Tuesday Nights: Meet the Artist Series – Thomas Blackshear

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Tuesday evenings in July and August at 5:30p.m.

Featured Artist: Thomas Blackshear
Over the past four decades, Blackshear has painted artworks for magazines, movie studios, and postage stamps, including a series he later released in a portfolio titled, The African American Tradition: Heroes of Our Heritages, which featured Rosa Parks, Dorothy Height, Ida B. Wells, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and others.

Meet the international artists featured in the Fantasy Art exhibition on view at the Museum this summer. Join us in person, or online to hear from these world class illustrators. Learn about what inspires them, their current work, and future aspirations, followed by a Q&A.

The artists will stream in from their studios far and wide. Join in person, via a large digital screen, on the Museum’s scenic terrace; now offering beer, wine and a specialty cocktail, and ala carte menu; bring your friends! Enjoy online with our NRM global community; we’ll share a fantastical cocktail recipe to make.

Price: 
Access to the online stream at the Museum is free with regular admission, cash bar.

Online participants:

  • Free for members
  • $5 non-members

Tuesday Nights: Meet the Artist Series – Brom

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Tuesday evenings in July and August at 5:30p.m.

Featured Artist: Brom
One of the most highly regarded artists of his generation, Brom creates haunting imagery for the horror novels that he writes and illustrates.

Meet the international artists featured in the Fantasy Art exhibition on view at the Museum this summer. Join us in person, or online to hear from these world class illustrators. Learn about what inspires them, their current work, and future aspirations, followed by a Q&A. 

The artists will stream in from their studios far and wide. Join in person, via a large digital screen, on the Museum’s scenic terrace; now offering beer, wine and a specialty cocktail, and ala carte menu; bring your friends! Enjoy online with our NRM global community; we’ll share a fantastical cocktail recipe to make.

Price: 
Access to the online stream at the Museum is free with regular admission, cash bar.

Online participants:

  • Free for members
  • $5 non-members

ONLINE SYMPOSIUM: Enchanted: Epic Adventures in Fantasy Illustration

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Saturday, June 19 from 10am to 12:30pm

Opening Remarks:
Sara Frazetta, Frazetta Girls


 Artist Panel One: The Frazetta Legacy in Contemporary Fantasy Illustration: A Family of Artists

  • Julie Bell
  • Boris Vallejo
  • Anthony Palumbo
  • David Palumbo

 Artist Panel Two: The Epic Fantasy Adventure
  • Allesandra Pisano
  • Donato Giancola
  • Gregory Manchess


Price: One admission price for the entire Symposium.
  • $15 members
  • $20 non-members - Pay What You Choose option available

VIRTUAL PROGRAM: Messy Modernism: Art in 20th-Century American Magazines

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Virtual Program
Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies Event
Wednesday, April 21, 2021 - 5 p.m.

Magazines are increasingly emerging as critical sites in developing a new understanding of the dynamic relationship between “fine” art and mass culture. Throughout the 20th century, a wide range of American periodicals commissioned artists to produce work for covers and feature stories, but many of these commissions have been left out of histories of modernism.

This session considers three case studies to convey the rich trajectory of art and magazines: Edward Hopper’s covers for the Wells Fargo Messenger, Mine Okubo’s drawings in Fortune magazine, and Saul Steinberg’s work for such publications as Life, Look, Sports Illustrated, and Time. The papers explore the origins of and motivations behind such commissions and analyzes the art as it was originally published in print, showing how advertisements, adjacent articles, and captions shaped the initial reception and understanding of the works.

Presenters and Topics:

Chair: Erika Doss - Professor of American Studies, University of Notre Dame; Rockwell Center Distinguished Fellow

  • Edward Hopper and the “Wells Fargo Way” Leo G . Mazow -Louise B. and J. Harwood Cochrane Curator of American Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
  • “Objectivity” in Wartime U.S.A.: Mine Okubo and Fortune Magazine Emily Hage - Associate Professor of Art History, Saint Joseph’s University
  • Beyond The New Yorker: Saul Steinberg’s Other Magazine Commissions Melissa Renn - Collections Manager, HBS Art and Artifacts Collection, Harvard Business School.


VIRTUAL PROGRAM: Freedom of Worship

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Virtual Program + Exclusive Q&A
Price:
  Members: Free | Not-Yet Members: Pay What You Choose

Conscience is the individual’s most sacred right. How do multiple belief systems benefit a pluralistic society and why should freedom of religion be a fundamental human right? Join religious leaders from diverse faith traditions in a conversation about Freedom of Worship and its role in sustaining our democracy. Panelists will include: Rev. Valerie Bailey Fischer and Rev Sam Smith

This program is supported in part by the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.

VIRTUAL FAMILY PROGRAM: Freedom’s Legacy

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Virtual Family Program + Exclusive Q&A

Honor Martin Luther King Day by joining in a read aloud and conversation about the book Ruby Head High: Ruby Bridges’s First Day of School by Irene Cohen-Janca and illustrated by Marc Daniau. Based on the  true story of Ruby Bridges, the first African American student to attend an all-white school in the segregated South, the story is also the subject of Norman Rockwell’s painting The Problem We All Live With which hung outside President Barack Obama’s Oval Office and is currently on view at the Museum. High school student, actress and singer Keely Rose O’Gorman will read.

Following the reading, artist Bria Goeller will join Keely in a conversation about The Problem We All Live With, her meme based on the painting which celebrates Kamala Harris’s groundbreaking Vice President elect status, and the role of imagery in shaping cultural narratives. Bria will also take questions from the audience, and especially from young people interested in her work.

Please submit questions to
learn@nrm.org.

This program is supported in part by the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.

ONLINE SYMPOSIUM: Freedom of Speech & Artistic Expression

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Virtual Program + Exclusive Q&A
Price:
  Members: Free | Not-Yet Members: Pay What You Choose

Reservations for the Symposium are closed.  You can watch the program live here or if you are having problems, you can watch it on the Museum's YouTube Channel.

Throughout history, illustrators and cartoonists have responded to the world’s challenges and upheavals with brilliance and ferocity. Navigating the technical and distributive realities of their times, artists create potent visual symbols and narratives that establish new visual metaphors and repurpose old ones, sometimes borrowing conventions from other media.

Panel 1. DIY Print Culture and Citizenship
Chair: Ryan Standfest, Editor and Publisher of Rotland Press
Panelists: Illustrators Sue Coe; Christopher Sperandio, Robert Sikoryak


Panel 2. Resistance and Mainstream Publishing: Media, Delivery, and Propaganda
Chairs: D.B. Dowd, Director, D.B. Dowd Modern Graphic History Library at Washington University in St. Louis; Stephanie Haboush Plunkett, Deputy Director/Chief Curator, Norman Rockwell Museum
Panelists: Illustrators Nora Krug, Anita Kunz, and Rudy Gutierrez

This program is supported in part by the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.

Media Sponsor:
Berkshire Eagle Logo

ONLINE SYMPOSIUM KEYNOTE: Freedom v Fear: A History of Anti-Fascist Art – A Conversation with Steven Heller

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Virtual Program + Exclusive Q&A
Price:
  Members: Free | Not-Yet Members: Pay What You Choose

ZOOM reservations are closed.  Please watch the program on the Museum's YouTube Channel.

Bloodless wars for hearts and minds takes place on a battlefield of perception. The weaponry is paper. The ammunition are posters, magazines and printed graphic design. This talk will address the power of propaganda, the concerted effort to manipulate the conscious and subconscious through words and pictures – typography and illustration.

Steven Heller has written extensively on design/illustration and Fascism, notably The Swastika and Symbols of Hate: Extremist Iconography Today, a nuanced and comprehensive examination of the most powerful symbol ever created.

About the Symposium:

For designers, cartoonists, and illustrators, many questions arise when creating art that takes up socially significant, sometimes controversial themes. Some choose the D.I.Y. route, working independently with a free hand, without access to the large scale distribution that comes with a recognizable masthead. Others work with leading news organizations and magazines, agreeing to collaborate in exchange for access to audiences. Popular art has always involved such choices. What are the tradeoffs? What are the rewards?

This program is supported in part by the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.

Media Sponsor:
Berkshire Eagle Logo

This timely symposium will explore historical and contemporary notions of freedom as well as the role of illustration as a force in shaping public perception. How has published imagery affected decision-making, public policy, and cultural understanding? Prominent authors, illustrators, and scholars will offer perspectives. Share your observations by participating in all or some of these compelling conversations.

“Just A Story” read aloud and art making with author and illustrator Jeff Mack

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Virtual Program
Date and Time: December 29, 2020, 11 a.m. EST
Price: Members - FREE | Non-Members - Pay What You Choose


Meet artist and illustrator Jeff Mack for a reading of his new book, JUST A STORY, a related drawing activity, and conversation. What can happen when a boy happens upon a discarded book that transforms a library into an escalating series of near misses and close encounters? With an exuberant art style reminiscent of newspaper comic strips, Jeff Mack brings imagination to life in this riotous tale about the power of reading.

Virtual: Quick Pic of the Week (for K-6 students)

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Quick Pics are short 5-minute videos that target students in grades K-6 and introduce you and your class to a images found in the Norman Rockwell: Imagining Freedom exhibition. Notice and wonder about the elements and details that go into each image. Learn some fun facts and participate in an activity inspired by each image.

A new image will be released each week, starting on November 9, 2020 and running through the conclusion of the exhibition on January 18, 2021. 

Learn more about this activity, download accompanying talking points, and access other curriculum on the NRM Curriculum Lab.

Moving Pictures: An Evening with Pixar Animation Artist Tim Evatt

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Virtual Program + Exclusive Q&A
Price:
  Members: Free | Not-Yet Members: Pay What You Can

Pixar Animation artist Tim Evatt will offer a glimpse into his career in animation and how he draws inspiration from the golden age illustrators, including Dean Cornwell, Mead Schaeffer, J.C Leyendecker, and Norman Rockwell.  This exclusive event will demonstrate a compelling, behind-the-scenes look at how Pixar animated movies are made. Tim Evatt is a 13-year art design veteran serving as a set and character artist on many of Pixar’s more recent releases: Toy Story 3, Cars 2, The Good Dinosaur, Finding Dory, Coco, The Incredibles 2 and the forthcoming 2020 release, Soul.  He has also been involved in the production of a handful of animated Pixar shorts including: Toy Story Toons: Small Fry, Toy Story That Time Forgot, and was the production designer for the 2020 Oscar-nominated animated short Kitbull.  He is currently the lead production designer on a major Pixar production that will be released in 2022.

Freedom from Want: Food and Culture

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Food is fundamental to personal, family, community, national and global health. Food is love. Food is culture. Every human is in relationship with food. Cookbook author Alana Chernila and NYU Nutrition and Food Studies professor Amy Bentley have each, in their own way, committed to the study and celebration of food and culture. In their work, in different ways, each invites us to think about the decisions made and comfort created from our own kitchens through paving the way for planetary wellness. And then there is joy. How can intention and care for our food relationships bring joy? Join us for a wide ranging conversation which will leave you with a renewed curiosity to enjoy and celebrate food while also bringing intention and awareness to the choices made each day and how they impact the larger food system.   Illustrator Whitney Sherman has made art for social good and humanistic causes throughout her career and will share how she sees visual imagery creating and shaping our attitudes toward food, health, and the environment. 

We’ll share Rockwell food related images as well as Whitney Sherman’s illustrations to build awareness and connection to health and the environment. All participants will receive a selection of comforting Thanksgiving recipes.

Panelists:
Amy Bentley
, Professor of Food Studies at New York University. She is a historian with interests in the social, historical, and cultural contexts of food, she is the author of Inventing Baby Food: Taste, Health, and the Industrialization of the American Diet (University of California Press, 2014), (James Beard Award finalist, and ASFS Best Book Award).

Whitney Sherman, Illustrator, Founding Director of the MFA Illustration Practice and Co-Director of Dolphin Press & Print at MICA. She is an associate editor and contributing writer to the History of Illustration and writer/editor of Playing with Sketches. Her award-winning illustrations have appeared in most major publications, and she is the creator of the Breast Cancer Research stamp, which has raised almost $90 million dollars for research; it is the first semi-postal and longest running stamp in the U.S. Postal Service’s history. Whitney has made art for social good and humanistic causes throughout her career.

Alana Chernila writes, cooks, teaches cooking and cheesemaking, and blogs at EatingFromTheGroundUp.com. She’s been a featured contributor for numerous publications, including Yankee Magazine, Martha Stewart Living, Parents, Fine Cooking, and Food52.com. She is the author of three books: The Homemade Pantry:101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start MakingThe Homemade Kitchen: Recipes for Cooking with Pleasure, which was nominated for an IACP award, and Eating From the Ground Up: Recipes for Simple, Perfect Vegetables.

Embedded: Illustrators and the Armed Forces

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Wednesday, November 11, 2020 (Veteran's Day) - 1pm
Price: 
Free (Virtual Program + Exclusive Q&A - reservations required)

Join Kristopher Battles, Michael Fay, Victor Charles Juhasz, Elize McKelvey, and Steve Mumford, who will discuss their experiences as embedded illustrators across the branches of the armed forces and the power of art to tell personal stories. The history of artist’s working in the field, from the American Civil War to America’s more recent engagement in the Middle East, will be explored.

Virtual: Quick Pic of the Week (for K-6 students)

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Quick Pics are short 5-minute videos that target students in grades K-6 and introduce you and your class to a images found in the Norman Rockwell: Imagining Freedom exhibition. Notice and wonder about the elements and details that go into each image. Learn some fun facts and participate in an activity inspired by each image.

A new image will be released each week, starting on November 9, 2020 and running through the conclusion of the exhibition on January 18, 2021. 

Learn more about this activity, download accompanying talking points, and access other curriculum on the NRM Curriculum Lab.

Exploring the Four Freedoms

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Price: $10 (Virtual Program + Exclusive Q&A)
FREE (Live Web Stream)

Reservations for Zoom are now closed.  You can watch this program for free by watching the live stream on NRM.org and the Museum's YouTube ChannelThe Zoom and YouTube links, with instructions, will be emailed to participants approximately 4 hours prior to each program.

Join three Imagining Freedom catalogue authors - outstanding scholars who will bring little known aspects of the Four Freedoms and Rockwell’s famed paintings into view. What did these stand for in their time? How did they shape perception and generate support for the war effort? Who were they speaking to and who was left out? What do they mean to us today?

Commentators include:
Allida Black, Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Millner Center/UVA and historian and advisor to Hillary Clinton (Eleanor Roosevelt & the Declaration of Human Rights: The Four Freedoms in Action);

D.B. Dowd, Professor of Art and American Culture Studies, Washington University in St. Louis (Essay title: Everyman, Meet Somebody: Characterization & Melodrama in Rockwell’s Four Freedoms);

James McCabe, Chief Collections Manager, The Henry Ford Museum (Essay title: Changing the Conversation in Detroit: Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms & the Four Freedoms War Bonds Show).

Imagining Freedom: Curator Preview

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Price: $10 (Virtual Program + Exclusive Q&A)
FREE (Live Web Stream)

Join exhibition curators James J. Kimble and Stephanie Haboush Plunkett for a virtual conversation about Norman Rockwell: Imagining Freedom. Freedom as an aspirational idea and its realities through American history will be discussed through the art and artifacts on view.

About Reservations: The program will stream for free on the NRM website and the Museum’s YouTube Channel.  Patrons who purchased the exclusive Q & A Zoom Session will be sent their unique Zoom link 1:30-2pm EST.

VIRTUAL PROGRAM – Liza Donnelly: In Her Own Words

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

A special gallery walk, live on Zoom webinar and YouTube

Enjoy this live (virtual) gallery tour of Liza Donnelly: Comic Relief with the artist herself, who will share background on her life, career, and love of the cartoon medium. Your questions and comments are welcome during this interactive session, which will explore the exhibition’s themes and the original art on view.

Photo Credit: Eric Korenman

ONLINE: SKETCHATORIAN: A Contemporary Twist on Classic Illustration

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

ONLINE Sketchatorian: A Contemporary Twist on Classic Illustration with Skylar Smith Thursdays “Drawing You into History, One Illustration at a Time” Join arts and cultural historian Skylar Smith for this series of snappy virtual art experiences exploring the social, cultural, and material underpinnings of classic illustrations, which are re-contextualized for today’s times. The continuity and evolution of American identity, branding, politics, women’s rights, and gender identity is explored with humor, wit, and a deep dive [...]

VIRTUAL PROGRAM – Liza Donnelly: Live from Rockwell’s Studio

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Due to an unexpected scheduling conflict, this program has been rescheduled to Tuesday, September 8, 2020.

Step into Rockwell’s studio with cartoonist Liza Donnelly, whose live digital drawing session and commentary will offer a unique virtual look into the legendary illustrator’s world. Her sketches and notations will document the trappings of the space that Rockwell called his “best studio yet,” from its easel, standing palette, and furnishings to his art supplies, inspirational prints, and travel collectibles.

VIRTUAL PROGRAM: Finding Funny in Complicated Times – Cartoonists and the Picturebook

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Join cartoonists and illustrators Liza Donnelly, Elwood Smith, Roxie Munro, and Marc Rosenthal as they talk about writing and drawing books for children and the role of humor plays in the many books they've authored.
This series is generously sponsored by


VIRTUAL PROGRAM: Finding Funny in Complicated Times – Cartooning for Peace

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Explore the work of cartoonists who use their passion for cartooning and social justice to inspire consideration of global issues and human rights through art. Panelists Liza Donnelly, Ann Telnaes, and Ed Hall are members of Cartooning for Peace, a group of international cartoonists working in support of world peace. The organization was envisioned in 2005 by French cartoonist Jean Plantu, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, and other who believe in in the communicative power of the cartoon medium.

This series is generously sponsored by


RESCHEDULED: Finding Funny in Complicated Times – Cartoon Marriage: A Conversation with Liza Donnelly and Michael Maslin

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Join New Yorker cartoonists Liza Donnelly and her husband, Michael Maslin. They’ll talk frankly (eek!) about how their marriage experiences have informed their work. Their cartoon roots and prolific careers will also be explored.

This series is generously sponsored by


Finding Funny in a Screwed Up World: A Conversation with New Yorker Cartoonists

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Tuesday, July 28, 2020 at 5:30 p.m. Virtual Program: available on Zoom and YouTube Reservations are no longer being accepted for this program.  The program will be live-streamed on NRM.org and the Museum's YouTube page.  Could you use a good laugh? We thought so. Join us for a lively conversation about the role of humor in challenging times with four really funny New Yorker cartoonists. Bob Eckstein, Ed Koren, Teresa Burns Parkhurst, and Michael [...]

VIRTUAL EVENT: Exclusive preview of LIZA DONNELLY: Comic Relief

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Museum Members, please join us on Zoom for a live virtual gallery walk with New Yorker cartoonist and visual journalist Liza Donnelly, before NRM's galleries reopen to the public.   Please check your email inbox for an invitation to register for the event.  Talk with her during a special Q&A following the tour. Become a Member The general public will be able to watch the event on the Museum's homepage and [...]

Justice and Equity Town Hall Forum

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

Please join in for an important community conversation on current events and the power of collaboration to create a more inclusive community.  

ONLINE: SKETCHATORIAN: A Contemporary Twist on Classic Illustration

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

ONLINE Sketchatorian: A Contemporary Twist on Classic Illustration with Skylar Smith Thursday June 11 “Drawing You into History, One Illustration at a Time” Join arts and cultural historian Skylar Smith for this series of snappy virtual art experiences exploring the social, cultural, and material underpinnings of classic illustrations, which are re-contextualized for today’s times. The continuity and evolution of American identity, branding, politics, women’s rights, and gender identity is explored with humor, wit, and a [...]

ONLINE: SKETCHATORIAN: A Contemporary Twist on Classic Illustration

Virtual Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Museum, Stockbridge, MA, United States

ONLINE Sketchatorian: A Contemporary Twist on Classic Illustration with Skylar Smith Thursday, June 4 “Drawing You into History, One Illustration at a Time” Join arts and cultural historian Skylar Smith for this series of snappy virtual art experiences exploring the social, cultural, and material underpinnings of classic illustrations, which are re-contextualized for today’s times. The continuity and evolution of American identity, branding, politics, women’s rights, and gender identity is explored with humor, wit, and a [...]

Land Acknowledgement

It is with gratitude and humility that we acknowledge that we are learning, speaking and gathering on the ancestral homelands of the Mohican people, who are the indigenous peoples of this land on which the Norman Rockwell Museum was built. Despite tremendous hardship in being forced from here, today their community resides in Wisconsin and is known as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. We pay honor and respect to their ancestors past and present as we commit to building a more inclusive and equitable space for all.

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