This post was originally published on February 18 2015.
Today we welcome Rachel Karasick, who works as a grant writer for the Free Library of Philadelphia. Rachel shares a fabulous exhibition and community celebration of fraktur, a historic Pennsylvania German art form. Framing Fraktur presents history and contemporary artwork in a unique and exciting format and it is accessible to all at the library. Today’s post is a preview of the exhibition, followed up in a few weeks with an additional article while the exhibition is open. ~ Laura
by Rachel Karasick
The Parkway Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia is located in Logan Square, which is one of Philadelphia’s most vibrant cultural centers. Among the Library’s beloved neighboring institutions are the Franklin Institute, the new location of the Barnes Museum, the Rodin Museum, the Academy of Natural Sciences, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Free Library is a cultural touchstone itself, though its incredible rare book collections are often overlooked by cultural tourists who are visiting other museums in the area. Over the past year, the Free Library has been seeking to connect with the cultural landscape around Parkway Central, and is about to embark on a very exciting exhibition called Framing Fraktur, which will bring a collection of contemporary artwork into conversation with an exhibition of original artifacts of early American art form.
Framing Fraktur exhibition logo. Designed by Marian Bantjes.
Framing Fraktur is a three-month, city-wide celebration of the historic Pennsylvania German art form that will open on March 2 and run through June 14, 2015. Fraktur is a manuscript-based folk art created by German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania beginning in 1683. Used for birth and baptismal certificates, writing samples, music books, and religious texts, fraktur were exuberantly decorated with tulips, hearts, angels, unicorns, eagles, and other motifs. As works of art, they are visually stunning, easily comparable to fine illuminated manuscripts, yet they are essentially domestic documents of a deeply personal nature. The Free Library’s fraktur come from several small communities in Lancaster County and Southeastern Pennsylvania and provide a comprehensive picture of the daily lives of early American immigrants. Framing Fraktur will feature a wide range of public programs and several parallel historic fraktur exhibitions across the region.
Below are some examples of historic fraktur works from the library’s collection.
The contemporary exhibition at the Free Library will be an especially unique endeavor for a public library. The contemporary portion of the Library’s exhibition, dubbed Word & Image, will show drawings, paintings, woodblock prints, and embroideries by Marian Bantjes (Canada), Anthony Campuzano (United States), Imran Qureshi (Pakistan), Elaine Reichek (United States), Bob and Roberta Smith (England), and Gert and Uwe Tobias (Romania/Germany). This group of artists was selected to provide an international and multi-generational context for the exhibition. Each of the artists use text or type as a visual element of their work, and all of them have stylistic connections to the fraktur collection. The contemporary exhibition is being curated by Judith Tannenbaum, a Philadelphia-based curator and writer.
“I’ve been working in museums and galleries for decades, but have not seen a major contemporary art exhibition in a public library space,” said Tannenbaum, explaining that she is especially excited to animate the lobby, galleries, and other spaces in Parkway Central with contemporary works. “Having people encounter art like this when they don’t expect it provides a new experience of what a library can be and how art can be a part of people’s everyday lives. I think that’s inspiring.”
The Library is determined to expand the appeal of its exhibitions to a wider audience by introducing new, inventive, and contemporary interpretations of its unique collections. Discussion of fraktur has traditionally been confined to the folk art genre, and the Library hopes that this contemporary exhibition will radically expand the conversation. The goal is for Word & Image to help current visitors to the library reinterpret and reengage with the historic fraktur collection. Major support for Framing Fraktur has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from the Wyeth Foundation for American Art, American Airlines Cargo, Christie’s, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and the Virginia Cretella Mars Foundation.
View a digital collection of fraktur from the Free Library of Philadelphia.
from Library as Incubator Project http://ift.tt/1G1I3oC
via IFTTThttp://ift.tt/1BlApGv
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