2009 Lecture Series



	2009 Lecture Series	The Albany Institute of History & Art 2009 Lecture Series is supported by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities. Additional support is provided by 74 State. All lectures, book signings, and performances are free and open to the public. Museum admission is not included. Times and dates may be subject to change. Call (518) 463-4478 for more information.
	*Please note schedule dates for John Cronin (now May 1) and Connie Brown (now April 3).
		Book Signing and Lecture Jennifer Lemak Senior Historian and Curator of African-American History New York State Museum February 22, 2009–2:00 pm Dr. Lemak's most recent work, Southern Life, Northern City: The History of Albany's Rapp Road Community (SUNY Press, 2008) traces the history of a little known African-American community located in Albany's Pine Bush. Most of its original residents migrated from Shubuta, Mississippi, to Albany in the 1930s and 1940s under the direction of a preacher named Louis W. Parsons. This presentation will chronicle the history of the migrants from Mississippi to Albany, challenges in preserving the Rapp Road Community's history, and discuss tools for community-based research projects.
		Lecture Joe Bruchac First Voices of the River: American Indian Stories and Traditions of the Hudson March 1, 2009–2:00 pm Joseph Bruchac is a traditional storyteller and writer whose work often reflects his Abenaki Indian ancestry and his lifelong interest in American Indian history and culture. Winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, and Storyteller of the Year from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers, his work has appeared in hundreds of publications from American Poetry Review to National Geographic.
		Lecture Daniel Bernard Roumain Composing for the River: Soundtrack for a Shared Dream March 15, 2009–2:00 pm Daniel Bernard Roumain was one of three diverse contemporary composer/musicians commissioned by the Empire State Plaza Performing Arts Center to create new music to honor the beauty of the Hudson River Valley and celebrate its rich cultural history. An innovative composer, performer, violinist, and band leader, the Haitian-American artist melds his classical music roots with his own cultural references and vibrant musical imagination. His compositions range from orchestral scores and chamber pieces to music for film, the theater, modern dance, and electronica. A native of Margate, Florida, Roumain studied music as an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music, completing his masters and doctoral work at the University of Michigan under the tutelage of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom.
		Gallery Talk Harry Wilks, Photographer April 3, 5:30 pm For 25 years, New York photographer Harry Wilks has been looking at this world from different viewpoints; from the roofs of New York’s skyscrapers, from the perspective of a concrete barrier, and the vantage point of a highway guardrail. On Friday, April 3, Mr. Wilks will host a gallery talk about his current exhibit, Hudson Valley: Spanning the Banks, on view from March 14 through June 7.
		Lecture Connie Brown, Artist and Mapmaker The Hudson and Its Watershed: The Making of a Map April 3, 2009–6:30 pm (new date) The Hudson and Its Watershed (left) is a definitive modern map created by Connie Brown and Duncan Milne of Redstone Studios for the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries. The map commemorates the Hudson River and its watershed and was created to encourage a sense of environmental, cultural, and historical stewardship of the entire watershed. Brown makes maps on canvas, using acrylic wash and pencil or pen. Her maps serve to celebrate or commemorate a place and are intended to be beautiful and geographically correct.
		Lecture Tom Lake Hudson River Estuary Program Naturalist New York State Department of Environmental Conservation The Ancestral Lure of the Hudson Estuary April 5, 2009–2:00 pm Tom Lake is an archaeologist who teaches anthropology at SUNY Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie. He also works for the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation's Hudson River Estuary Program as its Estuary Naturalist, where he conducts wildlife monitoring, research, education, and edits the Hudson River Almanac, a natural-history journal now in its 16th year.
		Lecture and Book Signing Thomas Truxes, author Defying Empire: Trading with the Enemy in Colonial New York April 19, 2009–2:00 pm Defying Empire (Yale University Press, 2008) offers a dramatic narrative of New York City's involvement in a thriving, forbidden commerce with the French enemy during the Seven Years’ War (our “French and Indian War,” 1754–1763 ), and how suppression of that trade by British authorities contributed to the coming of the American Revolution. Truxes, a historian and senior lecturer in the history department at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, brings 18th-century New York and the Atlantic world to life. Populated with spies, street riots, informers, courtroom dramas, ruthless businessmen, political intrigues, and more, Defying Empire traces each phase of the city’s trade with the enemy and details the frustrations that affected both British officials and independent-minded New Yorkers.
		Lecture Len Tantillo, Artist Painting the Valley: History and Process April 26, 2009–2:00 pm Len Tantillo was born and raised in upstate New York, and attended Rhode Island School of Design. In 1980, Tantillo was commissioned to depict a series of 19th-century structures from archeological artifacts and historic documents. Similar projects followed, many of which were located along the banks of the Hudson River near Albany. In 1984, Tantillo left commercial art and began the full-time pursuit of fine art. He has spent the last 25 years creating numerous historical and marine paintings, which have continued to draw a wide audience. Tantillo’s work clearly shows the combined influence of the luminists of the 19th century and the great marine artists of the past. The blending of his visual story-telling ability and a wonderful sense of adventure and excitement is evident in all of his paintings. Detailed observations are translated directly onto canvas and the images are brought to life with his ability to create a magical sense of time and place.
		Lecture John Cronin Director and CEO, The Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries The Hudson and Its Watershed May 1, 2009–6:00 pm (new date) The director of the Beacon Institute, a science, policy, and education research center, John Cronin is also the co-chair of the Environmental Consortium of Hudson Valley Colleges and Universities. He lectures on the environment at higher education institutions nationwide. He is a Shannon Fellow with the International Thomas Merton Society, at Bellarmine University, where his topic of study is the Ecological Theology of Thomas Merton. He is also an instructor at Bard College's Lifetime Learning Institute.
		Book Signing and Lecture T.J. Stiles, Author The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt May 3, 2009–2:00 pm T.J. Stiles has held a Gilder Lehrman Fellowship in American History at the New York Public Library, taught at Columbia University, and served as advisor for the PBS series, The American Experience. His book Jesse James: The Last Rebel of the Civil War, won the Ambassador Book Award and the Peter Seaborg Award for Civil War Scholarship, and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He lives in San Francisco. His latest book, The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, will be published in April 2009 by Alfred A. Knopf.
		Lecture Art Cohn Executive Director, Lake Champlain Maritime Museum What Lies Beneath: The Archaeological Legacy of Lake Champlain and the Hudson River May 17, 2009–2:00 pm Art Cohn is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum at Basin Harbor Vermont. A professional diver and nautical archaeologist, Cohn is also on the adjunct faculty of the University of Vermont and the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University. He has served as coordinator of the State of Vermont’s Underwater Historic Preserve Program since 1985. He led the 10-year Lake Survey project, which systematically mapped the Lake Champlain’s lake floor, finding more than 70 previously undiscovered shipwrecks. A 2000 and 2001 United States delegate to the United Nations Educational, Science, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Conference on the protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage in Paris, Cohn is the author of many publications, including his latest, Lake Champlain’s Sailing Canal Boats: An Illustrated Journey from Burlington Bay to the Hudson River. ASL interpretation is available for this event.
		Book Signing Edward F. Levine The Hudson-Fulton Celebration of 1909 May 28, 12:30 pm The Hudson-Fulton Celebration of 1909 honored the tercentennial of Henry Hudson’s great find for the Dutch and the centennial of Robert Fulton’s steamboat. These events anchored settlements along the Hudson River Valley and helped to define this famous region. The celebration, which coincided with the heyday of the penny postcard, was a multi-week, cross-state parade and party. Among its many vintage images, Hudson-Fulton Celebration of 1909 features unique postcards from the magnificent event by blockbuster artist Bernhardt Wall, renowned publisher Raphael Tuck, and an official souvenir series from the Redfield Brothers. Edward F. Levine began collecting vintage postcards 40 years ago. Specializing in exposition cards, he has assembled one of the largest groupings of Hudson-Fulton Celebration postcards.
		Lecture and Book Signing Jeremy D’Entremont Lighthouses and Keepers of the Hudson River May 31, 2009–2:00 pm Jeremy D'Entremont, a historian for the American Lighthouse Foundation and the founder of Friends of Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse, has been writing about and photographing lighthouses since the mid-1980s. His website, "New England Lighthouses: A Virtual Guide," was launched in 1997 and he has written several books on lighthouse history, including The Lighthouses of Connecticut, The Lighthouses of Rhode Island, The Lighthouses of Massachusetts, The Lighthouses of Maine, The Lighthouse Handbook: New England, and The Lighthouse Handbook: Hudson River and New York Harbor. D'Entremont's photographs have appeared in many publications, including Offshore, Soundings, and Captain's Guide.
		Lecture and Art-Making Anne Diggory, artist Artistic License and Artistic Truth June 5, 2009–6:00 pm The "Endless Hudson River Landscape," an interactive art project now on display at the Albany Institute of History & Art, is a multi-paneled view where the river once again goes on forever. The basis for the panorama was created by Saratoga Springs-based landscape artist Anne Diggory, who used images from the work of Hudson River School painters in the Institute's collection, as well as her own work, to create the panels on which members of the public have added their own images. Join the artist on Friday, June 5, for a talk about the "artistic license" used in her own work and in the Hudson River School paintings in the current exhibition. She will also discuss the interactive project and will encourage artistic contributions to the panels before and after the talk. ASL interpretation is available for this event.
		Lecture and Performance Jerry Silverman, author and folksinger New York Sings June 14, 2009–2:00 pm Jerry Silverman is one of America’s outstanding folksingers, guitar teachers, and most prolific authors of music books. In his most recent book, New York Sings: 400 Years of the Empire State in Song (Excelsior Editions/SUNY Press, 2009), Silverman has compiled a remarkable collection of songs about the people, places, and events of New York’s 400-year history—from Henry Hudson’s Half Moon to Pete Seeger’s Clearwater, from Montauk to Niagara Falls, from the sidewalks of New York to the lumber camps of the Adirondacks. Silverman has published over 200 books, including folk song collections, anthologies, and method books for guitar, banjo, and fiddle. He has taught hundreds of people, young and old, the joys of making music on the guitar and has performed in folksong concerts at schools, universities, and concert halls in the U.S. and abroad.
		Book Signing and Performance Hudson Talbott, author and illustrator River of Dreams: The Story of the Hudson River June 14, 2009–3:00 pm Author and illustrator Hudson Talbott will sign copies and read passages from his new children’s book, River of Dreams: The Story of the Hudson River (Putnam, 2009). This gorgeously illustrated tribute to America’s first superhighway is a wonderful introduction to the Hudson River’s strategic, economic, and cultural significance. Through his stunning paintings and intriguing text, Talbott celebrates this magnificent natural treasure and all the dreamers who have been affected by its power and beauty. Talbott’s appearance will be complemented by composer Frank Cuthbert, who will perform songs based on River of Dreams.
		Lecture Richard Rand Dove/O'Keeffe: Circles of Influence July 16, 2009–6:00 pm Richard Rand, the Senior Curator of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, explores Georgia O'Keeffe's life and friendship with modernist painter Arthur Dove, and his role in the development of her early abstractionist paintings. The evocative paintings of flowers and southwestern landscapes by Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986) have long defined her role as a distinctly American icon and one of the most significant artists of the 20th century. Yet a vital factor in her early development is frequently overlooked: from the outset of her career in the 1910s, O'Keeffe credited the work of Arthur Dove (1880–1946) as her primary introduction to modern art. Dove, acknowledged as America's first abstract painter, used colorful, dynamic forms to reflect his sensitive communion with the physical world. The exhibition Dove/O'Keeffe: Circles of Influence is on view at The Clark through September 7, 2009. Left: Georgia O'Keeffe, Jack-in-Pulpit - No. 2, 1930. Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm). National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Alfred Stieglitz Collection, Bequest of Georgia O'Keeffe [Image courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.]

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