JMM Insights: Special Reopening Lobby Exhibit
Recent Acquisitions on view October 17 through December 2, 2021
This week’s edition of JMM Insights comes from Director of Collections and Exhibits Joanna Church.
Though JMM buildings have been closed to the public for much of the pandemic, the museum was fortunate in that we did not have to pause our collecting, even when we were primarily working remotely. As always, our members, friends, and even the national Jewish community have donated many fantastic artifacts, documents, books, portraits, and photographs, with materials that literally span three centuries of Maryland’s Jewish history. Our Annual Report featured just a few of these pieces, but there is much more to explore.
Masked up and ready to lie on the floor to look at the underside of a 1940s baby walker. Walker: Gift of the Maryland Center for History and Culture, originally given to the Baltimore City Life Museum by Bernice Rivkin Sakols. JMM 2021.10.1
We don’t often have the chance to exhibit new donations so soon after they arrive, but to help celebrate our public reopening on October 17, 2021, we will feature some of these recent acquisitions in a lobby exhibit (which I’ve creatively titled Recent Acquisitions). Amongst these selections you’ll see some familiar themes, as well as some new types of material prompted by these “interesting times” in which we’ve been living for the past 18 months. While choosing which pieces to put on display we discovered a few common threads and areas of resonance, and we’re excited to juxtapose materials from different eras, owners, and donors.
This exhibit will only be on view for a few weeks, until December 2, before we shift gears to our upcoming gallery show, A Fence Around the Torah: Safety and Unsafety in Jewish Life (opening November 21, 2021). Make your plan to visit now!
Doors Open Baltimore
October 2021
Doors Open Baltimore is a citywide festival of architecture and neighborhoods, hosted by the Baltimore Architecture Foundation. The 2021 schedule includes a mix of in-person and virtual programs throughout October.
View the full schedule of events here.
Reminder: Executive Director Sol Davis is holding weekly office hours to meet you! Make an appointment for a virtual visit and share your thoughts, ideas, and aspirations for JMM.