End of Season APCG Ball, Community House, Woman with Headdress, September 1954 Cherry Grove Archives Collection, Gift of Harold Seeley

SAFE/HAVEN: GAY LIFE IN 1950s CHERRY GROVE

May 14 - October 11, 2021

The New-York Historical Society presents Safe/Haven: Gay Life in 1950s Cherry Grove, an intimate look at one of the first gay beach towns in the United States, on view in New-York Historical’s rear courtyard May 14 – October 11, 2021. The outdoor exhibition explores mid-20th-century gay life in Fire Island’s remote hamlet of Cherry Grove, located on the barrier island south of Long Island, through some 70 enlarged photographs and additional ephemera from the holdings of the Cherry Grove Archives Collection—which works to collect and archive the community’s rich and colorful history. Admission is free; timed-entry tickets can be booked online in advance.

“Cherry Grove on Fire Island became a weekend and summer destination for gay men and women in the pre-Stonewall era of the 1950s and 1960s,” said Dr. Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of New-York Historical. “At a time when they faced homophobia and persecution, the residents of Cherry Grove found a sanctuary where they could socialize and express themselves freely. We are proud to partner with the Cherry Grove Archives Collection to display these joyful images.”

Safe/Haven: Gay Life in 1950s Cherry Grove is presented in conjunction with the Cherry Grove Archives Collection. Curated by Brian Clark, Susan Kravitz, and Parker Sargent for the Cherry Grove Archives Collection, it’s coordinated at New-York Historical by Rebecca Klassen, associate curator of material culture. Throughout the exhibition, visitors can hear personal, recorded accounts from members of the Cherry Grove community about their experiences and memories; the audio will be accessible to visitors through their cell phones.

George Masa, Untitled, circa 1920, gelatin silver print on paper, 4 ⅜ × 6 ½ inches. Asheville Art Museum.

Public Domain: Photography and the Preservation of Public Land

May 19–August 30, 2021

Through images that capture the beauty, changes, and even devastation to the American landscape, photographers have played a vital role in advocating for the preservation of nature via the establishment and maintenance of state parks, national parks and monuments, and other federally protected lands.

Public Domain: Photography and the Preservation of Public Lands includes works drawn primarily from the Asheville Art Museum Collection by artists looking both regionally and nationally at state or federally managed lands. From George Masa’s and Timothy McCoy’s photographs of Great Smoky Mountains National Park to a selection of works from Robert Glenn Ketchum’s Overlooked in America: The Success and Failure of Federal Land Management series and more, these artworks ask viewers to contemplate nature’s beauty and call to protect it.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, whose mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.

This exhibition is organized by the Asheville Art Museum and curated by Hilary Schroeder, assistant curator.

© Vaune Trachtman, "Strand (detail of tryptic)"

Vaune Trachtman, Now is Always

May 26 – July 9, 2021

Artist Talk - June 15th, 2021 7pm (Online)

Now is Always was begun during the Great Depression when Vaune Trachtman’s father, Joseph Harold Trachtman (1914-1971), shot a few rolls of film near his father’s drugstore in Center City, Philadelphia. Nearly 90 years later, her sister found the negatives and gave them to Trachtman. Working from her father’s original negatives, she combined the people from his neighborhood with her own images, many of which were shot from windows and moving vehicles. Now is Always is their collaboration across time.

There is a personal aspect to Now is Always, but Trachtman wants the work to be more expansive than a dialogue between the father she didn’t know and the daughter he knew only as a child. In Now is Always, Trachtman wants to create a feeling of collapsed-yet-expanded time.

Now is Always is presented by the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Talks/Events:

Bronx Documentary Center: FOTOEVIDENCE PRESENTS COVID LATAM VIRTUAL PANEL DISCUSSION

May 15, 2021 at 6pm EST

Join journalist Alice Driver as she speaks with 10 members of the photojournalist collective COVID LATAM about the book Red Flag, winner of the 2021 FotoEvidence Book Award with World Press Photo.
Featuring photographers: Sebastian Gil Miranda, Fabiola Ferrero, Matilde Campodonico, Daniele Volpe, Gloriana Ximendaz, Ana Carolina Fernandez, Pablo Piovano, Rafael Vilela, Sara Wayra, and Fred Ramos of the COVID LatAm collective.

In this book, 19 photographers from 14 countries in the region have captured the impact of coronavirus from intimate moments in quarantine with family to raging fires in the Brazilian Amazon. The photographers have witnessed floods, riots, and funerals and watched their parents, children, and siblings struggle with isolation, loneliness, anxiety. The photos, like the red flag, tell a story of desperation and hope – one in which we recognize the role of community and the human desire for connection.

Please note: This event will be in both Spanish and English. Learn more here.

sepiaEYE: A Conversation with Qiana Mestrich

May 19, 2021 at 12pm EDT

Qiana Mestrich, whose latest series Thrall was recently on exhibit at sepiaEYE (February 15 - April 15, 2021), will be joined in conversation with Tasweer Photo Festival Qatar's Artistic Director, Charlotte Cotton.

The conversation will focusing on Mestrich’s creative journey through to her latest photographic series, Thrall. Mestrich will also talk about her impetus for founding Dodge & Burn: Decolonizing Photography History in 2007, which began as a blog and also functions as a monthly critique group online.

Learn more here. Link to Event (Register)

Fairfield University Art Museum: Art in Focus: Lalla Essaydi, Harem Revisited #31

May 20, 2021 at 11am EDT

Join Curator of Education and Academic Engagement Michelle DiMarzo for a discussion of Lalla Essaydi’s Harem Revisited #31, 2012, chromogenic print.

Take a look at the current exhibition By Design: Theater and Fashion in the Photography of Lalla Essaydi

Register here.