Next Stage announces the return of the NXT Curators Series, offering an opportunity for audiences to hear from curators in various arts and humanities fields. The intent, organizers say, is "to shine a light on less known styles and genres, providing a behind-the-scenes look at what curators need to consider when working with their medium."
Keith Marks, executive director of Next Stage Arts, said in a news release that three curators, all speaking on a different facet of what it means to present, collect, and preserve various objects, will be a part of the yearly Curator Series. "The series highlights a diverse lineup of topics - Art Deco, the environmental movement, and a historian committed to preserving music recorded on shellac. The range of topics gives the audiences a broad range of perspectives to consider."
On Sunday, Feb. 18, "Art Deco: Commercializing the Avant-Garde," will be presented by Angelina Lippert, the Chief Curator of Poster House, the country's first museum dedicated to the art and history of posters.
She will discuss the history of Art Deco advertising. This talk covers everything from the Great Gatsby up through the Great Depression, from the Paris Exhibition of 1925 up through the 1939 New York World's Fair. She will also address the "true meaning behind the definition of Deco and how it became the first global art movement."
Lippert is the author of (1)The Art Deco Poster and has lectured at the School of Visual Arts, The Cooper Union, New York University, the Pratt Institute, The New York Times, Columbia University, and The Sotheby's Institute of Art. She has written for Muse by Clio and is currently a reviewer at The New York Journal of Books. She holds a master's in the art of the Russian avant-garde from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London and a bachelor's degree in theology and art history from Smith College.
The series continues on Wednesday, March 20, with "Historical Grooves: Archiving the Sounds of the Jewish-Muslim Relationship." (2)Professor Christopher Silver will detail his efforts to amplify a set of 20th-century North African Jewish and Muslim voices, "which for too long have remained silent in the historical record," say organizers.
What if listening for the past could change our understanding of history? In this interactive musical conversation, through selections from his archive of early-20th-century shellac records from Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, Silver will introduce the audience to the sounds of the artists whose music "shaped and spoke to an era of profound change and remarkable resilience."
Silver is the Segal Family Assistant Professor in Jewish History and Culture in the Department of Jewish Studies at McGill University. His first book, Recording History: Jews, Muslims, and Music Across Twentieth Century North Africa , was published in 2022 by Stanford University Press and was the winner of the 2023 L. Carl Brown AIMS Book Prize in North African Studies. He is also the founder and curator of the website Gharamophone.com, a digital archive of North African records from the first half of the 20th century.
The series concludes on Sunday, April 21, with "We Tried to Warn You! Environmental Crisis Posters, 1970–2020," with curator Tim Medland. Recently receiving a full-page review in The New York Times, Medland's show chronicles how graphic designers from around the world have attempted to tackle issues of environmental activism-and how they've both succeeded and failed at changing public consciousness.
Medland is an independent curator who focuses on the history of visual and material culture. He holds a master's degree in museum studies from the University of Leicester, with a concentration in socially engaged practice. His research interests include environmental activism and sustainability, and the histories of transport, propaganda, colonialism, and migration.
All talks are held at Next Stage, 15 Kimball Hill, and are free to attend, but donations are appreciated. Advance registration is available at nextstagearts.org. For information, call 802-387-0102.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.