In the month of April, nine events are scheduled for audiences of all ages at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers to celebrate spring. From exhibition tours and artists’ presentations, to a K-12 teacher workshop and Rutgers Day: the museum invites all to explore its diverse offerings!
WHERE: All events take place at the Zimmerli, 71 Hamilton Street on the Rutgers University-New Brunswick campus.
ADMISSION: Admission is $6 for adults; $5 for 65 and over; and free for museum members, children under 18, and Rutgers students, faculty, and staff (with ID). Admission is free on the first Sunday of every month. For more information, call 848.932.7237 or visit the museum’s website: www.zimmerlimuseum.rutgers.edu
On Wednesday, April 2, Celebrating Chinese Calligraphy and Cultural Arts, an event co-sponsored by the Confucius Institute of Rutgers University (CIRU) and the Zimmerli, includes an artist’s calligraphy demonstration that complements the exhibition Maples in the Mist: Chinese Poems for Children, illustrated by Jean and Mou-sien Tseng.
- Beginning at 6 PM, curator Marilyn Symmes, Director of the Morse Research Center for Graphic Arts at the museum, leads a tour of the exhibition—a journey inspired by noted poets of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD)—selected from the Zimmerli’s extensive collection of original artwork from children’s literature. CIRU faculty member Dietrich Tschanz also reads selected poems from the book in their native language.
- From 6:30 to 7:45, Yi-Zhi Huang, an accomplished calligrapher born in Shanghai, China, demonstrates the artistic tradition and discipline of Chinese calligraphy. Dr. Huang, a Rutgers University professor of mathematics, has exhibited his work at numerous exhibitions in China and the United States. He also has lectured about calligraphy at universities, museums, schools, and libraries in New Jersey. The program is followed by refreshments. T
TICKETS: free to Rutgers students, faculty, and staff, and Zimmerli members. It is free to the general public with $6 museum admission. The Confucius Institute of Rutgers University aims to promote the learning and teaching of Chinese language and culture, spur the development of Chinese Studies, and advance a range of cultural exchanges between the U.S. and China.
Writing and the Visual Arts, the Zimmerli’s culminating Teacher Workshop for the 2013-14 academic year, takes place Friday, April 4, from 9:30 AM to 2:30 PM. The museum welcomes Alfredo Franco, Director of Education at the Delaware Art Museum and a Part-Time Lecturer at Rutgers, who examines the interconnection between these two forms of expression. Developed in conjunction with special exhibitions and the permanent collection, workshop content equips educators to integrate art into their curriculum. Each participant receives six professional development credit hours.
FEE: $50 per participant, which includes light breakfast, lunch and supplies. To register, contact the Education Department at education@zimmerli.rutgers.edu. This workshop is held in collaboration with the National Writing Project at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education. Teacher Workshops are supported in part by the J. Seward Johnson, Sr. 1963 Charitable Trust.
The Zimmerli welcomes artist Nathalie Miebach to present Baskets & Data: Making Weather Tactile in the Digital Age on April 10 at 4 PM. She discusses her translations of scientific data from astronomy, ecology, and meteorology into sculpture, installation, and musical scores. Links to Miebach’s 2011 Ted Talk and the January 2014 issue of “American Craft Magazine,” featuring a cover article about the artist, are available at nathaliemiebach.com. The event is followed by an informal reception.
ADMISSION: Free to Rutgers students, faculty, and staff; $6 general admission.
This program is part of the interdisciplinary series “Polar Perspectives on Art and Science,” a collaboration across the university held in conjunction with the exhibition “Diane Burko: Glacial Perspectives.”
The Zimmerli is delighted to participate in the annual Rutgers Day on Saturday, April 26, which offers free activities and entertainment across the New Brunswick and Piscataway campuses. Visit the Zimmerli from 10 AM to 4 PM for Be an Art Detective scavenger hunts (with prizes!), I Am Art face painting, and Preschool Adventures in Storytelling, as well as gallery discovery tours and children’s art activities. The museum also invites visitors to create their own selfies in the photo booth that is part of the special exhibition “Striking Resemblance: The Changing Art of Portraiture.” Activities take place throughout the museum. For a complete list of Rutgers Day events, visit www.rutgersday.rutgers.edu. Follow updates on Facebook (www.facebook.com/RutgersDay) and Twitter (@Rutgersday #Rutgersday). Rutgers Day offers free parking and admission, as well as shuttles among the College Avenue, Cook/Douglass, and Busch campuses. The event is rain or shine.
The Zimmerli’s first exhibition devoted to artists from Ukraine, Odessa's Second Avant-Garde: City and Myth, opens on Wednesday, April 30. It focuses on nonconformist artists who worked in this fabled seaport on the Black Sea from the 1960s through the late 1980s. The public is invited to an opening reception that includes a guided exhibition tour and lecture.
The Zimmerli also continues its diverse Sunday programming throughout the month. Free First Sunday on April 6 offers free admission and family activities from noon to 5 PM.
- Insights: Gallery Talks investigates French art and society following the upheaval of the French Revolution with a docent-guided tour on April 13 at 2 PM.
- Films about Art and Artists on April 20 features a 3 PM screening of Systems from the PBS series Art 21: Art in the Twenty-First Century. This episode of insightful interviews features artists John Baldessari, Kimsooja, Allan McCollum, and Julie Mehretu.
- The Kusakabe-Griffis Room is open from noon to 5 PM on April 27 to view the exhibition Meiji Photographs: A Historic Friendship between Japan and Rutgers. These rare albumen prints from the permanent collection were taken by European and Japanese photographers during the Meiji period (1868-1912), which is considered the beginning of the modern era in Japan. (Rutgers also played a significant role in the era: one of the first Japanese citizens to graduate from an American college attended the university.) Programs are free with museum admission.
ZIMMERLI ART MUSEUM|RUTGERS
The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum houses more than 60,000 works of art, ranging from ancient to contemporary art. The permanent collection features particularly rich holdings in 19th-century French art; Russian art from icons to the avant-garde; Soviet nonconformist art from the Dodge Collection; and American art with notable holdings of prints. In addition, small groups of antiquities, old master paintings, as well as art inspired by Japan and original illustrations for children’s books, provide representative examples of the museum’s research and teaching message at Rutgers. Founded in 1966 to serve the campus and community, the Zimmerli is now one of the nation’s largest and most distinguished university-based art museums, located in a 70,000-square-foot building on the New Brunswick campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Established in 1766, Rutgers is America’s eighth oldest institution of higher learning and a premier public research university.
SUPPORT
The Zimmerli’s operations, exhibitions, and programs are funded in part by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and income from the Avenir Foundation Endowment, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Endowment, and the Voorhees Family Endowment, among others. Additional support comes from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts; the Estate of Victoria J. Mastrobuono; and donors, members, and friends of the museum.
