Located in historic Union Station at the foot of Main Street in downtown Brattleboro, the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center has cultivated a stellar reputation over the years for engaging and thoughtful exhibitions and quality programming. They may have outdone themselves with their new exhibition. “Up in Arms: Taking Stock of Guns” tackles America’s relationship with firearms. “Our job as a non-profit museum and art center is not to provide answers, but to ask questions and to do what we can to stimulate helpful conversation around a difficult issue,” said Museum Director Danny Lichtenfeld. The exhibition, along with five others, opened on June 24.
Up in Arms: Taking Stock of Guns
Through October 23
A vital tool to some, a public safety hazard to others, guns exert tremendous physical, emotional, and symbolic power over us. Discussion about the use and regulation of guns exposes deep fissures within communities across the United States. “Up in Arms” moves this conversation into the aesthetic realm—-a place where interpretation is nuanced and fluid, and where understanding can deepen each time we revisit an artwork or discuss it with other viewers.
“Up in Arms” features work by both internationally renowned and emerging artists. The famed Chinese artist Liu Bolin is represented by the photograph Hiding in New York No. 9 – Gun Rack. One wall of the museum will be devoted to an installation of photographs by Kyle Cassidy, who traveled around the United States taking pictures of gun owners in their homes and asking, “Why do you own a gun?” Other artists featured in the exhibit are Linda Bond (image: INVENTORY (dimensions variable; mixed media installation; 2011-ongoing)), Madeline Fan, Susan Graham, Jane Hammond, Don Nice, Sabine Pearlman, and Jerilea Zempel.
The Stilled Passage:
Photographs of Un-Restored Ellis Island
Through August 29
In the Center Gallery, Philip J. Calabria’s pictures of un-restored, decaying hospital buildings at the iconic immigration center evoke a liminal state, not unlike that experienced by the millions who passed through Ellis Island a century ago. Calabria is Visual Arts Department Chair and Gallery Director at Northfield Mount Hermon. (image: Wall Detail: Contagious Disease Ward (archival pigment print; 2010))
Union Station: Gateway to the World
Through October 23
In the South Gallery, organized around a series of historical vignettes written by Brattleboro-based journalist Kevin O’Connor, the exhibit includes original architectural drawings and archival photographs. “Union Station: Gateway to the World” marks this summer’s 100th anniversary of the opening of BMAC’s Union Station building. (image: The “Ski Train” at Brattleboro’s Union Station, circa 1935; courtesy of Harold A. Barry)
Chaos and Light: Jamie Young
Through October 23
“Chaos and Light: Jamie Young” fills the museum’s East Gallery with large oil paintings from the Ashfield, Massachusetts-based artist’s “Vineage Series”. “I have been working on the ‘Vineage Series’ for many years, exploring several species of vines covering trees all over New England,” said Young. “I am fascinated by the chaos of the climbers, their varied forms, and the subtle patterns that emerge.” (image: Apple & Vine (oil on canvas; 2014))
Your Space/Imagination Station
Through September 26
In the museum’s Ticket Gallery, formerly the Union Station ticket office, Museum Educator Linda Whelihan has designed an interactive space inspired by the building’s history as a departure point for great travel adventures, “Your Space/Imagination Station” invites visitors of all ages to create and display on the museum walls their very own imaginary destinations.
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INFORMATION
Brattleboro Museum and Art Center
10 Vernon Street
Brattleboro 05301
(802) 257-0124
Hours:
Daily (except Tuesday), 11AM-5PM
Open until 8:30PM for the First Friday Gallery Walk