MassMu Brown Bag Features Popular Music Expert

Michael Lasser—music historian, author, and broadcaster—will speak about the popular music of a century ago on Tuesday, April 28, at Kent State University Stark Campus Main Hall Auditorium (6000 Frank Road Northwest, Canton) at 7:00 p.m. The lecture free and open to the public.

Lasser’s program, “The Hip-Hooray and Bally-Hoo: Popular Music’s Take on New York City,” will emphasize the romantic image of New York that appeared in thousands of popular songs in the early 1900s. He will illustrate how Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers, George Gershwin, and other songwriters gave voice to America’s image of itself—symbolized by New York City— in tight, jazzy songs that spoke for the nation’s heart.

“[Life in New York] was a strange cacophonous dream never before imagined in all of human history, as pulsating and noisy as it was romantic,” Lasser said. “It was a dream about a place where people came to seek life at its most exciting and make a fortune in the bargain. They lived in a city that chose to believe anything was possible, and then acted as if it believed the dream.”

Massillon Museum Curator Alexandra Nicholis invited Lasser to Stark County to accentuate the Massillon Museum’s main gallery exhibition of 50 black-and-white photographs of 1930s New York—“The Rise of a Landmark: Lewis Hine and the Empire State Building.”

Lasser and Philip Furia co-authored the recent book, America’s Songs: The Stories Behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley. After his program, books will be available for sale, and the author will sign copies for guests.

Since 1980, Lasser has hosted the nationally-syndicated public radio show, “Fascinatin’ Rhythm,” winner of a 1994 Peabody Award for letting “our treasury of popular tunes speak (and sing) for itself with sparkling commentary, tracing the contributions of the composers and performers to American society.”

A graduate of Dartmouth College, Lasser is the former theater critic for The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. For nearly 25 years has spoken at museums and universities across the nation, among them the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian National Museum of American Art. He is working on a new book, That Pleasant Ache: How Love Songs Sang About Us, 1900–1950.

Lasser will also speak at the Massillon Museum’s Brown Bag lunch at noon on Tuesday, April 28. The event, which will be held in the Museum lobby, is free and open to the public. No reservations are required, but seats fill early. Brown Bag guests may bring a sack lunch or purchase lunch from the Chit Chat Coffee Shoppe in the lobby of the Museum. The Museum will serve free cookies and coffee.

The Massillon Museum is located at 121 Lincoln Way East in downtown Massillon. For more information, call the Massillon Museum at 330-833-4061 or visit www.massillonmuseum.org.

Lasser’s programs are funded by a grant from the Ohio Humanities Council. “The Rise of a Landmark: Lewis Hine and the Empire State Building” was organized by and is traveling under the auspices of George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film.

Media Contacts:

Christine Shearer, Massillon Museum Director - 330-833-4061

Alexandra Nicholis, Massillon Museum Curator - 330-833-4061

Margy Vogt, Museum Public Relations & Lunch Series Chair - 330-844-1525

Do the Mu!—Local Allegories, Stories of Massillon

On Saturday, May 2, the Massillon Museum will host its monthly “Do the Mu” program, a free family drop-in activity time. The theme “Local Allegories, Stories of Massillon” will be based on the current exhibition of the same name by artist Jody Hawk.

Families and individuals are invited to join Hawk, a visiting assistant professor at the University of Akron, for a tour of the second-floor exhibition of three-dimensional collages based on the oral histories of local women. Afterwards, participants will create their own art inspired by Hawk’s story boxes.

The “Do the Mu” program, instituted by the Massillon Museum’s Educator, Jill Malusky Bacon, is free and open to all. Participants may drop in any time between noon and 2:00 p.m. on the first Saturday of every month for a tour, an arts activity, and a snack. No pre-registration is required. “Do the Mu!” receives funding from ArtsinStark.

The Massillon Museum is located at 121 Lincoln Way East (Ohio Route 172) in downtown Massillon. A visit to the Massillon Museum is always free. For more information, call the Museum at 330-833-4061 or visit www.massillonmuseum.org.

Media Contacts:

Christine Shearer, Massillon Museum Executive Director - 330-833-4061

Jill Malusky Bacon, Educator - 330-833-4061

Margy Vogt, Massillon Museum Public Relations Coordinator - 330-832-8469 or 330-844-1525

MassMu Garners Top State Awards

The Massillon Museum received three prestigious awards at the annual conference of the Ohio Museums Association (OMA): the Award of Achievement and two Visual Communications Awards.

The Museum earned “The Best Exhibition of 2008,” one of only two Awards of Achievement presented, for its 75th anniversary exhibition, “Eclectic.Everyday.Elegant,” which filled the Museum last summer, June 7 through September 14.

The Massillon-manufactured steam engine was on the lawn; the locally-made Jewel automobile sat in the lobby. The main first-floor gallery spotlighted permanent collection objects deemed by the staff and exhibition committee to be the best 75 pieces in the collection, which numbers more than 100,000 items. The second floor galleries were divided into spaces for a curiosity cabinet, a sports area, a timeline paralleling the history of the town and the evolution of the Massillon Museum, a Native American display, costumes, and photographs. Two of the vignettes reminded visitors of the Victorian parlor and the pioneer kitchen that were popular in the “old” building, when the Massillon Museum shared quarters with the Massillon Public Library.

Massillon Museum Executive Director Christine Shearer led the exhibition planning effort, working closely with the Museum’s curator, Alexandra Nicholis; staff members Mandy Pond and Chris Craft; Margy Vogt; and volunteer John Sparks. Andy and Keith Rock installed the exhibit.

“This is a real honor,” said Shearer. “We were selected among Museums of all sizes throughout the state in every budget category. The award reflects the quality of our collection and the expertise of the staff and volunteers who helped plan and install the exhibits.”

The 120-page soft-cover catalog that accompanied the exhibition included essays and color photographs of the Massillon Museum’s 75 most important permanent collection objects. It took the gold award (first place) in the level three ($250,000-$499,999) 2008 visual communication competition.

In addition to the leadership and written contributions of Shearer and Nicholis, sections of the book were written by Negussie Ayele, Christine Bracken, Christopher Craft, Tirzah Julius, Scot Phillips, Mandy Altimus Pond, David W. Schultz, Elaine Snively, Leora Traynor, Margy Vogt, and Kathleen Walker. Edited by Ann and Hugh Brown and designed by Margy Vogt, “Eclectic.Everyday.Elegant.” remains available in the Museum shop.

The 28-page catalog, also a full-color soft-cover publication, for the Massillon Museum’s “In the Garden” exhibition earned the level three silver visual communication award (second place). Christine Shearer was the exhibition curator and catalog author; Margy Vogt designed the catalog.

“The energetic young staff at the Massillon Museum stands out in the state of Ohio,” said Terry Potenzini, Executive Director of the Ohio Museums Association, from her Columbus office. “It’s no wonder the Massillon Museum set the standard for exhibitions and activities. They surely must be the sparkle in their community’s crown.” She praised Shearer for her enthusiasm and effectiveness as president of the OMA for the past two years.

The Ohio Museums Association Annual Awards Program honors outstanding achievement and visual communication. The 2008 Ohio Museums Association Outstanding Achievement Award winners were recognized at the Ohio Museums Association’s Annual Conference at the Sheraton Suites Akron/Cuyahoga Falls, April 5 and 6, 2009. Nominations and entries from the field are considered by a distinguished panel of five judges, selected to represent the diversity of the museum community.

Media Contacts:

Christine Fowler Shearer, Massillon Museum Executive Director: 330-833-4061

Terry Potenzini, Ohio Museums Association Executive Director: 614.297.2375

Margy Vogt, Massillon Museum Public Relations Coordinator: 330-844-1525

Brown Bag Features Nationally Recognized Music Historian Michael Lasser

Music historian Michael Lasser—a lecturer, writer, broadcaster, critic, and teacher—will speak on Tuesday, April 28, at the Massillon Museum’s monthly Brown Bag Lunch.

The program will begin at noon and conclude at approximately 1:00 p.m. The event, which is held in the Museum lobby, is free and open to the public. No reservations are required, but seats fill early.

Lasser’s program, “The Hip-Hooray and Bally-Hoo: Popular Music’s Take on New York City,” will focus on the romantic image of “The Big Apple” that appeared in thousands of popular songs between 1890 and 1940. The program will accentuate the Museum’s main gallery exhibition of 50 black-and-white photographs of 1930s New York—“The Rise of a Landmark: Lewis Hine and the Empire State Building.”

“Popular music became distinctively American in the hands of Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers, and George Gershwin, among others,” Lasser wrote of the early decades of the twentieth century. “It looked out over the nation from a vantage point on the east side of the Hudson River. For a while, New York stood for America, and our songwriters gave it voice. What we said, believed, and dreamed they gave expression in tight, jazzy songs that spoke for a nation’s heart.”

Lasser and Philip Furia co-authored the recent book, America’s Songs: The Stories Behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley. After his program, books will be available for sale in the Museum shop, and the author will sign copies for guests.

Since 1980, Lasser has hosted the nationally-syndicated public radio show, “Fascinatin’ Rhythm,” winner of a 1994 Peabody Award for letting “our treasury of popular tunes speak (and sing) for itself with sparkling commentary, tracing the contributions of the composers and performers to American society.”

A graduate of Dartmouth College, Lasser is the former theater critic for The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. For nearly 25 years has spoken at museums and universities across the nation, among them the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian National Museum of American Art. He is working on a new book, That Pleasant Ache: How Love Songs Sang About Us, 1900–1950.

Brown Bag guests may bring a sack lunch or purchase lunch from the Chit Chat Coffee Shoppe in the lobby of the Museum. The Museum will serve free cookies and coffee.

“We usually begin the program at 12:10, but this month we’ll start early,” said Margy Vogt, volunteer chair of the Brown Bag series. “We’re very fortunate to be able to present a nationally recognized expert, and we want to enjoy as many of his entertaining stories as we can during the lunch hour.”

The Massillon Museum is located at 121 Lincoln Way East in downtown Massillon. For more information, call the Massillon Museum at 330-833-4061 or visit www.massillonmuseum.org.

Bates Printing sponsors the Brown Bag Lunch series, which is in its seventh year.

Massillon Museum Curator Alexandra Nicholis, who has organized the Massillon Museum’s Lewis Hine photography exhibition, has also scheduled a lecture by Michael Lasser for the evening of April 28. He will speak at Kent State University Stark Campus Main Hall Auditorium (6000 Frank Road Northwest, Canton) at 7:00 p.m. That presentation is also free and open to the public. Lasser’s book will be available for purchase and signing following the program.

Lasser’s programs are funded by a grant from the Ohio Humanities Council. “The Rise of a Landmark: Lewis Hine and the Empire State Building” was organized by and is traveling under the auspices of George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film.

Media Contacts:

Christine Shearer, Massillon Museum Director - 330-833-4061

Alexandra Nicholis, Massillon Museum Curator - 330-833-4061

Margy Vogt, Museum Public Relations & Lunch Series Chair - 330-832-8469 or 330-844-1525

MassMu and Glenmoor CC Last Call for Artists

The Massillon Museum will present, in collaboration with Glenmoor Country Club, the inaugural edition of an outdoor art fair, “Gallery on the Greens,” on Saturday, July 11, and Sunday, July 12, on the grounds of Glenmoor. White tents filled with original art will line the boulevard that leads to the clubhouse.

Admission for spectators to the show on Saturday and Sunday will be just $5 (free for members of the Massillon Museum) to encourage artists’ sales. A VIP patron reception will be held on Friday evening. Each artist will be responsible for his own space and sales.

The entry deadline for artists who wish to be considered for the show is April 15. Any Ohio artist is eligible to submit a proposal. Tents (10x10 feet), tables, chairs, and overnight security will be provided as part of the $250 entry fee. Additional space, tents, tables, and chairs can be provided for an additional fee. The entry fee will not be due until the time of acceptance.

All media will be eligible. Artists will submit digital images of their work for consideration by the jurors. Cash awards totalling $600 will be awarded.

Artists may obtain entry forms with complete application information by contacting Sandi Thouvenin at the Massillon Museum, 330-833-4061 or sthouvenin@massillonmuseum.org.

Glenmoor Country Club is located at 4191 Glenmoor Road Northwest in Canton. The Gallery on the Greens will include a patron reception and silent auction on Friday, July 10, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.; the two-day public outdoor show on July 11 and 12 from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; and a golf outing at Glenmoor Country Club on Monday, July 13. Proceeds from the preview night, the art show, and the golf outing will benefit the Massillon Museum.

Media Contacts:

Christine Shearer - Massillon Museum Executive Director - 330-833-4061

Sandi Thouvenin - Massillon Museum Volunteer & Special Events Coordinator - 330-833-4061

Margy Vogt - Massillon Museum Public Relations Coordinator - 330-832-8469

MassMu “Mommy or Daddy and Me” Classes

The Massillon Museum will offer an art class for children ages three to six, “Mommy or Daddy and Me,” beginning on May 2. The class will meet with instructor Sandi Thouvenin weekly on four Saturdays (through May 30) from 11:00 a.m. to noon.

The $49 fee ($39 for Massillon Museum members) includes all instruction and materials for a variety of hands-on art and fun for parents and children inspired by the Museum’s exhibitions and collections. Each session will include a new project to take home and a snack.

“During previous sessions, we’ve also enjoyed having grandparents attend with the children,” said Thouvenin. “Our class is a happy, creative time to spend together.”

Massillon Museum classes are open to everyone. Advance registration with payment must be made for this class by April 27—in person, by phone (330-833-4061), or online (www.massillonmuseum.org). The Museum accepts cash, checks, Visa, and Mastercard.

The Massillon Museum is located at 121 Lincoln Way East (Ohio Route 172) in downtown Massillon. For more information, call Museum Educator Jill Malusky Bacon at 330-833-4061 or visit www.massillonmuseum.org.


Media Contacts:
Christine Shearer, Massillon Museum Executive Director - 330-833-4061
Jill Malusky Bacon, Educator - 330-833-4061
Margy Vogt, Massillon Museum Public Relations Coordinator - 330-832-8469 or 330-844-1525

Artist Jody Hawk to Exhibit Storyboxes at MassMu

The exhibition, “Jody Hawk: Local Allegories / Stories of Massillon,” will open in the second floor gallery at the Massillon Museum on Saturday, April 18, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., with a reception for the artist. The event is free and open to the public. The exhibition will continue through August 2.

The artist interviewed six Massillon women to assimilate their stories and create a storybox reflecting each subject. Each storybox is deconstructed as a digital composite and displayed as a photographic print above the real box. Some of the boxes were borrowed from the Massillon Museum.

Viewers hear each woman's voice—as she shares her interior strength, while viewing within each box reproductions from the Massillon Museum's photography collection as well as items from the women whose stories are represented. Hawk’s installations assemble each voice into a visual allegory. The boxes pull together different fragments of the women’s lives and interpret the wisdom and experience revealed through their stories.

“My artwork investigates the vernacular,” Hawk said. “Before 2006, my images primarily investigated the cultural landscape. I was fascinated by ornamentation to a piece of property and how a person might create a personal landscape.” When her grandmother died, she inherited a musical jewelry box full of mementos from trips; gifts of jewelry from relatives and friends; and scribbled directions, addresses, pictures, and notes. Her new work evolved from the jewelry box and its contents into an installation of objects with an oral history component.

A visiting assistant professor at the University of Akron, Hawk works with a group of local artists, Raw Umber, to organize art shows and was selected to present work at last year’s First Night in downtown Akron. For First Night, she collaborated with musician Gustave Aguilar, constructing a musical instrument made from found objects. The two were part of the Ingenuity Festival of Art and Technology in Cleveland. Hawk helps lead the Massillon Museum’s Art Explorers group of young people who have an interest in art as a career. She has shown her work nationally and her photographs grace public and private collections.

“Jody has interviewed a lovely array of local ladies with interesting stories to tell,” said Massillon Museum Curator Alexandra Nicholis, who is working with Hawk to install the exhibition. “It will be a joy to see the final exhibition, having watched it grow.”

The stories of seven women will be included in the exhibition: Amelia Sparks, Gloria Pope, Polly Cochran, Pat Beane, Isabel McFadden, Ann Arnold, and Mary Gibson (a tribute; she passed away before the interview).

The Museum’s Education Department of the Museum will base the May 2nd “Do the Mu!” free family activity time on the “Local Allegories” exhibition. After a tour of the exhibition, the artist will help participants create a project based on her concept.

On Saturday, April 18, visitors can enjoy two additional exhibitions, which will open concurrently with the “Jody Hawk: Local Allegories, Stories of Massillon” exhibition. “The Rise of a Landmark: Lewis Hine and the Empire State Building” will open in the main first-floor gallery. In the Fred F. Silk Community Room in the lower level, the Studio M exhibition, “Image to Image,” photographs by Walsh University digital photojournalism students will also open.

The Massillon Museum is located at 121 Lincoln Way East (Ohio Route 172) in the heart of downtown Massillon. For more information, contact the Museum at 330-833-4061 or visit www.massillonmuseum.org.

The Jody Hawk exhibition may be seen during regular Massillon Museum hours from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. The Chit Chat Coffee Shop is open in the Museum lobby from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Friday, and 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Saturday. Free parking is available on adjacent streets and in nearby city lots. A visit to the Massillon Museum is always free.

Media Contacts:

Christine Fowler Shearer, Massillon Museum Executive Director: 330-833-4061 or cshearer@massillonmuseum.org

Alexandra Nicholis, Massillon Museum Curator: 330-833-4061 or anicholis@massillonmuseum.org

Margy Vogt, Massillon Museum Public Relations Coordinator: 330-844-1525 or vogt@sssnet.com