Upcoming Exhibits

Say Cheese! Portraits to Pics

Opening June 6, 2012, 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Say Cheese! Portraits to Pics explores more than 150 years of family portraiture, from the earliest daguerreotypes to digital photography today.  Drawing on BHS’s rich photography collections, the exhibit examines the ways in which changing technology has impacted the many ways people have documented their everyday moments, family milestones, and special events over time.  Say Cheese! Portraits to Pics includes a wide range of photographic styles and mediums: processes such as ambrotypes and tintypes, prints from early twentieth-century Kodak cameras, and recently-acquired born-digital portraits. 

Say Cheese! Portraits to Pics is curated by the high school students in Brooklyn Historical Society’s Exhibition Laboratory program.  Now in its sixth year, “Ex Lab” brings together students from Cobble Hill School of American Studies, Packer Collegiate Institute, Brooklyn Technical High School, and Saint Ann’s School to create a new exhibit at BHS each year.  This spring, the Ex Lab team has collaborated with photographers Harvey Stein and Nora Herting, photography scholar Sarah Kate Gillespie, and  experts on photographic conservation, exhibit design, and graphic design to complete each stage of the curatorial and exhibition planning process.

To follow the progress of the Ex Lab team as they build the exhibit, follow @brooklynhistory on Twitter and look for posts with hashtag #ExLab .

Exhibition Laboratory is made possible through the generous funding of Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin, Con Edison and an anonymous funder. Additional funding is provided by Astoria Federal Savings Bank and The Ferriday Fund. Special thanks to Brooklyn Technical High School, Cobble Hill School of American Studies, The Packer Collegiate Institute and Saint Ann’s School.

Post/Forward

Post/Forward, an installation about Brooklyn Historical Society's building and BHS's forthcoming interior renovation project will open to the public in fall 2012.

BHS’s primary exhibition space on the first floor will be under renovation beginning in summer 2012. The space is anticipated to re-open in summer 2013 with a special exhibition to celebrate BHS's 150th Anniversary and a new exhibition gallery on the lower level that will feature an exhibition about abolitionism in Brooklyn as part of BHS’s In Pursuit of Freedom partnership.

During the renovation, exhibitions will continue to be on view in BHS’s first floor tile lobby and in the parlor galleries on the third floor, and the Othmer Library will be open for research.

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