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Slater Memorial Museum
Vivian Zoe
860-425-5560
www.slatermuseum.org
Slater Memorial Museum to Re-open
After nearly 18 months, the long-awaited re-opening of the
Slater Memorial Museum will take place November 12 and 13,
2011. The celebration events promise to be filled with both
joy and relief as patrons are invited to view the new atrium that
offers universal access through an elevator and a series of ramps,
plus ample and beautiful new restrooms and gathering spaces. The
project has made the Slater, Converse, Norton and Alumni Gym
buildings universally accessible and compliant with the federal
Americans with Disabilities Act through the construction of the
atrium connector of largely steel and glass set back from the front
(Crescent Street).
In addition, newly installed and re-interpreted galleries
will be unveiled throughout the museum. The challenge of
re-installing virtually every corner of the museum's exhibitions to
accommodate safety code-mandated improvements was seized as an
opportunity to improve museum interpretation.
Museum interpretation in simple terms is the approach used
to "deliver" the museum's content to its audience. The
Slater Museum is literally a treasure trove of objects with immense
significance to Norwich and its surrounding towns. Over seven years
ago, a group of scholars proposed themes for the Slater's
re-interpretation that would deploy virtually every element of its
collection, including its remarkable home. The scholars contended
that each of these can and should be used to interpret life in
Norwich from the beginning of recorded time to the present.
It is with this charge in mind that museum staff and volunteers
have worked over the past several years, and in focus,
year-and-a-half.
First and foremost, the Slater Museum's iconic Cast Gallery
has been refreshed. The original 1888 plaster copies of
the canon of World sculpture, including Egyptian, Archaic, Greek,
Roman and Renaissance marbles and bronzes have been cleaned and, in
many cases conserved. New lighting sponsored by the Friends
of Slater Museum improves visitors' experience. The interpretive
method harks back to the collection's earliest days in the 1ast
decade of the 19th century. As then, a handguide
is employed to guide visitors through the hall of sculpture with a
new color scheme to support interpretation. A significant
improvement is the resurrection of the hardwood floor, beautifully
refinished, thanks to the Friends of Slater Museum and several
generous individuals.
In the Lewis and Grace S. Sears Gallery, the former Peck
Library, Around the World on the Yacht Eleanor: The Slaters'
Grand Tour has been refreshed with newly acquired personal
objects from the Slater family, including some of Ellen Slater's
fabulous Parisian gowns, custom made in 1895. In addition,
the museum's new gift shop will make available for purchase items
that reinforce the visit including publications produced by the
Slater Museum. To the rear of the Slater's cast gallery level
in the Gualtieri Gallery, two new exhibitions have been installed
in a bifurcated space. One is a new display of African art
and artifacts, many long in storage from donors including Paul
Zimmerman, Lou and Betty Atherton. The objects placed on
display have been vetted to ensure authenticity and distilled to
strictly African origin.
Few American cities can trump Norwich with an art school and
museum-based Saturday art classes that trained children and adults
continuously for 116 years, producing artists like Charlotte Fuller
Eastman. The work of several former Norwich Art School Directors of
the early 20th century, Ozias Dodge, Margaret Triplett,
Charlotte Fuller Eastman and Irene Weir, is presented in a new
exhibition entitled Connecticut Artists of the Twentieth Century.
Norwich natives and NFA alumni like Frank Novack, Melody Leary and
Roger Dennis are included. A breadth of creative expression
is also reflected in this show through printmaking, painting,
ceramic sculpture, glass and jewelry.
On the museum's mezzanine, a newly envisioned and refreshed Crocker's
Norwich: Art and Industry in the Nineteenth Century has been
installed in a gallery built especially for it on the side
contiguous with the new Atrium. Many of the new pieces in
this exhibition have been drawn from work by John Denison Crocker
and Alexander Hamilton Emmons long languishing in the museum's
storage. A feature in this area is exposed windows, formerly
covered by false walls, now providing a glimpse into the Atrium.
Another new offering of the mezzanine is Maritime Norwich,
which utilizes objects from the museum's collections to present the
august history of Norwich's shipbuilding, whaling, sea- and
war-faring. Objects previously combined in display cases with
little or limited information are also newly installed and
interpreted, making the museum's content as intellectually
accessible as it is physically accessible.
In the museum's temporary exhibitions space, the Converse
Art Gallery, now sporting a new impervious roof, an exhibition of
work by NFA alumni from all classes will be on display from
November 12, 2011 through January 20, 2012. Thirty alumni
have submitted 117 pieces for the exhibition, which is diverse,
colorful and exciting. Several of the artists will also be
represented in the new Museum Gift Shop, sponsored by the Friends
of Slater Museum. While stock in the shop will include the
typical mass-produced and custom cards, books, prints, T-shirts,
hand bags and jewelry, a goodly amount of items for sale will be
affordable works of art by local and Connecticut artists and
artisans.
The gift shop will be housed in the new Visitors' Center
where all guests will first arrive, whether they have used the
elevator, or elected to come up the old fashioned way - up the
stairs. Here, visitors will be greeted, pay their admission
fees, learn more about the museum and special exhibitions as well
as about other museums and assets in the region.
The new amenities, installations and traffic patterns
promise to enhance the visitor's experience and make the museum a
treasure for all to enjoy for the first time in its long and
important history.
The Slater Memorial Museum and Converse Art Gallery are part
of the Norwich Free Academy, 108 Crescent Street, Norwich
06360. Housed in an exemplary Romanesque Revival building
(1886), the museum features full scale plaster casts of Egyptian,
Archaic, Greek, Roman and Renaissance sculpture; fine and
decorative Art representing 350 years of Norwich History, Ancient
artifacts; contemporary fine art and ethnographic material.
The museum annually presents up to six temporary exhibitions in its
Converse Gallery and is open year round. Hours are Tuesday
through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday,
1:00 to 4:00 p.m. For more information, please visit www.slatermuseum.org.
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