Museum

Legendary Zelda

Episode 53: In Montgomery, Alabama, a few streets away from the Alabama State University campus, is a museum dedicated to the most famous couple of the 1920’s, F. Scott and Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald. For many, the Fitzgeralds provide the lens through which we now understand, or attempt to understand, the Roaring Twenties.

The Fitzgerald Museum is housed in the last home that the couple lived in together. Scott and Zelda never owned a home and famously never settled down. They rented this house in 1931-32, and since 1999 it is the one place in the world that the lay person can visit to learn of Scott and Zelda’s legacy. The Fitzgerald Museum is now the permanent home that Scott and Zelda never had during their lifetime.

Brooke talks to Willie Thompson, the Executive Director of The Fitzgerald Museum, about the troubled and turbulent life of Zelda Fitzgerald and about her career as an artist.

The Fitzgerald Museum website can be found at thefitzgeraldmuseum.org and has information on the museum’s events including a breakfast celebrating Scott’s 120th birthday on Saturday, September 24, 2016, and an annual Fitzgerald Gala which takes place in April. The Fitzgerald Gala is a “Jazz Age” party of epic proportions, and guests from all over the southeastern United States will be in attendance, decked out in 1910s, ’20s, and ’30s costumes.

Anniversary Painting, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald

Notre Dame, Paris Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald

Zelda Gawaine, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald

Rhododendrons, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald

Featured Image: Candler, North Carolina, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald

Psychic Compound

Episode 46: The C24 Gallery in New York City is featuring the creations of London artist Nick Gentry in an exhibition entitled Psychic Compound, which will run through September 2, 2016. Gentry incorporates found objects such as film negatives, VHS tapes, X-rays, and floppy discs into his paintings; paintings that are not only striking portraiture but also thought provoking insight into the ever accelerating speed of technological innovation and obsolescence.

Brooke talked with Gentry and exhibition curator Michelle Maigret about Psychic Compound, the inspiration for and influences on Gentry’s art, and about the arc of his career to this point.

A Feeling for Form

Episode 41 : Taking visual art beyond the visual experience. For over three decades the Museum of Fine Arts Boston has been committed to giving the blind and the visually impaired access to the museum’s full collection through audio tours, tactile art cards, audio-tactile books, and self-contained tours. In addition the MFA Boston offers its guests A Feeling for Form, a program in which trained volunteers lead blind and visually impaired guests through tactile exploration of selected sculpture and furniture, and use audio descriptions and tactile materials for other works of art. Brooke talks with Manager of Accessibility, Hannah Goodwin, and Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Jen Mergel, about the program and how experiencing visual art in this way not only grants the blind access but also gives the sighted guest, curator and artist a new perspective on the work.