening across the city at the moment of openness and creativity.

The 14 featured moments (listed chronologically) include:

• KID CREOLE and the COCONUTS @ DANCETERIA (1980)

In 1980, Kid Creole and the Coconuts led a revue of nearly a dozen musicians to perform their danceable genre-bending music at Danceteria, appealing to the still-dancing disco denizens, die-hard New Wavers, and everyone in between.

• DNA and GRAY @ CBGB (MARCH 22, 1980)

The pairing of these two influential groups was emblematic of that pivotal moment in the downtown No Wave scene.

• TALKING HEADS @ CENTRAL PARK (AUGUST 27, 1980)

Five years after first taking the stage at CBGB (opening for the pioneering punk rock group the Ramones), the Talking Heads played a sold-out concert at Wollman Rink in Central Park. For the first time, the band expanded beyond the classic quartet of David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, and Tina Weymouth, bringing in an array of musicians.

• FUNKY 4 + 1 @ SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (FEBRUARY 14, 1981)

Marking the very first time a hip-hop group performed live on national TV, Funky 4 + 1-- including hip hop’s first female MC, Sha Rock--was invited to perform on SNL by that evening’s host and musical guest, Debbie Harry of Blondie.

• BEYOND WORDS @ MUDD CLUB (APRIL 9, 1981)

This graffiti art exhibition and performance by DJ Afrika Bambaataa, the Cold Crush Brothers, and the Fantastic Five helped propel a new era in New York’s new music. Fred Brathwaite (aka Fab 5 Freddy) curated the show along with the artist Futura 2000. 

• NOISE FEST @ WHITE COLUMNS (JUNE 16–24, 1981)

In the early 1980s, an expansive cohort of musicians was still exploring the possibilities of “noise.” Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore curated a lineup around the theme, and what was envisioned as a one-day program quickly snowballed into a nine-day watershed event.

• KONK vs LIQUID LIQUID @ TOMPKINS SQUARE PARK (AUGUST 9, 1981)

Liquid Liquid and Konk both formed in New York City in 1980, and they quickly developed reputations for their slightly off-kilter music, driven by groove-based, danceable funk rhythms. The friendly rivalry between the groups and the marketing genius around it turned this concert into a sensation.

• MADONNA @ DANCETERIA (DECEMBER 16, 1982)

An ambitious 24-year-old using just her first name took to the second-floor stage at Danceteria on December 16th, 1982 to publicly perform her own music for the first time. Madonna’s debut appearance, and the single for Sire Records, served as a springboard to fame; the release of her self-titled album quickly followed in 1983.

• NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL @ BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC (1982–83)

An important springboard for new music in the 1980s came from the venerable Brooklyn Academy of Music’s (BAM) second edition of its Next Wave series. The season-long festival featured an unprecedented number of artists, including Steve Reich, Glenn Branca; Laurie Anderson; Max Roach and the dance team of Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane, a milestone of innovation and interdisciplinary performance.

• KEITH HARING’S PARTY OF LIFE @ PARADISE GARAGE (MAY 16, 1984)

Artist Keith Haring’s (with DJ Larry Levan) first Party of Life, a birthday celebration that was a rapturous convergence of art, music, and performance, featured a star-studded guest list with performances by Madonna and John Sex.

• RUN-DMC and THE TREACHEROUS THREE @ GRAFFITI ROCK (JUNE 29, 1984)

History was made in June of 1984 when the first syndicated hip-hop TV show was recorded on a soundstage in Midtown Manhattan. The show featured groundbreaking acts, including Run-DMC’s performance of their hit single, “Sucker MCs,” as well as Kool Moe Dee and Special K, two MCs from the veteran trio The Treacherous Three. The MCs provided the show’s introduction, breaking down the elements of hip hop, including breakin’, DJing, and the verbal stylings of MCs, all on a graffiti-laden set.

• JOHN ZORN @ ROULETTE (OCTOBER 13, 1984)

One of avant-garde composer John Zorn’s most influential “game pieces” --genre-defying musical compositions designed for controlled improvisation-- Cobra was presented at Roulette, the TriBeCa alternative art space.

• FORT APACHE BAND @ MICKELL’S (DECEMBER 31, 1985)

On New Year’s Eve 1985, the Bronx-based Fort Apache Band played multiple sets at Mikell's, a jazz club on the corner of 97th Street and Columbus Avenue. The music that evening embodied the group’s animating project: to explore the creative intersection of Afro-Cuban and Puerto Rican musical traditions with jazz.

• ARTHUR RUSSELL @ EXPERIMENTAL INTERMEDIA FOUNDATION (SEPTEMBER 22, 1985)

A groundbreaking moment in the New York experimental music scene came in the fall of 1985, when Arthur Russell staged several performances at the Experimental Intermedia Foundation in SoHo.  

As well, the show’s main gallery incorporates three large screens in the gallery that includes live performances from Charlie Ahearn's Wild Style - with Grand Master Flash, Cold Crush Brothers and The Fantastic Five; Michael Holman's footage of DJ Jazzy Jay at Club Negril in 1981; rare live film of the Bush Tetras, Lounge Lizards, The Raybeats, and Bad Brains from the GoNightclubbing Archive; video of James White and the Blacks and Defunkt by Charles Libin and Paul Cameron; video of Del Byzantines, Material, Sun Ra and ESG live at Hurrah's by Merrill Aldigheiri and a performance of "Mermaids on Heroin" with Joey Arias, shot by Courtney Harmel.

Visitors also have the opportunity to enjoy some of the quintessential moments in a retro-feeling suburban rec room inspired space, developed in collaboration with video artists Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong (the GoNightclubbing Archive) — the team behind the original Video Lounge for Danceteria in the early 1980s. This incarnation of the installation features a mix of found footage, video art, and their own archival film of downtown musicians like the Dead Boys, Heartbreakers, and Bush Tetras; along with rare early MTV interviews with New York-based artists such as David Johansen, Madonna, and RUN DMC; footage of Vernon Reid and Willoughby Sharp from the Willoughby Sharp Downtown Cable Show; and The Scott and Gary Show, a Brooklyn-based public access program, including early performances by Beastie Boys and R Stevie Moore.

New York, New Music: 1980-1986 wraps up by highlighting the shifting trajectory of NYC’s music scene in the mid-80s, which was impacted by the surging economy, struggles of club owners to remain open in the face of tightening restrictions and rising rents, and the HIV/AIDS crisis and crack cocaine epidemic which both ripped through the communities where artists lived and worked. 

MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK

1220 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY

www.mcny.org

Cinema Arts Festival Houston 2010

Cinema Arts Festival Houston 2010

November 10 - 14, 2010

Houston Cinema Arts Society (HCAS) is a non-profit organization created in 2008. With the support of former Houston Mayor Bill White and the leadership of Franci Crane, HCAS organized and hosted the 2009 Cinema Arts Festival Houston. The festival celebrates the vitality and diversity of the arts in Houston and showcased the international city that Houston is with a total of over 6000 people who attended 34 events and screenings of films and new media by and about artists working in the visual, performing and literary arts. Following the  success of the inaugural festival, the second annual Cinema Arts Festival Houston will be presented November 10-14, 2010. 

HCAS is funded in part by grants from the Crane Foundation, The Brown Foundation, Inc., Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau, City of Houston Convention and Entertainment Facilities Department, Houston Arts Alliance, Houston Film Commission and Texas Film Commission.

Among the 2010 film selections is director Mark Landsmanʼs documentary Thender Soul, which earned the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival in June 2010. Thunder Soul also took home audience awards at SXSW in Austin, the Dallas International Film Festival, and the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto.

Landsmanʼs film is a reverent homage to Houston native and Texas Bandmasters Hall of Fame  inductee Conrad O. “Prof” Johnson and his work with Kashmere High Schoolʼs Kashmere Stage Band during the late 1960ʼs and 70ʼs. Thunder Soul recounts the Kashmere Stage Bandʼs remarkable run for a national title in 1972 along with the events leading up to a reunion performance in February 2008 when 30 original members (now in their mid-fifties) performed a tribute concert in honor of Mr. Johnson, who was 92 at the time. The Kashmere Reunion Band will perform live following the free screening of Thunder Soul at Discovery Green during the 2010 Cinema Arts Festival Houston.

“My fatherʼs legacy is the continued education of Houston-area youths, and this film shows how that can be achieved,” says Prof Johnsonʼs son, Conrad O. Johnson, Jr. “Mark really knows the mechanics of documentary storytelling and knows how to fit together this type of film. My father never got a chance to see the final product, but I do believe he would have been proud of Markʼs work. I hope weʼre able to get more documentaries such as this one exposed to the people of Houston, not only because its about Houston, but also because its about the power of achievement.”

For the second consecutive year, nationally recognized film programmer Richard Herskowitz will serve as the festivalʼs artistic director. In addition to his work as director of the Virginia Film Festival  –  one of two regional festivals to be awarded multi-year support from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences  –  from 1994  through 2008, Herskowitz also helmed Cornell Cinema, the media arts center at Cornell University, for twelve years. While with Cornell Cinema, he served as adjunct curator for film and video at  the universityʼs Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. He currently teaches Cinema Studies at the University of Oregon.

 
“Houston is fortunate, indeed, to have the talented visionary Richard Herskowitz returning as the artistic director of Cinema Arts Houston 2010,” says HCAS Board Chair Franci Crane. “Just like last November, Richard will bring Houston a sizzling film and media arts festival, one for which all Houstonians will be grateful.”

Also scheduled to be shown are:

Waste Land (2010): This Sundance Audience Award-Winning documentary follows artist Vik Muniz as he collaborates with catadores (pickers of recyclable material) in the worldʼs largest landfill on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro to create internationally recognized art.

Ride, Rise, Roar (2010): A feature-length documentary profiling Talking Heads lead singer David Byrne and his collaboration with choreographers and dancers on his recent concert tour. The film was screened to great acclaim this year at SXSW.

The Woman with Five Elephants (2009): Winner of the Sterling World Feature Award at the 2010 AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival, this documentary follows the twilight years of renowned translator Svetlana Geier and her meticulous process of translating the five great novels of Dostoyevsky from Russian into German. 

The New Rijksmuseum (2008): Winner of the Jury Award at the 2010 International Festival of Films on Art (Montreal), the documentary chronicles the renovation of the world-famous Amsterdam art museum through the eyes of several colorful characters including the flamboyant museum director and the beleaguered Spanish architecture team.

The Woodmans (2010): The documentary which debuted to rave reviews at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival is the story of a family of artists scarred by the tragic death of daughter Francesca, one the late 20th Centuryʼs most recognized photographers.

Isabella Rossellini will participate in “An Evening with Isabella Rossellini” at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston at 7:00 PM on Friday, November 12, during the 2010 Cinema Arts Festival Houston. At the event, Rossellini will receive the Cinema Arts Festival's first Levantine Cinema Arts Award.  Additionally, she will present highlights from her Sundance Channel series Green Porno (2008-2009) and  Seduce Me  (2010), along with an intimate portrait of her life and history called Isabella Rossellini - My Wild Life (2010). 

Green Porno and Seduce Me are short, funny and irreverent films exploring mating and attraction among animals. Conceived as a cross-platform project with Sundance, Green Porno netted  the 2009 Webby Awards for Online Film and Video Best Individual Performance (Isabella Rossellini) and Experimental (Green Porno). To date, the short film series has appeared on the Sundance Channelʼs website, its television broadcast network, and in a book / DVD combo (HarperStudio, 2009).

The Levantine Cinema Arts Award honors a leading actor, director, or other creative artist who has stretched the boundaries of cinematic expression throughout an illustrious film career. The award is sponsored by Levantine Entertainment, a new motion picture development, financing and production company aiming to provide U.S. and worldwide audiences with high quality, socially conscious, and character-driven films.

Jamal Daniel, owner of Levantine Entertainment and a board member of the Houston Cinema Arts Society, comments: "Isabella Rossellini is not only a beautiful embodiment of the union of parentsʼ Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman, she has also in her own right contributed landmark moments to the world of cinema, whether as an actress under the direction of the greats, David Lynch and Guy Maddin, or as a director of entertaining innovative and educational films.  Isabella Rossellini is an ideal and inspiring recipient of the inaugural Levantine Cinema Arts Award.”

On November 11 at 8:00 PM, Rossellini will help launch the Festival's 40th anniversary tribute to the Rice Media  Center. Her father, the legendary Italian director Roberto Rossellini, worked with Dominique and John de Menil to establish the Rice Media Center in its early years. Rossellini will introduce  Journey to Italy  (Viaggio in Italia) in the Rice Cinema. The 1954 masterpiece about a married couple headed for divorce was directed by her father and stars her mother, Academy, Emmy and Tony award-winning actress Ingrid Bergman.  Also on the program will be Isabella Rossellini's own film tribute to Roberto Rossellini, My Father is 100 Years Old,  and a rare interview with the de Menils conducted by her father.

The tribute to the Rice Media Center exemplifies a major theme of the 2010 Cinema Arts Festival Houston. According to Richard Herskowitz, "The enormous value of arts education programs in schools and universities, which John and Dominique de Menil believed in passionately and supported through their founding of the Rice Media Center, is powerfully conveyed in several of our film selections."  The life-changing value of the musical education  and  self-esteem  students  gained from  joining Houston's Kashmere High School band is the message of  Thunder Soul.

Other films about arts education also scheduled are:

Chekov for Children (2010): This documentary film from director Sasha Waters Fryer premiered as an Official Selection at the 2010 Telluride Film Festival. It follows Phillip Lopate's teaching experience in 1970ʼs New York City. Lopate is one of Americaʼs greatest film critics and essayists, taught at the University of Houston during the 1980ʼs and started the Writers in the Schools Program. Both Lopate and Fryer will be in attendance.

Louder Than a Bomb (2010): From co-directors Jon Siskel and Greg Jacobs, this documentary chronicles the stereotype-confounding stories of four slam poetry teams as they prepare for and compete in Chicago's Louder Than a Bomb Festival – the largest youth poetry slam competition in the world. The film has won Audience Awards at the Cleveland International Film Festival and the Woods Hole Film Festival, where it also received the Jury Prize for Best Documentary. Five student poets from the film will perform live at the November 11 Thunder Soul event at Discovery Green. Co-Director Jon Siskel will also be on hand.

Academy Award-winning actress Shirley MacLaine will attend a screening of Terms of Endearment (1983) at 7:00 PM, Saturday November 13, 2010 at  the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. During the special event, MacLaine will be presented with the 2010 Texas Film Award, which honors a classic film made in Texas or an artist who has made significant contributions to film in the Lone Star State. Following the screening, Ms. MacLaine will engage in a conversation with Houston-based Variety film critic Joe Leydon about Terms of Endearment and her extraordinary career.

Shirley MacLaine created the unforgettable character of Aurora Greenway in James L. Brooksʼ classic romantic comedy drama, which earned her the Best Actress Oscar. Terms of Endearment – produced, directed and written for the screen by Brooks – features scenes shot in and around Houstonʼs River Oaks and The Heights neighborhoods, and famously, Brennanʼs restaurant. The film won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Direction and Best Actress for MacLaine, and four Golden Globes. 

Other films – new and classic – will join Terms of Endearment in celebrating the great and growing tradition of film in Texas.  

This State Iʼm In (1990): 20th Anniversary Presentation: The initial grant funding for the project was to create a trailer for a film that would never be made. Encouraged by the outstanding performances of a number of characters from the Houston, Texas art scene, lens-based artist Robert Ziebell expanded his initial concept into a feature film. In addition to its Wizard of Oz-inspired narrative, the movie documented Ziebellʼs first impressions and actual experiences in Texas since relocating to Houston for the Museum of Fine Artsʼ newly established Core Artist-in-Residence program. It features performances by noted Texas art personalities such as the late Curator and Menil Founding Director Walter Hopps; Museum of Fine Arts Houston Contemporary Art Curator Alison de Lima Greene; MFAH Film Curator Marian Luntz and Houston arts patron and socialite Carolyn Farb. Houston arts leaders, including Fredericka Hunter of the Texas Gallery, will join Ziebell for a post-screening discussion. Also, Ziebell will participate in a panel discussion in the festival's "Meet the Makers" series on low-budget feature filmmaking from twenty years ago to the digital productions of today.

The Texas Filmmakers Showcase is a special screening event consisting of the best of Texas short films and videos under 40 minutes in length. Each year, the program is presented to studio executives, agents and producers in the Hollywood film community, with subsequent screenings around Texas throughout the rest of the year. The Showcase is presented by the Houston Film Commission with the generous support of additional sponsors.

Texas Film at the Visitors Center: Cinema Arts Festival Houston will introduce this new series of programs highlighting new and upcoming arts films by Texas filmmakers at the Visitors Center located in City Hall. All programs are free to the public. Included in the multi-part series is First Look: Houston Arts Films in Progress, a series of  excerpts from three Houston-based films currently in production:  Jenalia Moreno's  Stitched is  a documentary that gives viewers a glimpse at the life of competitive quilters; Ford Gunter and Carlton Ahrens' Art Car follows a handful of local artists as they prepare their entries for the 2010 Houston Art Car Parade; and Alex Luster's Stick 'Em Up  takes an in depth look into the overshadowed world of wheat pasting in Houston. Also in this series will be artist portraits by Mark and Angela Walley, Painting Poetry by Earl Latchley, and "Pixel Painting" by Johnny DeKam, with the filmmakers present.

With Isabella Rossellini and Shirley MacLaine, American writer, director, and actor John Turturro will attend the 2010 Cinema Arts Houston. Also confirmed to attend are Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney, celebrated American animator Bill Plympton, and Houstonʼs own world-famous rodeo hotshot  Clint Cannon, subject of two films from French filmmaker Frédéric Laffont.

Turturroʼs latest creation, Passione (2010), will kick off the festival on Wednesday, November 10 at a red carpet screening to be held at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston at 7:00 PM. Passione, which made its debut at the Venice Film Festival in September, is a “musical adventure” directed, co-written, and narrated by Turturro that takes viewers on a journey through Naples and its musical history with over 25 cinematic renderings of songs dating from the thirteenth century to the present.

On Thursday, November 11 at 4:00 PM at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Turturro will present Rehearsal for a Sicilian Tragedy (2010), which he co-wrote with director and noted puppeteer Roman Paska. Also appearing on camera, Turturro takes audiences on an intimate journey through his ancestral homeland, where he is researching a prospective film to be set in the world of the island's unique puppet theater.

Although best known to mainstream audiences for his portrayal of Agent Seymour Simmons in Michael Bayʼs blockbuster Transformers franchise, in over 30 years in the business, Turturro has appeared in more than 60 films, establishing himself as one of the most skilled and dynamic actors in the industry.  Among his most memorable are roles in Spike Leeʼs Do the Right Thing (1989), Robert Redfordʼs Quiz Show (1994), and the Coen Brothersʼ Barton Fink (1991), The Big Lebowski (1998), and O Brother, Where Art Thou (2000).

In addition to John Turturro, the 2010 Cinema Arts Festival Houston will host a number of additional film heavyweights. Award-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney will present My Trip To Al Qaeda (2010) at 6:45 PM on Saturday, November 13 at Edwards Greenway Stadium Palace 24. The film explores 9/11 and the Iraq War, also the subjects of Gibneyʼs Oscar-winning documentary, Taxi to the Dark Side (2007). The film is a cinematic adaptation of journalist and  author Lawrence Wrightʼs  one-man show about Americaʼs vexed  relationship with the Middle East. Wright will join Gibney to present My Trip To Al Qaeda. Gibney will also screen his current project, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (2010) at 1:00 PM on Sunday, November 14 at Edwards. The film is an in-depth look at the meteoric rise and scandalous fall of former, disgraced New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.

Groundbreaking American animator Bill Plympton will present his newest project, Idiots and Angels (2008), a darkly comic tale of Angel, a misanthrope in a battle for his soul, at Edwards Greenway Grand Palace Stadium 24 on Friday, November 12 at 9:45pm. Plympton, best known for his Academy Award-nominated animated shorts Your Face (1987) and Guard Dog (2005), will also conduct a master class for fans and aspiring animators  on Friday, November 12 at 1pm  and introduce the short animated and experimental films he has curated for Independent Exposure 2010 at 1pm on Saturday November 13 at Edwards.

Accomplished French filmmaker Frédéric Laffont will present Ballad for a Cowboy (Ballade pour un Cow-boy) – his portrait of rodeo sensation Clint Cannon produced for French television in 2006 – on Saturday November 13 at 9:45 PM at Edwards Greenway Grand Palace Stadium 24. The film depicts a charismatic hero following in the footsteps of his father, Jay, who competed in rodeo for 20 years. Cannonʼs dream is to gain enough points to reach the finals in Houston and, ultimately, win the national championship. Frédéric Laffont is completing a new project featuring Cannon titled Cowboy Solitude, a section of which will be screened after Ballad for a Cowboy. The film blends documentary and fiction, and takes off from an imagined Dictaphone recording by Clint to his father, questioning his choice to give up the rodeo. Both Cannon and Laffont will be on hand.

2010 CINEMA ARTS FESTIVAL HOUSTON, TEXAS

http://cinemaarts.bside.com