February 2012 Programs

ALL EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, UNLESS OTHERWIZE NOTED!

Fri 2/10, 5-7pm, SALON: Designer and Chief Curator Matthew Bird on the pioneers of Industrial Design and their philatelic afterlife.

Bird teaches the History of Industrial Design at RISD, has been a practicing designer since graduating from RISD in 1989, and curates the collections at his store, The Curatorium. He will discuss the US Postal Service’s 2011 introduction of a sheet of stamps celebrating Industrial Design and 13 pioneering designers. He’ll show how the USPS’s strange choices left out some of the profession’s true pioneers, and represented others with work that doesn’t show them at their finest. By revisiting the objects and designers that were selected, Bird will introduce the important aspects of Industrial Design and discuss its history and role in forming the world we inhabit.

Our generous sponsor is James Brayton Hall, Executive Director, Providence Preservation Society, ppsri.org.

Thur 2/16, 5:30-7:30pm, Tour of RISD’s Fleet Library for Athenaeum members.

Did you know that your benefits as a Household or Individual Athenaeum member include borrowing privileges at RISD’s stunning Fleet Library? Or perhaps you are aware of this, but have been unsure of how to gain access to the library. We encourage you to join us for a special tour and reception, as the library’s Director Carol Terry will takes you on a building tour, and curator Robert Garzillo shares information about his exhibition Dard Hunter & the Roycroft Print Shop, accompanied by poet and Athenaeum Board member Brett Rutherford, whose donated Roycroft Collection of books and periodicals are heavily featured in the exhibition. Click here for more information about the Fleet Library, and here for more information about the Dard Hunter & the Roycroft Print Shop exhibition. Please RSVP to Danielle Kemsley at dkemsley@providenceathenaeum.org or 401-421-6970 x15.

Fri 2/17, 5-7pm, SALON: “Hark! The White Whale!” series, part 12: Writer LaShonda Barnett on “‘To Serve Before The Mast’: Recovering The Lost Legacy of Rhode Island’s Black Seaman,” co-presented with the RI Black Heritage Society.

In 1774 the population of the RI colony was 59, 000, the majority of which obtained at least some of its living from maritime activity. While little documented in scholarship, African-American sailors, free and enslaved, crewed riverboats, whaling ships, and many of the merchant vessels that embarked from the port cities of Bristol, Newport, and Providence. While RI’s slave trafficking history is well-known, scant public knowledge exists on the black merchant seamen and whalemen who comprised a significant portion of America’s burgeoning commercial workforce, thus contributing to the first global economy. Barnett’s project analyzes the contributions and experiences of African-American and Cape Verdean seamen and whalemen and the shape of racial thinking in late 18th-century RI’s maritime culture. Barnett has taught literature at the City University of New York, is a 2011-2012 Visiting Artist in Brown’s Africana Studies Department, and is writing a historical novel about an African-American ship captain and his multi-racial crew. Join us for a conversation about her research on race aboard ships, Melville’s presentation of the multi-racial crew of the Pequod, and some of the literary and historical influences on her own novel-in-progress – from Melville, to Paul Cuffee, to Nathaniel Philbrick. (Note: Salon is rescheduled from 12/2/11.)

Our generous sponsor is the RI Council for the Humanities, rihumanities.org.

Tues 2/21, 5-8pm (5 to 5:30 for refreshments, activities begin at 5:30), co-presented with Not About The Buildings: Micro-Memoir!

Join us to write and read aloud extremely short (200-word) personal memoirs based on an object/muse to be presented by our workshop facilitator, the noted short-short prose pioneer Karen Donovan, as the session begins. Participants will experience both the rigors and elation of writing short-short prose, and the reading aloud segment will be buoyed by the energy of surprise and speed. The more diverse the writing is, the more exciting the readings will be, so bring your parents, your children, and your friends, old and young. The intergenerational diversity and interaction will give participants new perspectives on the different way humans view the world around them at different points in their lives. Workshop made possible in part by a grant from the RI State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the RI General Assembly and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Our generous sponsor is Yankee Travel, yankee travel.com.

Fri 2/24, 5-7pm, SALON: Dr. Thomas Brooks, Wheaton College English Professor, and Betsy Burleigh, Artistic Director of the Providence Singers, on Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem and Wilfred Owen’s poetry of World War I.

A monument of 20th century music, Britten’s 1962 War Requiem interlaces the Latin mass for the dead with powerful verse by the English war poet Owen to create a statement on the losses of war and the eternal quest for peace. The Singers will collaborate with the New England Philharmonic and Chorus pro Musica for the 50th anniversary of the work at a concert on Sunday, March 4 at 4pm at the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul in Providence; this Salon will help audience members more fully experience the musical and historical impact of this towering 20th century work. The events of our times – Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya – are almost custom-designed for a performance of the War Requiem in its 50th anniversary year and the reading of Owen’s war poetry. Join us to explore cultural and historical themes of war and sacrifice that are so profoundly addressed by Owen through poetry and Britten through music.

Our generous sponsors are Drs. Ethan H. Kisch and Helene Kisch-Pniewski.

Sat 2/25, 11am: The John Russell Bartlett Society presents bookbinder Sam Ellenport on “A Bookbinding Anamoly: Linked-spine Bindings.”

Ellenport has been the proprietor of Harcourt Bindery in Boston for the past 40 years. It is the last large book bindery in America still working in a 19th century tradition, on a par with Bayntun’s in Bath, England. Through spectacular images, he will uncover a rare aspect in bookbinding: the use of the spines of books as a canvas on which binders create designs that span several volumes. More on the JRBS: brown.edu.

Mon 2/27, 5:30-7pm: New Members’ Reception!

Join us for a tour of the building, refreshments, and a chance to meet other members as well as the staff. For new Athenaeum members and their guests.