The Newseum In D.C. Is Closing

New York's WCBS Newsradio Eight-Eighty reported that the Newseum, an interactive museum in Washington, D.C. dedicated to the news gathering business, is slated to close its doors on December 31, 2019. The stated cause was financial difficulties which have plagued it over its eleven-year existence.

The museum, states Wikipedia, "promotes free expression and the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, while tracing the evolution of communication" in a space that has seven levels, fifteen theatres, and twelve galleries.

I've never been to the museum. But if it had been located in New York, where I live, instead of Washington, D.C., I would've been a regular attendee since I'm a journalist and an avid reader of the press.

Such an important institution about journalism, an important profession, should not be allowed to disappear forever.

Maybe the Newseum can be saved and relocated to New York, where a lot of media companies are headquartered. Bloomberg, Murdoch, and other media moguls, are you listening?

What's Your Choice--An Amusement Park Or A Museum?

I recently discovered a new television network called Dabl (seen in the New York metro area on WCBS, Channel 2.3). It focuses on lifestyles.

The first show I've seen so far is Doctor & the Diva. In their "This or That" segment, they asked this question: Would you prefer to be locked in an amusement park or a museum? Kimberley, one of the show's hosts, said she'd prefer to be locked in an amusement park because she'd be bored in a museum. Her co-host, Steve, said he'd prefer the museum.

Having spent many pleasurable hours in museums, that would be my choice, too. Museums offer so much to see, do, and learn, how could anyone be bored? Especially at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, my favorite, which is so large, with so many exhibits, you could spend the whole day there and not see everything.

Visiting The "Gay Gotham" Exhibit

I recently visited the "Gay Gotham" exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York. I viewed the exhibit, which was on two separate floors, three times this week. I'm looking forward to doing a blog post on it.

New York's Gay Art World

I'm looking forward to seeing the Museum of the City of New York's upcoming exhibit, "Gay Gotham: Art and Underground Culture in New York." It opens on October 7th and explores gay and lesbian influence on New York's art scene over the past few decades. It closes on February 26, 2017. I hope to do a report on it for this blog.

New York's Museum Mile Festival

I'm looking forward to the annual Museum Mile Festival when all the museums along Fifth Avenue in Manhattan are free (for one day), from 6 pm until 9 pm.

On that day, Fifth Avenue, between 82nd and 106th Streets, is closed to traffic, making the street pedestrian-friendly.

 This year will mark my 9th year attending the festival, which takes place on Tuesday, June 14, rain or shine.

 I usually start my tour at the Museum of the City of New York and end at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, my favorite museum. If there is enough time left, I visit one of the other museums, like the Jewish Museum. Unfortunately, there is only so much that can be seen in three hours.

 As I walked down Fifth Avenue during past festivals, I encountered many pleasant sights and sounds: outdoor musicians, food vendors, magicians, adults and children writing messages on the street in colored chalk.

I hope this year's festival will bring with it good weather. One year it rained, preventing any outdoor activity which is part of the fun of attending the festival.

Correcting A Museum Error

 I wrote and e-mailed the following letter to Stephen Petrus, the curator of the "Folk City" exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York on August 19, 2015. This exhibition focuses on the folk music scene in New York in the 1950s and 1960s:

Stephen Petrus, Ph.D
Museum of the City of New York
1220 5th Avenue
New York, NY 10029

Dear Mr. Petrus:

In the "Mapping Folk City,1935-1965" section of the "Folk City" exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York, I noticed a factual error. The address of Pacifica radio station WBAI was given as 359 East 62nd Street, which was an old church building. As someone who became involved with WBAI in the late '60s, I can tell you that the station did not move to that location until sometime in the mid to late '70s.

In 1968 when I produced two half-hour black history programs, WBAI was located in a cramped town house on East 39th Street, near Park Avenue. From there it relocated (very briefly) to 62nd Street, then to 505 8th Avenue, and finally to 120 Wall Street (alas an address I never got to visit).

The station is now in Brooklyn after operating for several months out of City College's campus station WHCR [in Harlem] due to its evacuation from the Wall Street area after experiencing the wrath of Hurricane Sandy.

Sincerely yours,
Charles Michael Smith

P.S. A heartfelt thank you for putting together such a beautiful and informative exhibition. I hope a lot of people get to see it before it closes next year.

Note: The blog post about the "Folk City" exhibition was published on August 1, 2015.

Folk Music In New York

After seeing the "Folk City" exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York this past Wednesday, and subsequently browsing through a display copy of its print companion, Folk Music: New York and the American Folk Music Revival by Stephen Petrus and Ronald Cohen (Oxford University Press, 2015), I want very much to read the book and learn even more about this exciting and influential period in music history when, to quote an exhibition poster, "folk music enjoyed unprecedented popularity in the United States." This popularity continued until 1964 when the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, the Dave Clark Five, and other British groups arrived during what was then called the British Invasion, which dominated the pop charts.

"Folk City," beautifully arranged in an attractive black and red color scheme, traces the roots of folk music all the way to the 1920s and is grouped around such themes as "Becoming Folk City, 1948-1958" and "The Politics of Folk." As an overview of the folk music scene in New York, it spotlights the entrepreneurs, musicians, venues, and songs that brought it into existence. This is done through the display of such items as photos, videos, record album covers, and artifacts like Leadbelly's 12-string guitar from 1937 and the sign from the Greenwich Village performance venue called Gerdes Folk City. Walking around the exhibition room, a museum visitor will feel as if he or she has taken a giant leap into the past.

One interesting feature of "Folk City" is the ability to hear songs that were recorded by Odetta; Peter, Paul, and Mary; Pete Seeger; Richie Havens; Harry Belafonte, and others. There are about four listening stations at different locations in the exhibition room. At these spots, one can put on a pair of recording-studio-quality headphones, and by pushing one of about eight buttons, hear songs like "Day-O" by Harry Belafonte and "If I Had a Hammer" by Peter, Paul, and Mary played in their entirety.

Also on display is a large wall map of Manhattan titled "Mapping Folk City, 1935-1965" that pinpoints the location of various record companies, organizations, radio stations, residences of musicians, and performance venues during those years.

On the evening I visited the museum, I attended one of the two mini walking lectures given that day by author and exhibition curator Stephen Petrus. As a handful of museum visitors followed him around the room, he highlighted important information about the period, giving some historical context, and explained New York's role in helping to popularize folk music throughout America and the world.

The "Folk City" exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York closes in January 2016.

Note:This blog post has been revised.