Culture in Context: A Tapestry of Expression

Visit their website: www.cultureincontext.org

Closed January 11, 2009

Main Building – 2nd Floor Galleries

Wherever people share a sense of identity, culture and community emerge. 
In New Jersey traditional cultures from around the world have taken root and flourish, each distinctive in its manner of expression yet linked in the human desire to create beauty and find meaning in all aspects of the life experience.  The exhibition brings together these diverse traditions – ethnic, regional and occupational – to provide visitors with an exciting opportunity to learn about the peoples and cultures that make New Jersey home.  All claim distinctive artistic traditions, from African-American doll making and Cambodian court dance to needlework and weaving from around the world.

With Culture in Context the New Jersey State Museum, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, New Jersey Network and the state’s six regional folklife centers examine and celebrate this rich cultural tapestry through an exhibition in the Museum’s refurbished Main Gallery, performances, artists residencies, demonstrations and workshops, as well as web-based resources (www.cultureincontext.org) and Podcasts. 

The project’s educational resources are linked with the New Jersey Core Curriculum Standards that promote the development of a culturally literate citizenry (Visual and Performing Arts Standard 1.5; Social Studies Standard 6.4; World Languages Standard 7.2).

Learning from the Masters

Culture in Context invites you to discover the traditional arts of New Jersey.  Each month brings into the Museum a different array of artists and performers who will demonstrate and teach about their art form and its cultural  or geographic context.  The diversity of arts is dazzling: African-American Gospel singing, storytelling and doll making, Cambodian Court dance, Irish pipes, Native American and South Jersey basket making, Abenaki weaving, West African drumming and dance, Puerto Rican music and dance, Irish set dancing, Chinese knot work, Ukrainian textile arts, Asian Indian traditional arts, Lenape traditional arts, Barnegat Bay decoy carving, traditional rug hooking and more.  A complete schedule of events will be posted on the Museum’s website (www.newjerseystatemuseum.org), along with related events statewide presented through the regional folklife centers.

Best of all, all these events are available to the public free of charge – an unparalleled opportunity to experience first-hand the richness of New Jersey’s cultural landscape.  You won’t want to miss any of these remarkable programs!

Culture in Context is generously supported by grants from The Bunbury Company, The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the Friends of the New Jersey State Museum, Hastings Foundation, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, National Endowment for the Arts, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and the New Jersey Historical Commission.  Additional funding was made possible by a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.  Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations in these programs do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.

Related Programming

Please Note:

Unless otherwise noted below, all demonstrations and performances will be held within the Culture in Context: A Tapestry of Expression exhibiton the second floor of the Museum’s Main building – most of these programs are offered twice a day (please refer to the calendar for details).

All of the Culture in Context: A Tapestry of Expression related programming are offered free of charge – no reservations are necessary:

November 6 & 13, 2008

Mary May – South Jersey Basket Making

11:30 am & 1:00 pm

Mary May became interested in making baskets as a hobby, then as a researcher and collector of the works of local basket makers of the New Jersey Pinelands in South Jersey.  She apprenticed with both Esther Parker and Clyde Jenkins and has become a master basket maker herself, teaching classes for both adults and children.  She specializes in the making of white oak splint baskets of traditional forms such as berry baskets, pound fishing baskets and eel fykes.

November 13, 2008

Maria Paczak and Eudokia Sorochaniuk – Ukrainian Embroidery

11:30 am & 1:00 pm

Eudokia Sorochaniuk, fearing the traditional clothing rich with distinctive embroidery would be lost as her family and many other Ukrainians were displaced from their homeland during World War II, dedicated herself to preserving the nyzanky embroidery patterns.  While still in displaced person camps, she began to record all the patterns she could find from the Hutsulshchyna region of the Carpathian Mountains.  In the U.S. she published the patterns and also practiced and taught weaving and embroidery.  She was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1999.  Maria Panczak is a folk artist of Ukrainian heritage who also carries on the folk tradition of nyzanky needlework.  She was an apprentice to Eudokia Sorochaniuk under the New Jersey State Council on the Arts Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program.

November 18 & 20, 2008

Ameurfina Nazario – Philippine Culture & Music

11:30 am & 1:00 pm

Ameurfina Nazario began using baybayin glyphs to pass notes to fellow students as a child in school.  Her early interest in the ancient writing of the Tagalog people of the Philippines blossomed as she dedicated herself to perpetuating and reviving the script.  She uses baybayin for messages she inscribes on both traditional Filipino objects such as the nose flute as well as on contemporary paintings.

November 22, 2008

Thunderbird – American Indian Dancers
(held in the Museum’s Auditorium)

1:00 pm

The Thunderbird Dancers bring the beauty of traditional Native American culture to both America Indian and non-Indian audiences.  They will offer presentations of traditional Lenape dances as well at the fancy dances performed in powwows throughout the United States.  Through their dedication to promoting American Indian culture through dance, the Thunderbird’s educational programs are among the most compelling anywhere.

December 2 & 4, 2008

Mann-Lih Huang – Chinese Knot Tying

11:30 am & 1:00 pm

Mann-Lih Huang is a master of the ancient Chinese art of zhong guo jie, or knot tying.  Originally designed to fasten clothing, knot tying is now a method to produce elaborate wall hangings and miniature scenes, both perpetuating the ancient art form and providing culturally significant home decorations.  Mann-Lih has taught knot tying and Chinese language in many Chinese schools in the state.

December 4 & 18, 2008

Hanan Munayyer – Middle East Culture & Crafts

11:30 am & 1:00 pm

Hanan Munayyer learned traditional Palestinian embroidery from her mother, a native of Galilee.  Hanan and her husband have dedicated themselves to collecting and displaying the traditional embroidery of Palestine to educate the public about Palestinian and Middle Eastern culture.

December 9 & 11, 2008

Gail Dufresne – Rug Hooking

11:30 am & 1:00 pm

Gail Dufresne, a native of Connecticut and a traditional textile artist, followed her mother in the tradition of rug hooking.  She dyes the wool, makes the strips and pulls the strips through canvas with a latch hook for her original hooked rugs, which present both early American and contemporary folk ingenuity.  With over 20 years of rug hooking experience, Gail also teaches the art to others today.

December 27, 2008

Alay Philippine Performing Arts
(held in the Museum’s Auditorium)

1:00 pm

Alay Performing Arts Inc. is a non-profit corporation fostering the recognition and appreciation of Philippine arts and culture through stories, music and dance. Alay is a Philippine word for offering.  The name was chosen because it exemplifies the group’s goal of offering and sharing Philippine heritage.

January 11, 2009

Hellenic Dancers of New Jersey
(held in the Museum’s Auditorium)

1:00 pm

An early interest in preserving the traditional regional dances of Greece, led Eleni Chakalos and her late husband to found the Hellenic Dancers of New Jersey.  In an effort to offer the dances of all regions of the Greek Islands, she learned to make the often elaborately embroidered costumes representative of each area.  Founded in 1972, the Hellenic Dancers of New Jersey, is a group of 40 young adults who are first, second, or third generation Greek-Americans, and are dedicated to perpetuating their heritage through enthusiastic performances of the regional folk dances of Greece.

Main Museum Building and Auditorium Galleries
205 West State Street, Trenton Tuesday – Saturday, 9 am to 5 pm Sunday, noon to 5 pm
Closed Mondays & State Holidays