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Past
Exhibits
The Museum’s fundamental commitment to education, arts, culture and history is reflected in both our current programs and our long-term planning.
Past exhibits at our museum include:
Becoming American -
Teenagers and Immigration, Photographs by
Barbara Beirne
In many ways, ours is a nation of immigrants—hungry for freedom, peace, and the opportunity promised by the American Dream. The realities of that immigrant experience are most vividly read in the faces and words of young people who have made this journey. Faithful to their native cultural traditions, but motivated to create a better life for themselves and their families, teenage immigrants have a unique vantage point from which to remind us what it means, and what it has always meant, to be American.
Becoming American: Teenagers and Immigration features 59 riveting black-and-white images of young immigrants by accomplished documentary photographer Barbara Beirne. Each sensitive portrait is paired with excerpts from Beirne’s interviews with teens from Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. All of their stories are unique, and we read in every quote—and in every face—the individual struggles and hopes of “becoming American.”
Barbara Beirne Photography
Through My Father's Eyes
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Photo by Ricardo Ocreto Alvarado
This groundbreaking
show will be the first exhibit presented
at the Smithsonian Institution to
highlight the Filipino American
community and the work of a Filipino
American artist-photographer, Ricardo O.
Alvarado (1914 - 1976).
The
Alvarado Project
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Photograph by Gina Grillo |
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November 22, 2008 – February 15, 2009
(completed) The struggle of immigrant children trying to
secure their own cultural identity is explored
by photographer Gina Grillo, herself the
granddaughter of Italian immigrants. She has
photographed citizenship ceremonies and
cultural ceremonies, as well as new immigrant
families at home, in an attempt to capture
the visual impact of assimilation. She was
given sole access by the U.S. Department of
Immigration and Naturalization to photograph
new immigrant arrivals entering through
O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.
She has also focused on creating images of
children of immigrants in the inner-city school
environments of Chicago and Brooklyn. The
photographs capture that special moment in
time when the immigrant's journey overlaps
with another of life's defining transitions: the
passage from childhood to adolescence and
maturity.
Gina J. Grillo Between Cultures Photography
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Photograph courtesy of From Haven to Home exhibition |
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December 4, 2008 – March 1, 2009
(completed) The American Jewish Historical Society has
created a colorful chronicle of America's rich
Jewish history, from the original 23 refugees
who landed in America in 1654 to the diverse
and important Jewish community we know
today. It shows why Jews from around the
world began traveling to America: to seek
refuge from persecution, discrimination,
and legal barriers to their security and
advancement. It documents the ways in which
Jews made America their home and illustrates
their contributions with faithful photographic
reproductions of original artifacts that frame
the uniqueness of the American Jewish
experience within the overall context of
American history and culture. "This is not a
Jewish celebration," explains the exhibition's
curator, Dr. Michael Feldberg. "This is a Jewish
celebration of America."
American Jewish Historical Society
- Boston
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"The Mortar Of Assimilation And The One Element That Won't Mix," Puck, June 26,
1889. Courtesy of the MSU Museum |
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February 21 –
July 5, 2009
(completed)
The role of caricature and stereotype
informing American values and attitudes,
is what this exhibit examines through
this collection of immigrant and ethnic
caricatures from popular graphics dating
primarily from the Civil War to World
War I, a period of massive migration to
the United States. To modern Americans,
the contents are sometimes humorous and
sometimes very disturbing. Nevertheless,
the collection offers great insight into
American cultural attitudes and is a
remarkable resource for the study of
American cultural history. These http://www.newamericansmuseum.org/images
remain a unique window on the past and
an invaluable tool in exploring the
roles that caricature and stereotypes
played in influencing American values
and attitudes about the multicultural
development of the nation, issues that
continue to impact our lives to this
day.
more info
Michigan State
University Museum
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Friday, May 1, 2009
at 6:00 pm
(completed)
You are invited to a unique lecture on Friday, May 1, 2009 at 6:00PM
at the New Americans Museum by Professor Ghada Osman, Ph.D.,
The presentation, entitled "A Community Between Two Worlds: The Arab
American Experience", will focus on the Arab American experience.
Professor Osman is the Director, Center for Islamic & Arabic Studies
(CIAS) Associate Professor & Arabic Program Director, Dept. of
Linguistics & Asian/ Middle Eastern Languages at SDSU.
more info |
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