Distinctive works, united by an emphasis on engaging the minds as well as the eye, pieces in the collections of teapots, African beadwork and contemporary culture, make a strong artistic statement. Kitsch and familiarity also prove to be a comfortable disguise for pointed social commentary in this amazing collection.

Sandy Besser has assembled a remarkable collection which is being showcased at the de Young Museum through January 13, 2008. In Africa, the beadwork of the 19th and 20th Centuries utilizes a visual code of “shape, color and iconography to comment on cultural affiliation, status, gender and age”. The collection chronicles the changing role of African beadwork as both a cultural artifact and an art form, with examples from Yoruba, Kuba and Zulu societies.

Named as one of the one 100 collectors in America by Art & Antiques magazine, Besser frequently curates gallery and museum exhibition, generously loaning pieces from his collection. He also serves on various museum and arts organization boards.

The Besser exhibition can be seen at the de Young Museum, Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, California. For further information, call (415) 750-3600 or visit www.deyoungmuseum.org.

The first exhibition in 25 years to focus on the drawings of George Seurat is on view at the Museum of Modern art in New York City. The 135 drawings, geometrically simplified an classically composed showing life in the city and suburbs would have him remembered as a great draftsman of the early era, were he not tohavae been the great painter that he was. Well remembered for being founder of Pointillism he proves to be equally as adapt in black and white.

“George Seurat: The Drawings” is on view at the Museum of Modern Art though January 7, 2008. The MOMA is located at 44 West 53rd Street. Open Mon-Thu,Sat-Sun 9:30am-6:30pm; Fri 9:30am-9pm   For further information, call (212) 767-1050. Or, visit www.mom.org.

Highlighting a distinctly American pottery form “Fancy Rockingham Potter: The Modeler and Ceramics in Nineteenth Century America” is on view at the New Jersey State Museum Auditorium Galleries till May 28, 2008.

It is especially appropriate for this exhibition to be in the New Jersey State Capital, as Trenton was the largest producer of Rockingham wares in the state and was once dubbed the “Staffordshire of America”.

Included in the exhibition are a wide range of objects with the distinctive “Rockingham” glaze, which resembles tortoise shell, as well as similar pieces manufactured with other glazes. Accordingly to the exhibit’s curator and scholar, Diana Stradling these pots have a story to tell…of American 19th Century pottery.

The exhibit has been organized by the Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature, University of Richmond Museums, Va., where it was on view before coming to New Jersey, the final stop of the tour.

The New Jersey State Museum Auditorium Galleries is located at 205 West State Street, Trenton, New Jersey.

For further information visit www.newjerseystatemuseum.org.

Objects from the highlights of the Western decorative arts collection of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, is now view at the Hermitage Amsterdam through May 5, 2008. Among the Art Nouveau major works are gifts made by Emile Gallé and the Daum brothers; Rene Laliqué and Carl Faberge gifts are also included.

At the end of the 19th,,the French government gave the tsars gifts in the ultramodern style in the hopes of gaining support from Russia in France’s conflict with Germany. The tsars were also sent gifts from the renowned French factories such as Sevres Porcelain works and Gobelins workshop

The collection includes jewelry pieces by Faberge, as well as a late vase from Galle’s workshop. The Hermitage Amsterdam is at Nieuwe Herengracht 14. For further information, call 31 (0) 20 530 87 55 or visit www.hermitage.nl,

One of the nation’s most eclectic museums, the Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont, has re-opened with enhanced galleries and new displays of items not seen before. Featuring four centuries of art, Americana, architecture and artifacts, the Museum has 39 galleries, including 25 19th Century buildings, housing outstanding examples of decorative arts, textiles, and carousel figures and rag dolls, among other things. Paintings range from Monet to Grandma Moses. The restored 220-foot long side-wheel steamer, the Ticonderoga is also on display.

The only original building to the Museum site is the circa 1835 Greek revival farmhouse, originally known as Weed House, that was in place when the property was purchased in 1947. It is now called the Variety Unit Gallery and houses entire rooms from the Webb’s homes in New York City and Old Westbury, New York.

The Shelburne Museum is located on US Route 7. For further information, visit www.shelburnemuseum.com or call (802) 985-3346.

A rare 5-panel opalescent glass window from the Tiffany Studios, designed by Frederick Wilson, a Tiffany Studios designer, is on view at the New-York Historical Society. This is the first exhibition of the five panels since their removal in the mid-20th Century from the Chapel at Stony Wold, in Lake Kushaqua, New York, for which they were made. Stony Wold was famous for its outreach program to provide treatment for incipient tuberculosis in working women and children of New York City.

The New-York Historical Society is located at West 77th Street and Central Park West. For viewing hours and further information call: (212) 873-3400 or visit www.nyhistory.org

Curated by Donald R. Friary, Deerfield’s director emeritus and senior research fellow, with assistance from Joseph Peter Spang, the museum’s founding curator and trustee, Samuel Chamberlain’s Deerfield, an exhibition of 25 black-and-white photos, will be on display as of July 23rd, at the Flynt Center of Early New England Life.

Chamberlain captured the nearly one-mile Street with photos that emphasized its long sweep, showing sidewalks and fences to emphasize it linearity.

Viewing hours are daily from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For further information call: (413) 775-7214

A series of focus exhibitions are being featured from the permanent collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. Six small installations ranging from 5th Century Chinese sculpture to 20th Century abstract painting will be on view. The exhibitions will lead up to the opening of Steven Holl’s innovative 165,000 Bloch Building in a few years. While it is being built, the Nelson-Atkins Museum will remain open with free admission and accessible on-site parking.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is at 4525 Oak Street.

A special historical exhibition of Andy Warhol’s entire diamond dust “Shadows” print series will be exhibited for the first time. The complete print series, 22 prints, “Andy Warhol: Summer Shadows I-V, The Complete 1979 Diamond Dust Edition” is organized and premiered through July 31st at Woodward Gallery in association with The Malloy Family Foundation.

The “Shadows” exhibition will tour this fall to the Quincy Art Center, Illinois; and to The Lemmerman Gallery at New Jersey City University in Jersey City. There will be additional exhibitions at select locations throughout the United States in 2005.

The Woodward Gallery is at 476 Broome Street, fifth floor, and is open Tuesday thru Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., August by appointment.

For further information (212) 966-3411, or visit www.artnet.com/woodward.html

“Portrait of a Young Woman”, oil on wood, an exceptionally beautiful example of Rembrandt van Rijn’s genius, has been acquired by the MFA. The painting, signed and dated 1633, is now on view in the European galleries of the Audrey Jones Beck Building, upper level, 5001 Main Street, Houston.

For information, (713)-639-7300 or www.mfah.org

Exceptional private art collections assembled by neighbors of the museum has resulted in “Behind Closed Doors”, at the Katonah (New York) Museum presenting art in all media created between 1954 and 2004, The exhibit, envisioned by the museum’s Executive Director Susan H. Edwards, is to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the museum. The overall exhibition dispels the notion of a linear evolution of art in the late 20th Century, supporting instead the evident pluralism that has characterized both Modernism and post-Modernism.

The Katonah Museum of Art is on Route 22, at Jay Street. For further information call (914) 232-9555 or visit www.katonahmuseum.org

For the first time, The Israel Museum (Jerusalem) will exhibit the world’s most valuable coin, the Aitna Tetradrachma, referred to in the numismatic world as the “Mona Lisa”. The Aitna Tetradrachma, equivalent to four drachms, is made of silver and weighs 17.23 grams. It will be displayed with other coins attributed to The Master of Aitna. The exhibit will also include another coin from the same period recently acquired by the Israel Museum. For information visit www.imj.org.il

The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, has purchased a rare 1850s work by British pioneer photographer Anna Atkins (1799-1871), the first woman to produce and publish a significant group of photographs.

The cyanotype photogram, a type of photograph made in sunlight without the use of a camera, is entitled “South American” and shows the direct imprint from a fern frond.

The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute is at 225 south Street, Williamstown, Massachusetts. For further information (413) 458-2303 or visit www.clarkart.edu.

Colonial Williamsburg’s “The Language of Clothing” exhibition was recognized by the Costume Society of America for “Excellence in the Exhibition of Costume”.

Annually given for outstanding achievement in costume exhibition, the Society normally recognizes up to two institutions; however, this year CSA representatives agreed that “The Language of Clothing” was in a class by itself and, therefore, was the only display to be thus honored. The exhibition featured more than 300 pieces of antique clothing, accessories and dolls. It recently completed a successful two-year run at the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum. The Museum.

Earlier this year, Linda Baumgarten received the Millia Davenport Publication Award for excellence in costume scholarship. Her book What Clothes Reveal, the Language of Clothing in Colonial and Federal America was published jointly by Colonial Williamsburg and Yale University Press, accompanied the exhibition.

The DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum is entered thru the reconstructed Public Hospital of 1773. The museum is on Francis Street, near Merchants Square, and open daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For further information, (757) 229-1000.

The Decorative Arts Society has taken the unusual action of naming two recipients of the 2003 Robert C. Smith Award for the most distinguished articles in the decorative arts published in the United States by citizens. One has been given to Charissa Bremer-David for her article entitled “French & Company and American Collections of Tapestries, 1907-1959”. The other recipient is Christine W. Laidlaw for her article entitled “Painting with Silken Threads: Fanny Dixwell Holmes and Japanism in Nineteenth-Century Boston.” The Committee states that the articles “admirably meet standards of the award.”

The award was presented on May 14th during a luncheon meeting of the Decorative Arts Society at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Sarah Nichols, Chief Curator and Curator of Decorative Arts, Carnegie Museum chaired the meeting as President of the Society; Naeve presided for the Awards; Kenny made the presentation.

Both articles appeared in Studies in the Decorative Arts; Laidlaw in the Spring-Summer issue for 2003 (pp.42-68); Bremer-David in the Fall-Winter issue for 2003-2004 (pp.36-68). The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Culture which sponsors the journal is directed by Dr. Susan Weber Soros. Susan B. Sherrill is the editor of the journal.

The Smith Award, named for the art historian Robert C. Smith, is presented annually. Committee members are Peter M. Kenny, Curator of American Decorative Art and Administrator of the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Dr. Jessie J. Poesch, Professor Emeritus of Art History at Newcomb College of Tulane University; and the Chair, Milo M. Naeve, Field-McCormick Curator Emeritus of American Arts at the Art Institute of Chicago. Committee members, former recipients of the Award, cannot receive an award during Committee service. Previous recipients are again eligible.

Anyone with information that may lead to the recovery of a Queen Atlantic gas/wood antique stove, green and chrome, with a temperature gauge which reads: Portland Stove Foundry Company, Atlantic, Portland and Maine, Pat; October 24, 1922”, is asked to get in touch with Officer Keith Cloutier of the Charlton, Massachusetts, Police Department at (508) 248-2250 or email cpd296rcn.com.

A resident in the process of moving, left the family’s antique stove till the end, but when it was time to move it, someone else had done so.

The purchase of a rare manuscript dated 1774, containing a most significant piece of music “A Song set to Musick by Mr. Chas. Thre. Pachelbel”, was made possible due to the generosity of Dorothy and Richard Freeman, members of the Raleigh Tavern Society. The rare book of music lessons by Peter Pelham III, an 18th Century Williamsburg (Va.) organist at Bruton Parish Church, who arrived in Williamsburg in the early 1750s, contains the previously unknown work by his former teacher and son of Johann Pachelbel, a 17th Century German organist and composer.

“…The music in this manuscript increases the beauty of music in the life of Colonial Williamsburg, something my husband and I consider a privilege to be able to do.”…Mrs. Freeman.

A new history of the Green Mountain State, Freedom and Unity; a History of Vermont, authored by accomplished historians of Vermont Michael Sherman, Gene Sessions and P. Jeffrey Potash, is now available at the museum at the Pavilion Building in Montpelier. Written for both the general audience and scholars, the one volume work provides a highly readable look at Vermont history from social, economic, political cultural and demographic perspectives.

Freedom and Unity will be available in paperback as well as hardcover at the Society’s museum shops in Barre and Montpelier, as well as at local and regional bookstores. For information, call the Vermont Historical Society at (802) 828-1413.

Sarah D. Coffin has been appointed as curator of 17th and 18th Century decorative arts at the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, effective 2004. This is a newly created position where she will be responsible for proposing and organizing national and international exhibitions, publications and educational programs, as well as overseeing the development of the Product Design and Decorative Arts Collection. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University and a Master’s Degree in Art History, with a concentration in architectural and decorative arts history from Columbia University. She has written numerous scholarly artcles, auction, museum and gallery catalogs and catalog entries. In Spring of 2000, Ms. Coffin co-authored The Gilbert Collection: Portrait Miniatures in Enamel (Philip Wilson).

An extremely rare, life-size plaster sculpture of the 18th century writer and philosopher, Voltaire, by the great portraitist Jean-Antoine Houdon, has recently been unveiled at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Regarded as a masterpiece, the sculpture known as “Seated Voltaire”, donated by The Ahmanson Foundation, is the only one outside of Europe.

“Seated Voltaire” may be viewed in LACMA’s Ahmanson Building at 5905 Wilshire Boulevard. For additional information (323) 857-6000 or www.lacma.org

An exhibition of more than 200 works of art, on loan from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, evokes the splendor of Egyptian art and funerary practices over a period of 4200 years, is presently at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia. The exhibited artifacts range in date from the 3rd millennium BC to the 4th Century AD…from the formation of the Egyptian state to the rise of Christianity in that area. The objects are arranged in chronological order to emphasize their stylistic development and thematically to evoke their original context in the ancient tombs or temples. The Egyptian collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is the oldest in the United States and one of the most important in the world, known for its excellence in both depth and breadth. Much of the collection is from 40 years of archaeological excavations conducted by Dr. George A. Reisner between 1905 and 1942, on behalf of the MFA and Harvard.

The exhibition, Glories of Ancient Egypt, is at the High Museum of Art, 1280 Peachtree Street at 16th Street, Atlanta, Georgia. For information call (404) 733-HIGH or visit www.high.org.

Now on view, through May 31st, an exhibition of “Cecil Beaton: Portraits”, at the National Portrait Gallery, in London, England. This exhibition, of more than 150 photographs of famous people representing high society, theatre and glamour, has been mounted in order to commemorate the five decades of fashion, celebrity and art, as viewed through Beaton’s camera. Among the luminaries featured are such far-ranging personalities as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Katharine Hepburn, the Rolling Stones, Orson Welles, Twiggy, Coco Chanel, Picasso and Johnny Weissmuler. Born in London, in 1904, Beaton was known for his images of elegance, glamour and style. He died in 1980.

The Moderna Museet Museum, in Stockholm, Sweden, is the recipient of seven works of art by the noted Swiss painter and graphic artist Paul Klee (1879-1940). The paintings, donated by an avid collector of Swedish and international art, is an important addition to the museum’s collection.

Built in 1850, the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, England) has recently opened newly renovated painting galleries. Turner, Constable, and others of their era, are featured in three galleries, focusing on their interpretation of the British landscape. Another gallery focuses on other British artists. A fifth gallery is devoted to the collection of Constantine Ionides, of mainly 19th Century paintings and European artists, including Delacroix, Degas, Tintoretto and Botticelli, Among the other items on view in the gallery from the Ionides collection are Oriental ceramics and French sculpture.

The Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, London SW7, is open from 10a.m. to 5:45p.m., daily except Sunday, and until 10p.m. on Wednesdays and the final Friday of each month. For information (20) 7942 2000 or www.vam.ac.uk

An 1891 design for a hydroelectric plant at Niagara Falls, an aluminum tennis racket, a telescoping shopping cart, a goose decoy in a carrying case and an electromechnical fly catcher...doodles and drawings done by engineers sometimes qualify as art, according to the Smithsonian Institution. Therefore, they have framed 74 to send around the country for display in museums. Also included are drawings from a 1938 patent for the Maidenform Bra to a 1904 project for New York’s Grand Central Terminal.

Put together at the National Museum of American History, “Doodles, Drafts and Designs” opens January 31st at the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle, Washington. The show will eventually travel to California, Iowa, New York and Texas.

A schedule of programming in conjunction with the “From El Greco to Picasso: European Masterworks from The Philips Collection” and “Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series from The Philips Collection” leads off specially developed events opened January 31st, at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, 919 Broadway.

The “Off the Wall” lecture series inaugurated with the “Art of Tennessee” exhibitions continues during the winter with a focus on “From el Greco to Picasso”. For information (615) 244-3340 or www.fristcenter.org

A new exhibit, continuing the program benefiting the public as well as the people who live and work in the Governor’s mansion in Baton Rouge, La., places Louisiana art works on display in the showplace of Louisiana. For the past several years, art in the public rooms gives visitors a quick taste of the talent of Louisiana. A trio of accurate color drawings of the Old State Capitol, the work of Jim Blanchard, who specializes in beautiful, intricate representations of historic buildings, is on loan from the LSU Museum of Art. Also on view, on loan from the Historic New Orleans Collection, is a remarkably fine John McCrady, “The Emporium”, 1946, as well as a drawing by Paul Dufour, a painting by Knute Holdner and two great photographs by A..J. Meek, and many others.

A new exhibition, focusing on the ways the female form is represented, “Figuring Women: Works from the Permanent collection”, will be on view at the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, New York, from January 11th to May 16th.

The exhibition includes among others, works of Goya, Modigliana, and Toulouse-Lautrec; a Syrian female idol, circa 2200 B.C, and an etching and ink wash “Femme Profile”, by Georges Rouault.

This exhibition includes Modigliani’s "Portrait d’une Jeune Fille (Portrait of a Young Girl)," which has just been returned to the Neuberger Museum’s permanent collection. Guest curator Jane Kromm, Purchase College associate professor of art history, has organized the exhibition in co-ordination with her spring 2004 seminar, "The Body in Modern Figuring Women Art." She is the author of The Art of Frenzy: Public Madness in the Visual Culture of Europe 1500-1850 (Continuum, 2002).

For information call (212) 251-6100 or www.neuberger.org.

The Fort Ward Museum’s new exhibit on view highlights the importance of object conservation, which presents one of the biggest challenges for the small museum. Scientific investigation, research and professional collaboration have contributed to a better understanding of the processes of deterioration, thereby aiding in safer methods of treatment and conservation.

Fort Ward, in Alexandria Virginia, is the best preserved fortification of the Defenses of Washington, which were built to protect the Union capital during the Civil War. It offers changing exhibits, tours, and lectures, as well as other features throughout the year. Among some of the original objects in the collection are: an engraving entitled The Last Meeting of Lee and Jackson, Colonel Elmer Ellsworth’s kepi, and the latest acquisition, a soldier’s pencil sketch of Fort Lyon.

Fort Ward Museum and Historic Site is at 4301 West Braddock Road. For further information. (703) 838-4848.

The Frick Collection, 1 East 70th Street, New York City, has commenced offering the public an ongoing program on the first and third Fridays of the month. The program debuted on December 5th with A Gilded Age Studio: The Enamels Room in the Frick House followed by a presentation on John Constable’s painting, Salisbury Cathedral.

Reservations are not necessary; however, topics are subject to change. The continuing program will add to the new Friday evening hours currently offered by the Frick. The museum is open on Fridays until 9 p.m., with refreshments available in the Garden Court from 6 pm. For information, (212) 288-0700 or www.frick.org.

The expansion project for the Eiteljorg Museum, in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, will more than double the size of the museum dedicated to American Indian and Western art.

The expansion groundbreaking ceremony…set for December 9th…will add 45,000 square feet on the museum’s interior, adding space for exhibitions and classrooms, as well as a sculpture court and 2.9 acres of outdoor terrace and garden space, replacing an existing terrace, small grassy area and parking lot. The sculpture court will greatly expand the use of the museum. “Because it will accommodate up to 300 people, it will allow us to host after-hours space dinners and other functions”, according to John Vanausdall, Eiteljorg’s president and CEO. September, 2005, is the anticipated completion date for the expansion.

After being closed for reinstallation for a year, the gallery of Art of Sub-Saharan Africa at the Cleveland Museum of Art has re-opened and is showcasing the museum’s finest examples of art from Africa, south of the Sahara. 62 objects in wood, terra-cotta, brass, ivory, cloth and other media are on display. The majority of works are wooden masks and figures made in West and Central Africa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The 128-page catalog, South of the Sahara, Selected Works of African Art, written by CMA’s associate curator of African Art, Constantine Petridis, which includes 42 objects, an introductory essay, and a map, is available in hardcover ($45) or soft ($30). Admission to the gallery and to the Museum is free. For information call (888) CMA-0033 or visit www.ClevelandArt.org.

Purchased by Historic Deerfield’s President Philip Zea, a Queen Anne slant front desk, made in Boston, circa 1735, probably owned by Deerfield ’s eminent 18th Century physician Thomas Williams, has returned to its home. It will be on display in the museum’s Dwight House with other pieces of early furniture owned by that influential village family. "This early Boston desk is a great acquisition for Deerfield because it was owned right here in the village and says a great deal about consumption patterns and taste in the Connecticut Valley" is part of the comments made by Mr. Zea. In excellent condition, the three-drawer, walnut veneered desk with hinged lid joins the museum’s renowned and choice collection of 17th, 18th and 19th Century furniture and related decorative arts made in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. For information call (413) 775-7127 or visit www.historicdeerfield.org.

The George Romney painting of one of the only two female founding members of the Royal Academy, one of the most celebrated women artists in 18 th Century Britain, Mary Moser (1744-1819), has been purchased and is now on exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in London. This is one of only two known painted likenesses of Moser. One of Romney’s first portraits of a charismatic and successful woman, painted circa 1770-1771, it has much in common with later portraits of celebrated women such as Emma Hamilton and Sarah Siddons. The portrait purchase was made possible by grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and National Art Collections Fund. For information 020 7312 2451 or www.npg.org.uk

Director John Holverson, of the Museum of Glass and Ceramics, South Portland, Maine, has announced that recent gifts to the museum’s permanent collection show a wide variety of techniques and includes works by important contemporary artists never before represented in its collection. The three gifts include an important fused glass illuminated plaque by Edris Eckharadt, an innovator in the technique called "Zwischengoldglas"; a major cast-glass and bronze sculpture by Rhode Island artist Dan Clayman; and a Venetian-style glass goblet by Bill Gudenrath, of Corning, NY. All were given by long-time trustee Edith R. Lawson, in memory of her late husband, noted glass collector and former Jones Museum trustee, John B. Lawson.

The Asheford Institute of Antiques (AIA), in Destin, Florida, recently joined with the International Society of Appraisers (ISA) to expand its student services to the area of professional appraising. That the need for qualified appraisers in the field of antiques and collectibles has never been greater, is the concern of both organizations. "The newly formed partnership with ISA would enhance the distance-learning program offered by the Institute, and probe invaluable to the entire student body", according to Charles Green, director of AIA. For information, (850) 654-1585 or www.asheford.com.

Colonial Williamsburg has announced that they are the recipients of a Rockefeller Foundation grant to support research and design of Colonial Williamsburg Foundation interpretive programs about the role of Native Americans in early Virginia. The Native American story in colonial Virginia has been part of Colonial Williamsburg’s educational programming theme Becoming Americans: Our Struggle to be Both Free and Equal. It relates the attempts of Native Americans, European settlers and African Americans to secure their interests through trade, negotiation and armed conflict. Rex Ellis, vice president of the Historic Area, will oversee Native American research and programming development; Frances Burroughs, Colonial Williamsburg’s associate producer of educational media and Robin Reed, director of Historic Area program planning and production, will lead the Native American Indian History and Culture task force.

Father of Colonial Williamsburg benefactor John D. Rockefeller Jr., John Davidson Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil, established the Rockefeller Foundation, now independent of the Rockefeller family, in 1913.

The Amon Carter Museum of Forth Worth, Texas, announces that they have acquired two important paintings, Buffalo Hunt, by Alfred Jacob Miller (1810-1874) and Hudson River, Above Catskill, by Charles Herbert Moor (1840-1930).

"The Miller painting is a superb example of American romanticism, while the Moor painting is an extraordinary display of the pre-Raphaelite vision," said Museum Director Rick Stewart. These paintings (and others) are now on view at the Amon Carter Museum, 3501 Camp Bowie Boulevard, Fort Worth, Texas.

The Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution of the United States , collectively called “The Charters of Freedom”, is accessible to visitors to the National Archives. The National Archives Rotunda, which has been closed since July of 2001 for extensive renovations, re-opened on September 18th with a ribbon-cutting ceremony led by John W. Carlin, Archivist of the United States . For the first time, all four pages of the Constitution will now be on permanent view.

Find Leigh and Leslie Keno's PBS show, on WNET. Watch for it on other PBS channels. The show has it's own website, www.find-tv.com.

Although the Manhattan shop of Leigh Keno will serve as home base, this new show follows Leigh and Leslie as they visit homes around the country, searching for heretofore undiscovered treasures. The Kenos will also enlist experts in restoration, conservation and reproductions to help educate viewers about their own objects.

COLUMBIA, PA: The New Yankee Workshop with host Norm Abram visited the National Watch & Clock Museum to film an upcoming episode that will air during the show’s 16th season, which begins January 2004. The Museum Board of Trustees Chair-elect, Terry Brotherton, escorted Norm Abram through the Museum exhibits. Mr. Abram was shown handcrafted tall case clocks, examined the detailed wooden movements of early 19th Century American clocks, and experienced the monumental Engle Clock in action. The unique Engle Clock features 48 moving figures, including Jesus Christ, the twelve apostles, Molly Pitcher, and Revolutionary War soldiers.

"Every year, we search the country for the finest examples of furniture to bring back to The New Yankee Workshop," said Russell Morash, creator an executive producer of The New Yankee Workshop. "The National Watch & Clock Museum was an excellent source of information and we will share highlights of our trip, along with Norm’s own clock case, with our audience."

"Visiting the National Watch & Clock Museum gave us a chance to see first-hand their expansive collection of handcrafted clock cases, which now serves as inspiration for a new project next season," said Norm Abram, host of The New Yankee Workshop seen weekly by more than 2.2 million people. The New Yankee Workshop is broadcast on 373 public television stations, reaching 94% of the U.S. television households.*

Connie Stuckert, executive director of the National Watch & Clock Museum and Terry Brotherton, chairman-elect of the Museum’s board of trustees, presented Norm Abram, Host of The New Yankee Workshop and Russell Morash, series Creator and Director, a welcome package full of products made in York County - the Factory Tour Capital of the World - on behalf of the York County Visitors Bureau, and a package on behalf of Lancaster County's Pennsylvania Dutch Visitor’s Bureau, complete with books and crafts representing the history and culture of Lancaster County.

"We are excited to be a part of this educational program and are hopeful the national exposure will draw visitors to the Museum and benefit the tourism industry of South Central Pennsylvania," remarked Jim Bland, director of marketing for the Museum.

The National Watch & Clock Museum is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. It is operated by the National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors, Inc. a non-profit association with 30,000 members and 175 chapters worldwide. April to December the Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. January through March the Museum is open until 4 p.m. and is closed Sunday. The museum campus includes the world's largest horological library and research center, the headquarters of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, and its School of Horology, an accredited instructional school dedicated to teaching watch and clock repair.

More information about the National Watch & Clock Museum and the National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors can be found by visiting http://www.nawcc.org or by contacting Jim Bland, director of marketing 717-684-8261 ext 227, or jbland@nawcc.org.

The New Yankee Workshop press materials and photography can be found online at www.wgbh.org/pressroom or by contacting Dustin Smith, publicist, WGBH Boston 617.300.5337, dustin_smith@wgbh.org.

* This information is drawn from the PBS National Ratings Database based on Nielsen Television index data for the season beginning 9/29/01 to 7/6/02.

The New Bedford Whaling Museum, Bedford, Massachusetts, will be presenting a retrospective exhibition: William Bradford - Sailing Ships and Arctic Seas, to celebrate the Museum’s centennial year.

This major exhibition, sponsored by Northeast Auctions, will open in May of this year, highlighting Bradford’s contributions to American art by assembling a selection of his finest works. Approximately 55 paintings drawn from all phases of Bradford’s career will be featured, including 10 of his little-known plein air sketches and a selection of drawings, prints, sketchbooks and photographs.

A New Bedford native, William Bradford is regaining the reputation he once enjoyed, not only as an accomplished marine painter, but also as the artist-explorer of the polar world.

Increasingly, he is being linked with fellow townsman Albert Bierstadt, as well as with Frederic E. Church, as creators of a national vision of the Continent’s remote frontiers.

The New Bedford Whaling Museum is located at 18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, Mass. For more information, call (508) 997-0046 or visit on-line http://www.whalingmuseum.org.

A rare letter from Martha to George Washington was recently acquired by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association. The letter, recently acquired at auction, is one of only two known surviving such letters, and the only one with Martha Washington’s signature. After George Washington's death in 1799, Martha Washington attempted to burn all correspondence between husband and wife. Only a handful of letters have survived.

The letter, dated March 30, 1767 reads:

In addition to this note, Mount Vernon owns one of only three surviving letters written from George Washington to his wife. For more information, visit the Mount Vernon web site.

Widely acclaimed as a specialist in archival conservation, picture framing, etc., Arda Hutter and her trained staff of professionals have created more than just a wonderful destination for the eclectic shopper. With thousands of possible frame combinations, the proper acid-free paper and the expertise to know how to combine the elements, Arda and her staff have justly earned their reputation for art conservation. From far and near, people with problem framing, artwork of any sort, which must have tender love and care, can have their needs met.

And, those on a quest for a unique gift for that special person can equally have their needs met with a varied inventory from candles to wind chimes to stacking boxes, statuary, furniture, and contemporary and classical artwork. Not to be overlooked is the wonderful array of jewelry, greeting cards and craft supplies. And more.

The Ossining Art Barn is deservedly placed high on the list of "where to go" when shopping in the Hudson Valley.

For more information: call (914) 762-4997 or go to http://www.artbarnonline.com/