STOCKBRIDGE — Readings at Rockwell, a new literary series highlighting the power of the written word through dramatic readings, will feature the works of three iconic American authors: Shirley Jackson, Toni Morrison, and Edith Wharton. The literary series, a new partnership between the Norman Rockwell Museum and The Mount, will take place the first Wednesday of each month from March through May, in the museum's galleries. The series, curated by The Mount’s Director of Public Programming Sarah Margolis-Pineo, aligns with Anita Kunz's "Original Sisters: Portraits of Tenacity and Courage."

Today “Original Sisters’’ feels urgent. It’s a heartening tether between untold histories and a threatening future. As a woman standing in Kunz’s hall of sisters, I felt a knot inside me loosen. Look who we are, I thought. Look what we can do...

When the Norman Rockwell Museum sent its “Imagining Freedom” exhibition on its international tour in 2018, something unusual accompanied artist Norman Rockwell’s famous Civil Rights images: a virtual reality experience. By sliding on headsets, 50,000 adventurous — and mostly younger — visitors connected “with almost every object in the exhibition through virtual reality,” said Rich Bradway, the museum’s digital innovation officer, and they interacted with how the art “connected to the culture and society.”

Electric light is something we take for granted. But just over 100 years ago, half of all homes in the U.S. were still dependent on gas lights and candles. In the 1920s, as the fledgling technology was introduced to more homes, Edison Mazda Lamps, a division of General Electric, began a marketing campaign exalting the warmth and impact of the incandescent light bulb.

From Tiny Tim to The Big Man and his bride, locals created quite a festive scene as NBC’s “Today Show” hosted by Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager broadcast from the front of The Red Lion Inn, courtesy of affiliate NBC 10 Boston’s evening anchor Priscilla Casper. The production was the first in a series from the network’s long-running news show highlighting America’s most festive Main Streets during the holiday season.

BTW Berkshires:
Original Sisters unite in Anita Kunz’ paintings

by Kate Abbott
December 5, 2024

It’s November 1936, and Amrita Sher-Gil is winning recognition throughout India as an artist. She was drawing crowds in Mumbai for her paintings, a woman sleeping on her back, three girls sitting together with sun washing over a cheek, a shoulder and bringing out the nap of cloth with a vivid […]

With Christmas now just weeks away, the TODAY Show is bringing back their beloved holiday series, “Merriest Main Street,” where they highlight towns and cities across the country full of holiday cheer and merriment, that attract crowds near and far. They are kicking off their third season of the series, with the town that is pictured in one of Norman Rockwell’s most famous holiday paintings “Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas.

Stockbridge, MA – October 28, 2024 – Norman Rockwell Museum served as a fitting backdrop for a naturalization ceremony held in the Museum’s galleries. In a standing-room-only event, 28 individuals from 20 different countries, including Bhutan, Brazil, El Salvador, Haiti, Iraq, Liberia, Russia, Ukraine, and other nations, took the solemn Oath of Allegiance, officially becoming citizens of the United States.

STOCKBRIDGE — As the 2024 election season enters its final moments, you can inspire friends, family, neighbors and strangers to cast a ballot with one of six digital get-the-vote-out campaign posters courtesy of The Unity Project 2024.

Toronto-based Anita Kunz has employed a distinct contemporary classical style of painting to create some caustic caricature and satire of the late 20th and 21st centuries (though to see her, you wouldn’t know she’s been working as long as she has). Her assignments as an editorial illustrator, however, like many of her generation, have not been consistent. So, she’s turned inward and outward to find inspiration for current projects.

Stockbridge, MA – October 10, 2024 – Norman Rockwell Museum (NRM) is pleased to announce several key appointments to its staff and Board of Directors, enhancing the Museum’s commitment to illuminating the power of American illustration art. "We are thrilled to welcome these talented and arts-forward individuals to our Board and team," said Director/CEO Laurie Norton Moffatt. "Their diverse backgrounds and their innate passion for bringing together art narratives and creative equity will advance and enhance our mission." Board Members Katherine Bergeron and Randy Grimmett, and staff members Russell Lord, Cody Baffuto, and Riley Andersen join a vibrant community dedicated to preserving the original art of America’s best-loved artist and serve as caretakers of a unique cultural legacy.

Nestled the rolling hills of rural Massachusetts, swathed by manicured grounds, sits the Norman Rockwell Museum. And there, side-by-side with the wholesome works of America's most beloved illustrator, is the world's dumbest cover boy: Alfred E. Neuman. "It's sacrilegious! It's an outrage!" laughed political cartoonist Steve Brodner. "But I do think if Norman Rockwell were here, he'd laugh his head off. He'd think this was fantastic." These hallowed halls are now home to the world's largest exhibit of artwork from Mad Magazine, co-curated by Brodner. "I was formed by Mad," he said. "My idea of comedy, humor, irreverent drawing comes from this."

“Every country used poster art historically to motivate engagement in one way or another,” says Laurie Norton-Moffat, CEO/executive director of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. As get-out-the-vote activity is reaching fever pitch, the Norman Rockwell Museum has launched the Unity Project 2024, a digital campaign using the power of illustration to foster civic engagement and participation through art.

STOCKBRIDGE, MA – September 17 – In March 1976, a great American portrait debuted to an adoring public. It was a bicentennial appreciation of George Washington … of a sort. Inspired by The Athenaeum Portrait, Gilbert Stuart’s 1796 painting featured on the one-dollar bill, this rendering of the first president featured one distinction. The original showed Washington with swollen, tightly closed lips due to a new set of ill- fitting dentures, while the 1976 version had a gap-toothed smirk instantly recognizable to America’s middle school reprobates. Equally recognizable was the blank stare that those same kids knew evoked the iconic question: “What, Me Worry?”

STOCKBRIDGE, MA — September 5, 2024– Norman Rockwell has a cherished place in the American imagination. So does MAD magazine. That Rockwell and MAD are as different as a Windsor chair and a whoopee cushion makes their unexpected interaction all the more fun. That interaction takes the form of “What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine,” which runs at the Norman Rockwell Museum through Oct. 27. Five ebulliently overstuffed galleries offer MAD layouts, drawings, toys, videos, back issues, board games, copies of foreign editions. It’s a horn of plenty of laughs. “What Me, Worry” is the (very) rare museum show in which visitors’ laughter is audible.

July 9, 2024—Norman Rockwell’s Freedom of Speech has taken on a new life online, as explored in a recent article in the New York Times.

“Across social media, his work ‘Freedom of Speech’ appears alongside all manner of strong opinions, from the highly serious to the absurd to the esoteric, enshrining itself into the lingua franca of the internet decades after its creator’s death,” the article notes. The painting began to show up in posts on Twitter/X in 2020.

Stockbridge, MA – June 25, 2024– MAD Magazine Finally Gets the Curtain Call it Deserves. Growing up, the Usual Gang of Idiots were the demigods in my comedic Pantheon; The show at the Norman Rockwell Museum is a perfectly curated collection of seven decades of their misdeeds.

Stockbridge– June 20, 2024– It’s an election year, so perennial presidential candidate and MAD magazine cover boy, Alfred E. Neuman, has once again thrown his hat in the proverbial ring. The imp-faced redhead has been a “write-in candidate” every presidential election since 1956, when he  rst graced the satirical magazine’s cover with his trademark slogan, “What, Me Worry?” His headquarters of choice this election season? You’ll find him amongst some 250 original illustrations and cartoons, alongside magazine covers and ephemera that make up the exhibition, “What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine,” on view at the Norman Rockwell Museum through Oct. 27.

Stockbridge, MA—May 6, 2024—Berkshire Eagle art critic Jennifer Huberdeau recently reviewed Mystery and Wonder: Highlights from the Permanent Collection. The article delves into the story and backstory of individual artworks to offer readers a personal “tour” of this intriguing exhibition. The piece brings into focus the subtle, layered, and richly atmospheric world of these illustrations, evoking the theme of “mystery and wonder.” The exhibition is up at Norman Rockwell Museum through June 16.

Norman Rockwell Museum has added two highly experienced museum professionals to its curatorial team. Seth Fogelman, formerly the Senior Exhibitions Manager and Registrar at the Whitney Museum of American Art, joins the Museum as Chief of Curatorial Affairs. Jane Dini, PhD, most recently the Andrew W. Mellon Senior Curator, American Art, at the Brooklyn Museum, assumes the role of Curator of Exhibitions.

In Memorium;

Marion Simon, Trustee

Anyone who met Marion Simon knew immediately two things: she lived her life to the fullest and spent most of her time and resources doing good in the world. (Left to right: NRM Board Members: Marion Simon, Robert Horvath, and David Klausmeyer. Photo by Rebecca Barrow.)

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), “Golden Rule,” 1961. Norman Rockwell Museum Collections. […]

American illustration is an exciting and popular field with tremendous cultural significance, yet paradoxically, one with an image problem. “Illustration,” defined broadly, lacks the centrality and heuristic coherence that the related field of fine art painting has. Partly because of this fact, the endeavor has had difficulty acquiring legitimacy.

Thoughts on Illustration from the Rockwell Center Society of Fellows

A Blog Series Introduction

Featured weekly in this month, a series of blog posts by Rockwell Center Society of Fellows scholars offer insights into illustration from vantage points meaningful within the diverse scope of their academic interests.

Rockwell Society of Fellows, left to right: Laurie Norton Moffatt, Director/CEO; Michele Bogart; Erika Doss; Christopher Lukasik; D.B. Dowd

Making Meaning of […]

Today seems like a perfect day to honor two modern visual storytellers, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, who happened to cite Norman Rockwell as an important influence. Happy Birthday to Mr. Spielberg, Norman Rockwell Museum Trustee Emeritus, who turns 69 today. The filmmaker has shown his love of Norman Rockwell's work by going so far as recreating the artist's Freedom From Fear for his 1987 film, Empire of the Sun. Last month, he followed in Rockwell's footsteps by receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. His latest film, Bridge of Spies opened in October to rave reviews.

Press Release – September 25, 2015

NEW YORK (AP) — Latest developments in Pope Francis’ visit to the United States. All times local:

8:55 a.m.

Pope Francis has signed U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s visitors’ book as he visits the world body’s headquarters.

The pontiff took a white card from his pocket and copied a lengthy message into the thick, bound book in the secretary-general’s conference room.

The secretary-general also showed the […]

A special reception was held at the United Nations Headquarters on the evening of Monday, June 30, to celebrate the opening of "We The Peoples: Norman Rockwell's United Nations." The exhibition, organized by Norman Rockwell Museum, is on view at the UN's New York City Visitor Centre, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the peacekeeping organization. Speaking during the evening's opening remarks, United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon said that, "We are so honored to now host the original Golden Rule as well as the United Nations drawing for the entire summer of our 70th anniversary year."

On August 15, Norman Rockwell Museum officially launched a new, comprehensive, online resource dedicated to the illustration arts. IllustrationHistory.org will serve as an evolving site, provide greater access to information about the field in which Norman Rockwell played a seminal role.

Illustration History is possible, in part, by a generous grant from The National Endowment for the Arts’ ART WORKS program, and an anonymous donor in […]

Press Release – June 30, 2015

We The Peoples: Norman Rockwell’s United Nations

With war raging around the globe, in 1941 when Norman Rockwell responded to the United States government’s call to artists to depict President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedom ideals, he turned to the subject matter he knew best: ordinary people. The resulting images became some of the most […]

Students from NYC’s Edward A. Reynolds High School learn more about Norman Rockwell during a recent visit to Norman Rockwell Museum on May 28, 2015. Photo ©Norman Rockwell Museum. All rights reserved.

Our educational outreach continues at Norman Rockwell Museum.

This past May, Norman Rockwell Museum welcomed back students from New York City’s Edward A. Reynolds West Side High […]

Photo of Mary Doyle Keefe (the model for Norman Rockwell’s “Rosie the Riveter”) visiting Norman Rockwell Museum, August 2012. Photo by Jeremy Clowe for Norman Rockwell Museum. All rights reserved.

Norman Rockwell Museum is saddened to learn of the passing of Mary Doyle Keefe, the original model for Norman Rockwell’s iconic “Rosie The Riveter” painting, at age 92.

Ms. Keefe was a […]

Congratulations to "New Yorker" cartoonist Roz Chast, whose recent memoir has won “Best Autobiography” from the National Book Critics Circle. Members of our staff met up with Chast at her home in Connecticut last week, to prepare for our upcoming exhibition of the artist’s work, which will be on view at Norman Rockwell Museum from June 6 through October 26, 2015. We had a fun, behind-the-scenes tour, and also conducted a videotaped interview with Chast about her life and career. Make your reservations now to attend our gala exhibition opening on Saturday, June 6, and meet this talented cartoonist, whose work has kept us smiling for years.

This past week Norman Rockwell Museum announced the recent acquisition of Norman Rockwell’s 1926 painting, "Boy and Girl Gazing at Moon (Puppy Love)" with a public unveiling of the original work on February 13, in the Museum's galleries.

Recently announced, our major gift from the Famous Artists School has been garnering quite a bit of press lately. This Sunday's New York Times reported on the substantial art and archives donation, made possible by Robert and Magdalen Livesey of Cortina Learning International, which still runs a version of the popular art correspondence course to this day.

This week the United Nations rededicated a large mosaic of Norman Rockwell's "Golden Rule," which hangs in their New York City Headquarters. Read more about the development on Norman Rockwell's iconic 1961 painting, which is part of the permanent collection of Norman Rockwell Museum.