Press

ALBANY, NY – Bonnie Yochelson, the consulting curator for the New York State Museum’s Berenice Abbott exhibition, will present a talk and slide show on the exhibition at the Museum on Wednesday, September 16 in the Museum’s Huxley Theater.

The free program -- “The Trials and Triumphs of Public Art” -- will begin at 7 p.m. and be followed by a question and answer session. The exhibition -- Berenice Abbott’s Changing New York: A Triumph of Public Art – will be open from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Museum’s Crossroads Gallery. The Yochelson program is made possible, in part, by a grant from the New York State Archives Partnership Trust, which also provided support for the exhibition.

Open through October 4, the exhibition showcases work that is considered to be one of the monumental achievements of 20th century photography. It features 40 original photographs taken by Abbott when she was employed from 1935 to 1939 by the Federal Art Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to capture the rapidly changing urban scene in New York City. In addition to photographs in the State Museum’s collection from this Depression-era project, which Abbott called “Changing New York,” the exhibition also includes additional images from the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY).

Dr. Yochelson is an art historian and curator specializing in photography. She worked at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art before becoming curator of prints and photographs at the Museum of the City of New York in 1987. After five years on staff, she became a consultant to the Museum, organizing a major traveling exhibition of Currier & Ives prints (1995-1999) and publishing “Berenice Abbott: Changing New York, The Complete WPA Project” (The New Press and MCNY) in 1997. She also organized a Changing New York exhibition (1998-2000) that traveled to three European venues. Yochelson is currently organizing Alfred Stieglitz’s New York, an exhibition with a catalogue for the South Street Seaport Museum, which will open in June 2010.

The Museum will sponsor two other upcoming free programs in conjunction with the Abbott exhibition. “Creative Art Day” will provide an opportunity for families to participate in artful activities based on the exhibition on Saturday, August 29 and Saturday, October 3, from 1 to 3 p.m. On both days participants will meet at the Crossroads Gallery. For more information call 518-473-7154 or e-mail psteinba@mail.nysed.gov.

Several books focusing on Abbott’s works are for sale in the Museum Shop including Yochelson’s 1997 “Berenice Abbott: Changing New York, The Complete WPA Project,” 1997; Douglas Levere's “New York Changing: Revisiting Berenice Abbott’s New York,” 2005; Berenice Abbott, Photographer: An Independent Vision,” 2006, a book by George Sullivan for young adults; “New York in the Thirties,” a soft cover Dover reissue of the original “Changing New York” and “Berenice Abbott,” a luxury two-volume set by Commerce Graphics.

For more information on Abbott and to view some of her photographs visit http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/abbott/

The State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department, the University of the State of New York and the Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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