The winter holidays can pose a challenge – entertaining children home for the winter vacation, or perhaps friends or relatives who have come to town. Lucky us! We live in one of the most dynamic, exciting places in the world! A true wonderland to explore.
Walk around Manhattan – it’s like a scavenger hunt – to see the animated windows in the various stores. Pick up a bag of hot roasted chestnuts. Wind up at Rockefeller Center, the epicenter of holiday spirit.
Take the time to explore a museum – the Natural History Museum/Rose Planetarium, the New-York Historical Society, the Museum of the City of New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Visit the Bronx Zoo (it’s an altogether different experience in winter) or the Brooklyn Aquarium. For a transformational experience, take a journey by ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
Enjoy the enchanted Candlelight Evenings at Old Bethpage Village Restoration, Dec. 20-21 and 26-30, when for that magical moment you feel you have actually stepped back in time. You can see historic craft demonstrations- broom making, candle making, spinning, plus there is story telling, fiddle music, Contra Dancing accompanied by the fiddle and dulcimer, pump organ, singing, carolers, brass band concerts, music by local performers, and performances of A Christmas Carol. (1303 Round Swamp Road (Exit 48 of the Long Island Expressway), 516-572-8400; Adults/$10, children 5-12/$7 and $7 for seniors and volunteer firefighters.)
Here are more ideas for enriching your holiday:
On View at Nassau County Museum of Art:
Exhibit features Homecoming for Precious Blue & White Porcelains of Childs Frick
China Then and Now, the exhibit at the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn, Long Island, is not just its first major exhibition of Chinese art – in many ways, it’s also a homecoming.
Exhibits at the NCMA are always extraordinarily intimate, as if for the moment, these important works of art are your own – because the museum, itself, was formerly the mansion home of Childs and Frances Frick, son of industrialist and art collector Henry Frick.
But the heart of China Then and Now is an installation of blue-and-white porcelains from the Ming and Qing eras collected by Childs and Frances Frick and on loan, for the first time, from The Frick Collection in New York City. This exhibit returns these works to their original setting.
One of the most interesting and unique aspects of the NCMA exhibit are the black-and-white mural-sized photographs that show the various items in these very rooms as they were when it was their home.
The rest of the exhibits that occupy the various rooms of the mansion and thrillingly collectively span three millennia of Chinese art, heritage and range of techniques, media and subjects, from classical, early modern and contemporary periods, from the perspective of American collectors on Long Island.
One gallery is filled with exquisite Buddhist stone sculptures from caves, dating back to 300 AD, the collection of Dr. Arthur M. Sackler, who lived on Searington Road. The 11 large-scale classical stone sculptures lent by the Art Properties, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, had never been on public view before.
Upstairs, galleries feature items of Long Island collectors; one gallery is devoted to the collection of bronzes and calligraphy of Dr. Jeffrey Appelbaum of Great Neck.
In yet another hometown connection, the co-curator of the exhibit is Amy G. Poster, who grew up in Great Neck (she graduated Great Neck South, and was a classmate of Roger Tilles whose family established the Tilles Center). She is the Curator Emerita of Asian Art at the Brooklyn Museum.
“We always had people in Great Neck and the local area with a keen interest in China,” she said. The exhibit also is an open invitation by the Nassau County Museum of Art to the growing Asian population in the community. “The idea is to bring our diverse communities together – there has always been interest and appreciation in Chinese art.”
On view through March 8, 2015, China Then and Now sheds new light on a fascinating chapter in America’s engagement with China and its arts. This exhibition reveals the passion of American collectors of both the past and present for the culture and history of China.
Actually, the interest in collecting Chinese art in America goes back to the 17th century. “We have diaries from Brooklyn which show people’s most prized possessions were their China ware,” Poster said at the opening night reception, November 21.
China Then and Now unfolds over three galleries, each of which showcases the elegant beauty of Chinese art of different eras and media. The exhibition opens with 11 large-scale classical stone sculptures from the collections of Arthur M. Sackler.
Dr. Sackler, who lived near here, was a major collector who sponsored building of many Asian collections including the Sackler at the Smithsonian, and the Sackler Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but, Poster said, it was little known he developed university collection in China. “Many made their way to Columbia University in the early 1970s but are not shown to public – except for students and faculty –they are in the law library, with not much access.” This is the first time they have been loaned for an exhibit.
The heart of China Then and Now (and the emotional heart) are the blue-and-white porcelains from the Ming and Qing eras (17th to 18th centuries) collected by Childs and Frances Frick and on loan, for the first time, from The Frick Collection in New York City, essentially reuniting these pieces with their original setting.
Poster and her co-curator, Chinese scholar, Kaijun, Chen, PhD, a post doctoral fellow at the Max-Planck Institute for the History of Science, present the collection in a very unusual way: by themes and purpose with wonderful notes that enhance your appreciation of the objects: one case is themed “Imperial Aspirations” – objects that closely resemble works created for Imperial Chinese commissions; “Stories from the East,” hold items that depict narrative and decoration, such as subjects derived from “Romance of the Three Kingdom’s, one of china’s great literary classics; another case is themed, “Curious Forms”– animal forms and other shapes; and still another is “Objects for Scholar’s Taste” – small scale objects intended for use by the literati, a particular favorite of Childs Frick.
My favorite is a Honeycomb Form Tea Pot, Qing Dynasty 1662-1722, with breathtakingly delicate construction.
A third gallery presents ink paintings by the renowned Beijing artist Liu Dan (born 1953) whose works bridge traditional forms with contemporary practices. My favorite of these is Mingsha Diabolo, 2013, from The Xiling Collection. The Other Eye is the first film about Liu Dan, China’s major modern-day exponent of ink painting, is presented daily.
Upstairs are galleries devoted to Long Island collectors. One gallery is devoted to Dr. Appelbaum’s collection of bronzes and calligraphy. At the opening night reception, he points out his favorite piece (and mine), a large bronze flower vase with a long twin neck, which he says was actually a game that goes back 2000 years, played in the emperor’s court with formal rites, then became popular.
There are also galleries devoted to Long Island collections – among the most marvelous pieces are a pair of Qing Dynasty Spinach Jade bowls so fine as to be translucent, lent for the exhibition by the Planting Fields Foundation.
Among the special events in conjunction with the exhibition:
Daisy Yiyou Wang, Curator of Chinese and East Asian Art at the Peabody Essex Museum, will give a lecture on Saturday, December 20 at 3 p.m, A Thousand Graces: Chinese Buddhist Sculpture in America Then and Now. The talk traces the journeys of Chinese Buddhist sculptures from early 20th-century temples to their display in American art museums. Wang shares her new research on Charles L. Freer, the founder of the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art, exploring his collection of Chinese Buddhist art. Admission is $15 (museum members, $5) and includes museum admission. Register at nassaumuseum.org/events.
On Satuday, January 10, 2015 at 3 pm., Kathleen Yang discusses C.C. Wang: Collector, Connosseur and Painter, whose holdings include one of the world’s great collections of classical Chinese paintings and Chinese literati paintings of the 20th century.
Kaijun Chen, Ph.D. will present A Cosmopolitan Taste: Chinese Blue-and-White Porcelain in the Frick Collection, on Saturday, February 28 at 3 p.m. The co-curator of China Then and Now, is a postdoctoral fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute, Berlin, and a specialist in the porcelain production at Jingdezhen, the premier center in China from the 14th to the 20th century. Chen discusses the Frick Collection of Chinese porcelains with a focus on the blue-and-white porcelains amassed by Childs Frick. Frick’s collection of porcelains epitomizes the dynamic connection of China and the world as well as reveals the cosmopolitan vision of American entrepreneurs in the early 20th century. Reservation required, $15 for nonmembers includes Museum admission; $5 for members.
Exhibit Curator Amy Poster will present Chinese Art and Long Island Collectors: A Curator’s Perspective, on Saturday, March 7 at 3 p.m. She discusses highlights of the exhibition, focusing on extraordinary works collected by some of Long Island’s great aesthetes from yesteryear and today.
Docent-led tours of the exhibition are offered at 2 p.m. each day; tours of the mansion are offered each Saturday at 1 p.m.; meet in the lobby, no reservations needed. Tours are free with museum admission. Family art activities and family tours are offered Sundays from 1 pm; free with museum admission.
There is more going on in the museum – all the more remarkable given its intimate spaces.
An exhibit of the artist Gavin Rain is extraordinary. A native of Cape Town, South Africa, Gavin Rain works primarily in a neo-pointillist style. He cites two main narratives in his work: Hidden in plain sight, in which the subject cannot be seen until the viewer takes a few steps back; and Pseudo digital, in which the artist uses rows of dots in a pattern similar to television or computer screens. He credits Seurat, Russian avant garde art of the 1900s and the work of many architects as his main artistic influences. Rain’s work has been seen in solo and group exhibitions throughout the world. His subjects are famous people, like Mandela, Liz Taylor and Audrey Hepburn.
Also on exhibit are selections from the museum’s permanent collection of paintings and watercolors by Louis Comfort Tiffany: Works on Paper.
Definitely visit the gift shop, which offers a superb selection of items that compliment the exhibit.
And make sure to make time to explore the grounds of this magnificent estate:
Sculpture Park: Approximately 40 works, many of them monumental in size, by renowned artists including Fernando Botero, Tom Otterness, George Rickey and Mark DiSuvero among others, are situated to interact with nature on the museum’s magnificent 145-acre property.
Walking Trails: The museum’s 145 acres include many marked nature trails through the woods, perfect for family hikes or independent exploration. Find the cottage tucked in the woods.
Gardens: From restored formal gardens of historic importance to quiet little nooks for dreaming away an afternoon, the museum’s 145 acre property features many lush examples of horticultural arts. Explore expanded gardens and beautiful new path to the museum.
Most of the 145 acres originally belonged to poet, lawyer, conservationist, political activist, patron of the arts and preservationist William Cullen Bryant, who settled in Roslyn in 1843. the long-time editor of the New York Post built is home, Cedarmore, and founded Roslyn’s public library. In 1862, he built a cottage for his friend and fellow poet, Miss Jerusha Dewey (you can see the cottage when you explore the hiking trails). In 1900, Lloyd Stephens Bryce purchased Bryant’s ‘Upland Farm’ and commissioned architect Ogden Codman, Jr. to design Bryce House, the present mansion. Henry Clay Frick, co-founder of US Steel Corporation purchased Bryce House in 1919 as a gift for his son, Childs Frick, a Princeton graduate who became a vertebrate paleontologist and naturalist.
A private, not-for-profit institution, the Nassau County Museum of Art is ranked among the nation’s largest, most important suburban art museums. Seeing the paintings hung on walls or in cases within the mansion rooms, you feel an intimacy with the objects that you don’t get at the major museums, as if for that moment in time, they are yours.
Nassau County Museum of Art is located at One Museum Drive in Roslyn Harbor, just off Northern Boulevard, Route 25A, two traffic lights west of Glen Cove Road. The museum is open Tuesday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-4:45 p.m. Call (516) 484-9338, ext. 12 to inquire about group tours. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors (62 and above) and $4 for students and children (4 to12). Members are admitted free. The Museum Store is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Call 516-484-9337 for current exhibitions, events, days/times and directions or log onto nassaumuseum.org.
New-York Historical Society Offers Family Programs for Winter Break
The New-York Historical Society has been transformed this holiday season with the installation of Holiday Express: Toys and Trains from the Jerni Collection, which is on through February 22, 2015, a spectacular exhibit of treasures from the renowned Jerni Collection of model trains, scenic elements and toys. The dynamic display will appeal to all age groups, showcasing the beauty and allure of toys from a bygone era.
In conjunction with the Holiday Express, exhibit, there is special programming for the December school vacation week, Saturday, December 27 – Sunday, January 4, 10 am – 6 pm: All aboard Holiday Express! Stop by the New-York Historical Society this week to marvel at the toys and trains of the Jerni Collection, go on a Holiday Express I Spy Scavenger Hunt. At 2 pm, hear beloved train tales and make a train-themed craft to take home as a souvenir of the day. All ages. Free with admission.
Also, Little New-Yorkers (an ongoing program offered Tuesdays and Fridays, 3:30 pm): Held in the cozy Barbara K. Lipman Children’s History Library, this program introduces New York and American history to the littlest New Yorkers with age-appropriate themes and engaging hands-on activities. Ages 3-5. Free with Museum admission.
Special exhibits underway include:
Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage, through February 22, 2015:Annie Leibovitz: ilgrimage charts a new direction for one of America’s best-known living photographers. Unlike her staged and carefully lit portraits made on assignment for magazines and advertising clients, the photographs in this exhibition were taken simply because Leibovitz was moved by the subject. The images speak in a commonplace language to the photographer’s curiosity about the world she inherited, spanning landscapes both dramatic and quiet, interiors of living rooms and bedrooms, and objects that are talismans of past lives.
Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion, through April 19, 2015:Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion explores the centuries-long history of trade and immigration between China and the United States—a history that involved New York from its very beginnings—and will raise the question “What does it mean to be an American?” The exhibit narrative extends from the late eighteenth century to the present and includes all regions of the country, thus interpreting the Chinese American saga as a key part of American history.
Opening soon: Freedom Journey 1965: Photographs of the Selma to Montgomery March by Stephen Somerstein, January 16 – April 19, 2015:This exhibit features the stunning and historic photographs of Stephen Somerstein, documenting the Selma-to-Montgomery Civil Rights March in January 1965. Somerstein was a student in City College of New York’s night school and Picture Editor of his student newspaper when he traveled to Alabama to document the March. He joined the marchers and gained unfettered access to everyone from Martin Luther King Jr. to Rosa Parks, James Baldwin, and Bayard Rustin. “I had five cameras slung around my neck,” he recalled. Over the five-day, 54-mile march, Somerstein took about four hundred photographs including poignant images of hopeful blacks lining the rural roads as they cheered on the marchers walking past their front porches and whites crowded on city sidewalks, some looking on silently – others jeering as the activists walked to the Alabama capital.
The New-York Historical Society, one of America’s pre-eminent cultural institutions, was founded in 1804 with a mission to explore the richly layered history of New York City and State and the country, and to serve as a national forum for the discussion of issues surrounding the making and meaning of history.
(Open Tuesday- Thursday: 10 am – 6 pm, Friday: 10 am – 8 pm, Saturday: 10 am – 6 pm, Sunday: 11 am – 5 pm. Open Mondays, December 22, December 29, January 19, 10 am – 6 pm, Open New Year’s Day, January 1, 10 am – 6pm. Admission Adults/$19; teachers & seniors/$15; students $12; children 5-13 $6. Pay-as-you-wish Fridays from 6 pm – 8 pm.)
New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West (at 77th Street, across the street from the Museum of Natural History), 212-873-3400, www.nyhistory.org
There are so many wonderful things to do in and around the city – take the vacation days to explore:
For a real adventure, take the ferry ride to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis island – it’s a transformational experience.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art offers endless possibilities but my favorite time to visit is when the museum is open late, on Friday and Saturday nights, when there often is music; also the American Cafe is one of the most enchanting places anywhere (metmuseum.org).
The American Museum of Natural History is one of the finest institutions in the world, offering endless possibilities for exploration and discovery (amnh.org).
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum offers three ways to view the museum: a walking tour of the neighborhood, various building tours and an interactive Meet the Residents tour featuring a costumed interpreter. (tenement.org).
Jewish Museum: going on now: “Helena Rubinstein: Beauty is Power,” through March 22, 2015. (1109 5th Ave at 92nd St., 212.423.3200, thejewishmuseum.org, info@thejm.org.
For more than 50 years, the American Folk Art Museum, located near Lincoln Center, has featured works from self-taught artists from the United States and abroad (folkartmuseum.org).
Museum of Modern Art (free on Wednesday afternoons), moma.org.
The Rubin Museum of Art in Chelsea is home to a comprehensive collection of art from the Himalayas and surrounding regions (rubinmuseum.org).
On the Upper East Side, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is known for its exhibitions of international modern and contemporary art. (guggenheim.org).
The Museum of the City of New York is always a surprise(mcny.org).
The Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, is dedicated to the art, history, technique and technology of the moving image in all its forms. (movingimage.us).
The Louis Armstrong House Museum celebrates the life and legacy of the famous jazz musician, set in his home in Corona, Queens. (louisarmstronghouse.org).
The New York Hall of Science in Corona, Queens, has exhibits, demonstrations, workshops and participatory activities relating to science, technology, engineering and math. (nysci.org).
With a newly expanded venue, the Queens Museum continues to grow as a space with contemporary art from around the world. (queensmuseum.org)
Queens is also home to the Noguchi Museum, founded and designed by internationally renowned, Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) for the display of what he considered to be representative examples of his life’s work (32-37 Vernon Boulevard, Long Island City, www.noguchi.org).
One of the largest wildlife conservation parks in the country, the world-renowned Bronx Zoo is open year-round. The cooler weather actually provides a more entertaining experience because many of the animals are more active (bronxzoo.com).
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s (bbg.org) and (a short walk away), the Brooklyn Museum, with permanent collections featuring ancient Egyptian masterpieces, African art and European painting (brooklynmuseum.org)
Also, The New York Aquarium, located in Brooklyn’s Coney Island, has multiple exhibits and feeding shows for families to enjoy. (nyaquarium.com).
The New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn is one of the largest museums in the United States devoted to urban public transportation history. (mta.info/mta/museum).
Visit some place exotic, right in our own neighborhood: Staten Island’s Historic Richmond Town dates back to the colonial period, bringing alive American history with over 30 original structures and artifacts from the 17th century. The museum presents events, exhibits and concerts (historicrichmondtown.org).
For more ideas, visit nycgo.com.
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