Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature

Din Din
Photo: WC News Service

Get Stuffed
Paris (WC News Service) -- The Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, or the Museum of Hunting and Nature, in Le Marais, is something like the Museum of Natural History in New York, even the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. That is, without the dinosaurs and dioramas. And size.

It's the sensibility. The Marais museum, at 62, rue des Archives, is smallish on three-floors, boutique like, and its exhibits are, for the most part, stuffed specimens of small animals hunted by rifle-bearing shooters. Its largest pieces are brown and polar bears and, on the top floor, two gorillas -- who seemingly are about to share the pleasures au table.

Actually, I had hoped for more about stag hunting, the French version of English and American foxhunting. Except for a few statuettes and oil pictures, not much.

Museum Mile: The Directory

Almost at Every Turn,

Image of sculpture that will grace entrance
 to PAFA's new pedestrian mall at Cherry Street.

Parkway Turns up a Museum

By Richard Carreno
[Writers Clearinghouse News Service]

Academy of Natural Sciences

1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
http://www.ansp.org/
215.299.1000
The academy, founded in 1812, is the oldest natural history museum in the Americas.
Open Monday-Friday, 10 am to 4:30 pm; Weekends, 10 am to 5 pm. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas day, and New Year's Day.
Admission fee.

Barnes Foundation
Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 20th Street
http://www.barnesfoundation.org/
610.667.0290 (Lower Merion)
The foundation, now located in suburban Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, will move its art collection to a new home on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in 2011. The museum features the world's largest single collection of Impressionist paintings.
Admission fee.

Franklin Institute
222 North 20th Street
www.fi.edu
215.448.1200
The institute, a science museum, honors Benjamin Franklin, America's first scientist.
Open everyday, 9:30 am to 5 pm. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas eve, and Christmas day. Admission fee.

Moore College of Art & Design
Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 20th Street
http://www.moore.edu/
215.965.4000
The Galleries at Moore present works by artists from around the world, as well as by alumni.
Open Monday to Friday, 11 am to 7 pm; Saturday, 11 am to 5 pm. Summer hours: Monday to Friday, from 10 am to 5 pm. Closed Sundays and all academic and legal holidays.
Free.

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
North Broad Street at Cherry Street
http://www.pafa.org/
215.972.7600
The academy is the country's oldest art museum and art school. Its collection features American paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, ranging from the 18th century through to the 21st century.
Open Tuesday to Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm; Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm. Closed Mondays and legal holidays.
Admission fee.

Philadelphia Museum of Art
Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 26th Street
http://www.philamuseum.org/
215.763.8100
The PMA is an encyclopedic museum, though, based on an informal agreement with the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the museum defers to the Penn Museum regarding extensive collections in archaeology and anthropology. The PMA features more than 225,000 individual artworks in its Main Building and in its satellite, the Perelman Building.
Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm; Fridays, to 8:45 pm. Closed Mondays.
Admission fee (Donation requested on first Sundays).

Rodin Museum
Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 22nd Street
http://www.rodinmuseum.org/
215.763.8100
The museum, administered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, houses the world's largest collection of original casts by Auguste Rodin.
Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm. Closed Mondays and legal holidays.
Joint admission fee with PMA. Otherwise donation requested.

University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
3620 South Street
http://www.penn.museum/
215.898.4001
Though located in University City, the Penn Museum, as it is more commonly known, bookends the collection at the PMA in areas of archaeology and anthropology.
Open Tuesday to Saturday, 10 am to 4:30 pm; Wednesday, 10 am to 8 pm; Sunday, 1 pm to 5 pm. Closed Mondays and legal holidays.
Donation.

For more information: Parkway Museums District via www.parkwaymuseumsdistrict.org.

Museum Mile

On and Off Philly's Museum Row

By Richard Carreno

[Writers Clearinghouse News Service]

Stephen Starr --

At the Philadelphia Museum of Art
New * resto opens
The Philadelphia Museum of Art's restaurant has been rechristened Granite Hill, and is now open for lunch and dinner. The restaurant, formerly operated by the gargantuan New York-based caterer, Restaurant Associates, is now part of the local chain run by resto mogul Stephen Starr. On offer are 'modern twists on classic bistro fare.'
Pistoletto gets solo show
More than 100 paintings and sculptures by Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto will be featured in the artist's first solo show in the United States in more than 20 years. The exhibition, 'From One to Man, 1956-1974,' debuts 2 November. Pistoletto was 'at the center of sweeping change in postwar Italy, and his influence persists today as one of Europe's most innovative contemporary artists.'
Thomas Eakins in LA
If you've already seen Thomas Eakins newly refurbished The Gross Clinic, and are looking for a different thematic twist from the artist, a trip to Los Angeles might be in order. Pictures by 19th century Philadelphia artist, emphasizing the Eakins' keen interest in physical sport, will be on display through 24 October at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The show is titled 'Manly Pursuits: The Sporting Images of Thomas Eakins.' Of course, at home, the PMA also boasts many pictures along these lines in its permanent Easkins collection, the largest anywhere.

At the Academy of Natural Sciences
Philly's Best Museum?
The Academy has been voted the Philadelphia region's 'best' museum in beauty poll run by something called the 'Philly Hot List.' A total of 93,217 votes were cast, according to Philly Hot List, with Museum Mile's Academy garnering top spot. No vote breakdown was announced. Runners-up in popularity, in slots two to five, were the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology in University City, the Mutter Museum at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia in Center City, the Glencairn Museum in Huntington Valley, and, in fifth place, the Wagner Free Institute in North Philadelphia, near the Temple University campus.

At the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Art-at-Lunch Lecture Series Announced

PAFA's very popular noon-time lecture series will feature almost a dozen art talks this fall through December. A talk on Andy Warhol, 'The Artist of and his Critics,' will be held next, 20 October. Talks in the series, free to the public, are held every Wednesday.

At the Tyler School of Art

Tyler sponsors performance at PMA

A performance by Russian-born artist Yevgeniy Fiks, titled a 'Communist Tour of the Philadelphia Museum of Art' and which includes a tour of some of the PMA's permanent collection, will be conducted Friday, 15 October, in a program sponsored by Tyler, Temple University's art school. Those wishing to attend the performance should meet at 5:30 pm in Gallery 161 (Resnick Rotunda), at the entrance of the Modern and Contemporary Art Galleries. Fiks, who now lives in New York, will make connections with modern artists represented in the museum collections and 20th century Communism. The tour is open to the public and is free after paying the museum's admission fee. Admission is free to Tyler students with identification.

At the Institute of Contemporary Art

'Whenever Wednesday' sponsors 'travelog'

The ICA's ongoing 'Whenever Wednesday' program will kick off a 'staycation' lecture series of travelogs on art centers throughout the world. The first lecture, at 6:30 pm on 20 October, will be offered by Virginija Januskeviciute, a curator at the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania. Also featured in the series will be arts venues in Singapore, Beirut, Paris, and in Santiago. Admission is free to all.

At the National Constitution Center

New Journalism Prize Sponsored

The NCC, in conjunction with the Peter Jennings Project for Journalists and the Constitution, will sponsor a new eponymous journalism prize that honors the late television reporter and ABC news anchor. The Jennings prize, which carries a $5,000 award, will be given to a journalist whose work 'illuminates the Constitution's centrality to American identity and life,' according to NCC spokesperson Ashley Berke. The prize will be awarded annually. The deadline for entries for the 2011 prize is 1 November. The winner will be announced in March during a Jennings project program that will conducted at the NCC.

Museum Mile

Tate Liverpool, right

Is it a Worldwide
Fad? Picasso Seems to be Everywhere
By Richard Carreno
Junto Senior Staff Writer Bio

Tired of Pablo? The Philadelphia Museum of Art might be -- at least, for the time being. On the heels of the museum's last show, 'Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris, the PMA now just concentrating on its newly rolled-out big show, 'Late Renoir.'

Of course, that doesn't mean that the rest of us need to give up our Picasso fix. In fact, from Liverpool to New York and to, yes, even to Philadelphia, art lovers can still get up close and personal with even more works by the Spanish master. Like the PMA's show, the current worldwide Picasso exhibits, for the most part, attempt to frame the artist to a theme.

At the Tate Liverpool, the concept is 'peace and freedom,' highlighting works that demonstrate Picasso's commitment to those causes. Though Picasso's iconic Guernica is not at the show, other well-known pieces, Dove of Peace and The Rape of the Sabine Women, are. On loan from the Museum of Modern is The Charnel House. (The exhibit runs to August 30).

In London, at the Gagosian Gallery, the theme is the 'Mediterranean Years.' (August 28 is the concluding date).

In New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art titled its show, running to August 15, simply enough 'Picasso.' There's concept catch, though. All the works in the Met show are from its own collection. So the exhibit is limited to that context. Still with 300 pieces on view, that's nothing to sneeze at.

The Picasso theme at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, in Williamstown, Massachusetts, is 'Picasso Looks @ Degas.' It gets complicated. The show has a run to September 12.

Philadelphia? Of course, a return visit to PMA's modern art collection could be a local treat. For the more intrepid and hardy, a trek to the Barnes Foundation might be in order, as well. (I suppose this is just as good a time as any to say, personally, can't wait until the Barnes opens on Museum Mile).

Revolutionary Art
The PMA has kicked off a show, from its own collection and with loans from the Library Company of Philadelphia, that features artistry, including many hand-crafted furnishings, from Revolutionary Philadelphia. The museum notes that many of the pieces, at least, those once owned by Loyalists, fell into the public domain at auction after this Tory property was confiscated. 'Art in Revolutionary Philadelphia' is presented in the gallery adjacent to the Powel House Drawing Room.

Cultural Alliance Announces New Head
Tom Kaiden, a long-time officer of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, has been named its president. Kaiden joined the non-profit cultural advocacy group in 2001, and was its chief operating officer. He succeeds the late Peggy Amsterdam.

Moore College to Honor Three in September
Moore College of Art & Design will confer a 2010 Visionary Woman Award to photographer Wendy Ewald. handbag designer Judith Leiber, and museum curator Ann Temkin. An award ceremony will be held September 30 at the college. (Septa station: 19th and Market streets).

Temkin, in particular, is well known to PMA aficionados. From 1990 to 2003, Temkin was the PMA's Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art before going to the Museum of Modern Art as its chief curator of painting and sculpture. (The PMA's modern art position is now held by Michael Taylor).

Business leader to Head Academy of Natural Sciences
George W. Gephart Jr. must be doing something right. Just today, in the mail, I received a fund-raising letter from the Academy of Natural Sciences.

Gephart, a local businessman and a leader in the non-profit sector, was recently named the academy's president and chief executive officer. And it looks like he's coming out of his corner fighting.

Gephart will have his hands full. The 200-year-old academy, the oldest such museum in the country, is showing every wrinkle of those many years. Gephart, 57, until his appointment, board chairman of Main Line Health System, wants to raise the museum's profile -- and money. The academy has been hurting financially for many years.

Like the Franklin Institute, its neighbor on Museum Mile -- and, for that matter, the American Museum of Natural History, the mother of all such museums -- the academy faces a generational game change. One core constituency of natural history museums has always been youngsters. Getting these hyper/inter-active, 21st century thumb twitchers into 19th-century, Victorian-conceived museums isn't easy.

The Franklin Institute tried dumbing down, even changing its name to the hipster-sounding 'The Franklin.' The idea was drop the dead-beat 'institute' association. What do kids know from institutes? That effort didn't last long. Still, despite some crowd pleasing exhibits (the current one, 'Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt'), the Franklin, er, the Franklin Institute is still burdened by its behemoth building, a white elephant if I've ever seen one.

Actually, try two. I recently visited the Museum of Natural History. It's full-block edifice on Central Park West is another early 20th-century disaster. (Even the Natural History Museum in London, another generational architectural nightmare, works better than its New York counterpart, which houses dinosaurs and happens to be one, as well).

The problem is not what these museums do; it's how they do.

Why are stuffed animals in glass enclosed dioramas? Hard to see, uninviting, and off-putting perspectives. Moreover, old glass is reflective. Not great for picture taking, either.

How about an open habitat? I saw how this was very effectively done recently at Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Of course, the Raleigh museum is also housed in modern, 21st-century, purpose-built building. No dumbing down. No kiddie-land. By the way, the place was packed.

The academy's current exhibit, 'Creatures of the Abyss,' concludes September 6.