Exhibitions on the Song of America Tour
At each stop of the Song of America concert tour, the Interpretive Programs Office of the Library of Congress plans to mount a highly interactive exhibition drawing on the Library's vast and varied collections. The exhibition will be inspired both by Hampson's repertoire and by the unique contributions of each city to America's musical heritage.
At two or more lively interactive stations, visitors will explore a variety of themes and materials, including photographs and prints, manuscripts, musical scores, and recordings, as well as maps and rare books. Visitors will be able to choose their own paths to explore the materials learning, for example, about the locations, eras, and influences that produced American regional music or discovering how the Library's holdings reflect a city's musical past. The interactive exhibitions will be geared to general audiences as well as aficionados, with special segments suited for children and young adults.
The Interpretive Programs Office will work with local institutions, such as the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, in developing the exhibitions and identifying appropriate venues.
The exhibition will not end once the tour is completed. The presentations will be cumulative. The Library will present a DVD with the entire program of all eleven cities, as well as the part of the display specifically related to that city, to a local library or other public institution as a "leave-behind" or permanent addition to its collection. The entire exhibition will become part of the Library's online exhibitions page.
Finally, the Library is prepared to offer its current touring exhibitions to venues in the hosting cities. These exhibitions include:
Bound for Glory: America in Color The first major exhibition of the remarkable color images of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information (FSA/OWI). Comprised of seventy photographs—spanning 1939-1943—the exhibition reveals a vibrant world typically viewed only in black-and-white images. These vivid scenes and portraits capture the effects of the Depression on America's rural and small town populations, the nation's subsequent economic recovery and industrial growth, and the country's great mobilization for World War II.
"With an Even Hand": Brown v. Board at Fifty The exhibition examines precedent-setting court cases that laid the ground work for the Brown v. Board decision, explores the Supreme Court argument and the public's response to it, and closes with an overview of this profound decision's aftermath. The exhibition features more than one hundred items from the Library's extensive holdings on this subject, including books, documents, photographs, personal papers, manuscripts, maps, music, films, political cartoons, and prints. A film compilation captures the historic events and highlights media coverage of the struggle for desegregation.
Creative Space: Robert Blackburn and the Printmaking Workshop An exhibition that includes a key selection of Robert Blackburn's own work, and a dazzling array of prints by collaborators and students, as well as personal friends and colleagues since the 1940s. The outstanding quality and breadth of these works attest to the enduring vision of the Printmaking Workshop's founder and director, Robert Blackburn, and the generations of artists whose lives he has touched.
Dates, Locations, and Registration Information
Coming soon.