ALBANY, NY – Latin American and Caribbean Art: Selected Highlights from the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) opens Saturday, May 17 at the New York State Museum.

On view through October 13 in the Museum’s West Gallery, the exhibition is the 19th installment of the Bank of America Great Art Exhibition and Education Program, which brings art from New York State’s leading art museums to the State Museum. This also is the fourth exhibition in the Bank of America Great Art Series drawn from the Museum of Modern Art’s collections.

The exhibition will showcase a selection of more than 50 works from MoMA’s collection of Latin American and Caribbean art, ranging from early modern to contemporary, tracing significant stylistic trends and movements found in works from this region. With some 3,500 works, MoMA currently holds the world’s most comprehensive collection of Latin American and Caribbean art.

Included in the exhibition are significant works of artists as varied as Wifredo Lam, Diego Rivera, Joaquín Torres-García, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Emilio Pettoruti, Hector Hyppolyte, Marisol, Alejandro Otero, Lygia Clark, Hélio Oiticica, Felix Gonzalez-Torres and others. This exhibition is organized in two sections. The first includes significant examples of early modernism in Latin

America — embracing Mexican muralism, Caribbean early modern figuration, surrealism, late modern figuration and landscape, and Latin American pop art. The second section includes radical examples of the concrete and neo-constructivist movements that offered a fertile field for the transformation of constructivism in Latin America, from the early modernists to mid-20th century artists. This section of the exhibition ends with a selection of contemporary artists whose works both reflect, and radically transform, historical traditions and precedents.

Together, the works in this exhibition deliver a lesson not only about Latin American art, but about modern art in general: that modernity was never completely unified but, rather, existed as various constellations of artists, singular individuals, and complex collective experiences.

The exhibition is organized by Luis Pérez-Oramas, the Estrellita Brodsky curator of Latin American Art, and Geaninne Gutiérrez-Guimarães, curatorial assistant with the Museum of Modern Art.

MoMA’s long history of collecting Latin American and Caribbean art began in the 1930s, when it became the first institution outside of Latin America to collect, display, and study this art. Through these activities, MoMA played an important role in shaping the perception of Latin American and Caribbean art in the United States. Alfred H. Barr, MoMA’s founding director, and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, co-founder, were early champions for inclusion of Latin American artists in MoMA’s collection. Mrs. Rockefeller donated the first such works, with a gift of 36 paintings and 105 drawings, including important works by Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco. The tradition continued throughout the 20th century, with important gifts from former Governor Nelson Rockefeller and David Rockefeller, and continues today under the leadership of MoMA Director Glenn D. Lowry. Over the past 10 years, more than 500 works have been acquired from Latin American and Caribbean artists.

The State Museum has several programs planned to complement the MoMA exhibition. Creative Art Day is a free program designed for families to participate in artful activities, based on Museum exhibitions. A program focusing on the exhibition will be held Saturday, May 24 at 1 p.m. ARTventures is planned for Saturday, September 13 at 1 p.m., and will include a visit to the exhibition, followed by a hands-on, art-making experience, led by instructor Peggy Steinbach. The program is free to State Museum members and $5 for non-members. Pre-registration is suggested. Creative Quest: Museum ART Camp is available during two weeks in August, with one session for ages 3-6 and another for ages 7-12. The fee for each week is $60 for Museum members and $70 for non-members, plus a materials fee of $5. Registration for ART Camp or for ARTventures may be made by calling 518-473-7154 or emailing psteinba@mail.nysed.gov to reserve a space.

The New York State Museum expresses its gratitude to Bank of America, the New York State Senate and New York State Assembly for making this exhibition possible. Additional support is provided by The Times Union, Time Warner Cable/Capital News 9 and Potratz Partners Advertising.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Started in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY -- New York State Paleontologist Dr. Ed Landing is the lead author of an article published in the June issue of “Geology” that provides the first definitive proof that all major animal groups with internal and external skeletons appeared in the Cambrian geological period (543–489 million years ago).

At this time in Earth’s history all plants and animals lived in the sea and advanced groups, such as fresh-water and land plants and vertebrates (e.g., amphibians, reptiles, mammals), had not evolved yet. Landing discovered fossils of a major, colonial, reef-building group of animals known as bryozoans in Cambrian rocks of southern Mexico. At c.490 million years old, theseare Earth's oldest known bryozoans, and are eight million years older than forms described in 2003 from southern China.

The exquisite preservation of the tiny Mexican bryozoans (most occur as fragments only several millimeters long) suggests that highly mineralized, twig-like bryozoan coloniesevolved fromsoft-bodied colonies that were attached to shells and pebbles on the sea floor. The twig-like formelevated the colony above the sea floor, and allowed feeding inhigher energy and more food-rich waters above the sea floor.

Landing and his co-authors propose that thealmost simultaneous first-occurrences of bryozoans, cephalopods (ancient squid relatives), polyplacophorans (chitons) and euconodonts (fish-like vertebrates), about 490 million years ago,marked a key stage in the origin of complex marine animal communities that resemble those of modern oceans.

The field work in Mexico, which led to the discovery, was made possible by a $900 grant Landing received from the Rockland County Gem and Mineral Society when it closed its doors.

The “Geology” article is available at Geo Science World. “Geology” features rapid publication of about 23 refereed short (four-page) papers each month. Articles cover all earth-science disciplines and include new investigations and provocative topics.

The article’s other co-authors are Dr. John D. Keppie of the Institute of Geology, Independent National University of Mexico and Adam English, now affiliated with the Chevron Gulf of Mexico Business Unit.

The state paleontologist and curator of paleontology at the State Museum since 1981, Landing has authored six books, 13 New York State Museum bulletins, 200 articles and field trip guides and has received more than a dozen competitive grants.

He has devoted five National Science Foundation grants, totaling about $1.5 million, to tracing the evolutionary origins of modern marine groups worldwide. In 2009 Landing was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS), a high honor bestowed upon a select group of geologists nationwide. Fellows are recognized by their peers for meritorious efforts to advance science or its applications. In 2008, he was the first U.S. recipient of the R. J. W. Douglas Medal — a national award that honors contributions to the synthesis of Canadian geology.

Landing became interested in Early Paleozoic rocks and fossils as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He earned his master’s and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan. He has conducted post-doctoral studies at the University of Waterloo, with the United States Geological Survey in Denver and at the University of Toronto.

The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. The State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, N.Y. -- Once, painters saw the American landscape as a limitless expanse of beauty and opportunity, a perspective that would be challenged and modified throughout the last century. 20th Century American Landscapes from The Metropolitan Museum of Art at the New York State Museum from May 31 to Oct. 14, 2001, reflects a century of great change in both the natural environment and in the artist's response.

The exhibition of 40 paintings from the Metropolitan's renowned Department of Modern Art portrays American scenery as both a literal place and as a symbol of personal and social struggle.

20th Century American Landscapes, to be shown in the West Gallery, is the sixth installment of the Fleet Great Art Exhibition and Education Program, which brings art from New York City museums to Albany. 20th Century American Landscapes is the Met's second contribution to the series. The Met has a long history, though, of sending great art to Albany, having contributed several exhibitions to the State Museum before the Fleet Great Art Series began in February 1999.

"This extraordinary group of paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art typifies the great American love for the land," said Mark Schaming, the State Museum's Director of Exhibitions. "These great works represent the diverse ways of both making art and looking at America. The paintings glorify the natural world, are imbued with the unique character of our cities and speak to a very American way of looking at the world."

Represented among the 37 artists are some of America's most notable modern painters, including William Glackens, John Steuart Curry, Georgia O'Keeffe and Fairfield Porter.

"Earth, sky, water and vegetation are the key elements in any landscape painting, but as the works in this exhibition show, modern artists have employed this traditional subject for many different purposes - to express personal feelings, cultural observations and political points of view. Depicted in this selection is the diverse and changing 'face' of America in the 20th century," said Lisa Mintz Messinger, Assistant Curator, Department of Modern Art at the Met. "The installation, arranged thematically, encourages viewers to compare and contrast a wide range of images, and draw their own associations with the American landscape."

The exhibition pieces together a region-by-region map of the U.S. from 1907 to 1991: farms of the Midwest, cotton fields of the deep South, vistas of the Southwest, and the rugged countryside of New England and upstate New York. It also traces the emergence of industry. The 1931 painting by John Kane, The Monongahela River Valley, celebrates the smoke stacks and rail yards as much as the hillsides and rivers the new infrastructure disrupts.

At the start of the century, American painters, influenced by the French Impressionists, often glorified nature, as with Eugene Speicher's romantic Morning Light and Louis Eilshemius' golden Landscape, Binghamton, New York, both painted in 1907. This view was expanded to promote the virtues of working the land, as in Frederic Grant's The Homestead, c. 1930; Thomas Hart Benton's Cotton Pickers, Georgia, 1928-29; and Paul Sample's whimsical Janitor's Holiday of 1936.

At the same time, another branch of landscape artists chose a less literal tack by blurring the horizon lines and reducing a scene to its forms and colors. Such works, including Walt Kuhn's The Willow Tree and the Cow in 1923, and Loren MacIver's Carey's Backyard in 1939, offer a highly personalized perspective. Also using this more modern approach, Arthur Dove, with Mountain and Sky (1925), and Helen Torr, with Crimson and Green Leaves (1927) sought to reveal the power of nature as a unifying theme.

Other artists used their canvases to recognize the danger, hardship or isolation conjured up by a rocky shoreline or vast mountain range. These rugged images are captured in a pair of paintings from opposite sides of the country - Ernest Blumenschein's Taos Valley in 1933 from New Mexico and Marsden Hartley's Mt. Katahdin, Maine, No. 2, 1939-1940.

Throughout the century, the two stylistic camps of realism and abstraction have co-existed and overlapped. Fairfield Porter's The Kittiwake and the John Walton (1962), for example, can be appreciated as much for its arrangement of shapes and contrasting colors as for its tranquil seaside subject.

More recently, contemporary artists Jack Beal, Louisa Chase and James McGarrell have used the landscape to suggest an inner, often disturbing, psychological landscape.

Other themes include the nation's great agricultural riches, highlighted in Curry's 1931 canvas, Spring Shower (Western Kansas Landscape), and Marjorie Portnow's upstate New York landscape Cambridge Corn from 1981.

The contributions of women and immigrants are an important theme of 20th century American art. In addition to Portnow, six painters represented are women: Helen Torr, Georgia O'Keeffe, Loren MacIver, Grace Hartigan, Idelle Weber and Louisa Chase. Four of the artists represented were born outside the United States: John Kane, Joseph Stella, Max Weber and Rafael Ferrer. Whether they have expressed their feelings with soft lyricism, various forms of abstraction, or a naïve folk-inspired style, the artists of the last century have demonstrated the great appeal the American landscape has held for them.

The New York State Museum expresses its gratitude to Fleet, Senator Roy M. Goodman, the New York State Senate, Assemblyman Ronald Canestrari, the New York State Assembly, the Hearst Foundation, Inc., Harry Rosenfeld and First Lady Libby Pataki. Many thanks also to our generous media sponsors: FOX23, Lang Media, Times Union, UPN and WPYX-FM.

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*Color slides are available by calling 518-486-2003.

The New York State Museum is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

ALBANY, N.Y. - "Uncovered Treasures: Contemporary Latino and Latin American Art," which includes some artists from the Capital District, opens at the New York State Museum Monday, September 23.

The exhibition, featuring internationally known artists, will be at the museum through December 1. It is a cooperative venture of the state museum, the state education department, the government of Puerto Rico and the Martinez Gallery of Troy. The art of Latin America is centuries old and combines rich traditions from Europe, Africa and the native peoples of the region. Latino artists of Latin American parentage, born in this country, combine elements from Latin America and the U.S.

"Although Latin American art has recently become more popular with art collectors in the U.S. and Europe, it may not be as familiar to the general public," said Dr. Clifford Siegfried, museum director. "This exhibition provides the opportunity for museum visitors to become acquainted with a diverse collection of contemporary Latino art, including folk art on loan from the government of Puerto Rico." Internationally known artists in this collection include painters German Perez of New York City, Alberto Mijangos, Angel Rodriguez-Diaz and photographer Kathy Vargas, all of San Antonio, Texas. Other artists exhibiting are Armando Soto of Troy; Anthony Montes of Middle Grove in Saratoga County; Jamie Arredondo, Roxanna Melendez and Cesar Chelala, MD, all of New York City; Cruz Artiz of San Antonio; Mercedes Guerric of San Juan, Puerto Rico and Nora Quintero of Isla Verde, Puerto Rico. These artists work in a wide variety of styles, including abstract, magical realism, figurative, Latin pop culture and Chicano.

Laudelina Martinez, the owner of the Martinez Gallery, is the curator of the exhibition. The 1300-square-foot Martinez gallery, in the Cannon Building at 3 Broadway in Troy, opened in April 2001. The gallery focuses on Latino and Latin American art but exhibits the work of other artists as well. It is open Thursday and Friday from 1 to 5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m.

The New York State Museum, a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education, was founded on a tradition of scientific inquiry. Started in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. The state museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

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The New York State Museum is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

ALBANY, NY – Bonnie Yochelson, the consulting curator for the New York State Museum’s Berenice Abbott exhibition, will present a talk and slide show on the exhibition at the Museum on Wednesday, September 16 in the Museum’s Huxley Theater.

The free program -- “The Trials and Triumphs of Public Art” -- will begin at 7 p.m. and be followed by a question and answer session. The exhibition -- Berenice Abbott’s Changing New York: A Triumph of Public Art – will be open from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Museum’s Crossroads Gallery. The Yochelson program is made possible, in part, by a grant from the New York State Archives Partnership Trust, which also provided support for the exhibition.

Open through October 4, the exhibition showcases work that is considered to be one of the monumental achievements of 20th century photography. It features 40 original photographs taken by Abbott when she was employed from 1935 to 1939 by the Federal Art Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to capture the rapidly changing urban scene in New York City. In addition to photographs in the State Museum’s collection from this Depression-era project, which Abbott called “Changing New York,” the exhibition also includes additional images from the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY).

Dr. Yochelson is an art historian and curator specializing in photography. She worked at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art before becoming curator of prints and photographs at the Museum of the City of New York in 1987. After five years on staff, she became a consultant to the Museum, organizing a major traveling exhibition of Currier & Ives prints (1995-1999) and publishing “Berenice Abbott: Changing New York, The Complete WPA Project” (The New Press and MCNY) in 1997. She also organized a Changing New York exhibition (1998-2000) that traveled to three European venues. Yochelson is currently organizing Alfred Stieglitz’s New York, an exhibition with a catalogue for the South Street Seaport Museum, which will open in June 2010.

The Museum will sponsor two other upcoming free programs in conjunction with the Abbott exhibition. “Creative Art Day” will provide an opportunity for families to participate in artful activities based on the exhibition on Saturday, August 29 and Saturday, October 3, from 1 to 3 p.m. On both days participants will meet at the Crossroads Gallery. For more information call 518-473-7154 or e-mail psteinba@mail.nysed.gov.

Several books focusing on Abbott’s works are for sale in the Museum Shop including Yochelson’s 1997 “Berenice Abbott: Changing New York, The Complete WPA Project,” 1997; Douglas Levere's “New York Changing: Revisiting Berenice Abbott’s New York,” 2005; Berenice Abbott, Photographer: An Independent Vision,” 2006, a book by George Sullivan for young adults; “New York in the Thirties,” a soft cover Dover reissue of the original “Changing New York” and “Berenice Abbott,” a luxury two-volume set by Commerce Graphics.

For more information on Abbott and to view some of her photographs visit http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/abbott/

The State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department, the University of the State of New York and the Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY – The New York State Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) and the New York State Museum will present lectures in April focusing on recent biodiversity research, conservation and education initiatives in New York State.

All lectures are free and will be held on Wednesdays at noon in the Huxley Theater. Lecture topics and dates are:

• April 2 – “Do We Still Have to Worry About Deformed Amphibians?” Dr. Stanley Sessions, professor of biology at Hartwick College, will discuss two decades of research on deformed amphibians and the concerns of scientists today about what causes declines in amphibian populations worldwide.
• April 9 – “Algal Biodiversity in Streams of New York State and Its Links with Ecosystem Function.” The biodiversity of algae in New York varies greatly among different streams and watersheds. Dr. John Wehr, director and associate professor at the Louis Calder Center–Biological Station, Fordham University, will explain how algal biodiversity may affect ecosystem function and measures to help understand the value of species diversity in fresh waters.
• April 23 – “Rare Plant Baselines in the Adirondack Alpine: How Many Plants Are There Now?” The alpine zone in the Adirondack Mountains hosts the highest number of rare plant species, per area, in the state. Dr. Tim Howard, of the New York Natural Heritage Program, will discuss the first effort to estimate population sizes by combining random sampling, geographic information systems (GIS), and likelihood methods.

The New York State Legislature created the Biodiversity Research Institute in 1993 to help meet the challenges associated with preserving the state’s biodiversity. The BRI serves as a comprehensive source of information, which is used to advise both public and private agencies on matters relating to the status of New York’s biological resources. Housed within the New York State Museum, the BRI is funded through the Environmental Protection Fund. The BRI includes several collaborators, including the State Museum, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, State University of NewYork, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Audubon New York, the New York Natural Heritage Program, and The Nature Conservancy. Further information is available at: www.nysm.nysed.gov/bri or by calling (518) 474-6531.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Founded in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – In celebration of Women’s History Month, the New York State Museum will open a small exhibition March 1 featuring artifacts and images from the woman’s suffrage movement of the early 20th century.

Women Who Rocked the Vote will be open through March in the Museum’s front lobby window. The exhibition chronicles the history of the suffrage movement, which was officially launched when Elizabeth Cady Stanton added the demand for equal suffrage to the Declaration of Sentiments at the first woman’s rights convention in Seneca Falls that she helped organize. Modeled on the Declaration of Independence, the declaration condemned male tyranny. It also claimed for women “all the rights and privileges” of citizenship. News of the convention sparked controversy and helped ignite a national movement.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is a large wooden wagon that was once covered in suffrage banners and hand-painted signs as suffrage activists used the wagon as both a prop and a speaker’s platform. There also are historic images and a large painted banner carried in a massive suffrage parade up Fifth Avenue in New York City. The parade came just 10 days before the November 1917 election which gave women the right to vote in New York State. Two years later the state ratified the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution that prohibited sex-based restrictions on the right to vote.

The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

ALBANY – Hudson artist and award-winning illustrator Joan Steiner will be at the New York State Museum on Saturday, May 5 to participate in activities marking the opening the same day of her new exhibition -- Look-Alikes: The Amazing World of Joan Steiner. 
Open through March 2, 2008in the Museum’s Crossroads Gallery, the exhibition provides a close-up look at the 3-D miniature scenes Stein creates, using everyday objects, such as dog biscuits, toothpaste caps, pencils, buttons, soda straws and peanuts. The exhibition includes original dioramas, as well as photo blowups, of the scenes used in her three books – “Look-Alikes: The More You Look, the More You See,” “Look-Alikes Christmas” and “Look-Alikes Jr.” (Little, Brown and Company). Visitors also will get an advance look at dioramas and illustrations from her next book, “Look-Alikes Around the World,” which will be published in the fall. 
As part of the Museum’s Family Fun Weekend, Steiner will present a 30-minute slide show at 1 p.m. on May 5th and will be available after that to meet visitors. A brief documentary about Steiner and her work will also be shown continuously in the Crossroads Gallery through March 2008. There also will be a space set aside for parents and children to sit down together to look through the books and hunt for everyday objects. 
More than 1,000 “look-alikes” can be found in Steiner’s first book and more than 700 in the Christmas version, which took three and a half years to complete. She painstakingly constructs everyday objects just as they appear. In a “Sweet Shop” scene chairs are built of pretzels and crackers. Pennies become cobblestones in a park scene and a shoehorn serves as a slide. In other illustrations, venetian blinds appear as the siding on a house, lasagna noodles serve as draperies, gloves become a sofa and a balloon transforms into a red dress. 
A resident of Claverack with a studio in Hudson, Steiner is a self-taught artist who graduated from Barnard College. She started out designing one-of-a-kind wearable art pieces, including purses that resembled boom boxes and ice skates, and a hat shaped like a fishing boat with a veil for a net. Although her whimsical pieces sold well she began searching for something more lucrative.
Her big break came when she approached Games magazine about using one of her illustrations. They told her to let them know if she could think of a game and she called back 20 minutes later offering them a puzzle where everyday objects would be hidden in the scenes she’d create. The illustrations published in Games attracted the attention of Sesame Street magazine, which asked for a similar illustration. Since then her illustrations have also appeared in the New York Times and Nickelodeon Magazine. Steiner’s books have sold more than one million copies and have been published in 16 countries around the world. She has won numerous art and design awards, including a Society of Illustrators Award and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship.
Several programs will be presented at the Museum in the coming months to complement the exhibition. A preview of the Look-Alikes exhibition will be held on Friday, May 4 from 5 to 8:30 p.m. as part of Albany’s “1st Friday” activities. Complimentary refreshments and free parking will be available. A free trolley ride will also take visitors from the Museum to other Albany restaurants, art institutions and galleries participating. 
“Creative Art Days” on May 12, June 16 and August 18, from 1-3 p.m., will feature a tour of the exhibition, a look at Steiner’s books, and an art project with a “Look-Alikes” theme. On June 23 “3D Day” will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. and will offer 3D art sculpting, drawing lessons and book reading. Participants will make their own 3D glasses. “3D Daze” weekends are also planned for the fall and winter, with dates to be announced. Birthday party programs at the Museum also will offer a “Look-Alikes” theme for children of all ages. Parties will include a tour of the Museum, a book reading and an art project. More information on these and future programs is available by calling (518) 473-7154. 
The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Department of Education, the University of the State of New York and the Office of Cultural Education. Started in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. The State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.
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ALBANY, NY – The New York State Museum will release a CD recording of its August 2004 live concert featuring Professor “Louie” & The Crowmatix with the Rock of Ages Horns following the group’s performance at the Museum on Saturday, Oct. 22.

Following the 7:30 p.m. concert, the performers will attend a CD release party free for all concert goers on its fourth floor Terrace Gallery celebrating the release of the new CD -- “The Spirit of Woodstock Live at the New York State Museum.” Professor Louie & The Crowmatix, with the Rock of Ages Horns, performed the music of “The Band” during the Museum’s summer 2004 Woodstock concert series. It was held in conjunction with the Museum’s exhibition – “Spirit of the Woodstock Generation: The Photographs of Elliott Landy” commemorating the 35th anniversary of the 1969 Woodstock festival.

“We don’t usually play this kind of music in a museum but it was great,” said Professor “Louie” about the performance. “The concert was recorded for archival purposes and we were thrilled when the New York State Museum wanted to release the performance as a CD.”

Professor “Louie” & The Crowmatix have toured consistently in Canada and the U.S. for the past six years playing at well-known festivals, concert halls and clubs. This past spring “Louie” traveled to Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia to perform with musicians there in 10 concerts featuring music from the “Century of the Blues,” the group’s fourth CD released in January on the Woodstock Records label. “Louie” also taught students while he was there. He will return in November to finish work on a documentary/performance DVD of the trip, which will be released in 2006.

In the studio, Professor “Louie” & The Crowmatix have been the backup band for artists such as Rick Danko and Garth Hudson. Their other CDs are “Over the Edge,” “Jam” and “Flyin’ High.” The most recent – “Century of the Blues” – was ranked between #15 and #21 on the American Radio Roots Charts for six months following its release.

Tom “Bones” Malone and “The Rock of Ages Horns,” will perform with Professor “Louie” & The Crowmatix at the October concert as they did at the summer 2004 concert. Malone is a

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world-renowned trombonist and arranger. He is best known for his work with The Blues Brothers, The David Letterman Show Band, Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame group “The Band” and Gil Evans. He also has performed on stage with The Supremes, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gay and played on recordings for James Brown, Steve Winwood, Pink Floyd and Miles Davis.

Aaron Professor “Louie” Hurwitz sings, plays the keyboard and accordion. He worked for “The Band” from 1985 to 1999 and co-produced, played and sang on three of the group’s CDs. “Louie” also engineered the sound for a public television special that “The Band” recorded in New Orleans. He also traveled extensively as a duo with the late vocalist/bassist Rick Danko of “The Band,” who nicknamed him Professor “Louie.”

Other members of the Crowmatix are Marie Spinosa, (vocals, keyboards and percussion) who sang with “The Band”; Gary Burke, (drummer and arranger) who has performed with Bob Dylan and Joe Jackson; Frank Campbell, (bass and vocals) who has worked with Steve Forbert, Rick Danko and Levon Helm and Josh Colow, (guitar and vocals) who performed and recorded with Jesse Winchester.

The Rock of Ages Horns also includes John Allmark (trumpet), who started the John Allmark Jazz Orchestra and has a CD “The John Allmark Jazz Orchestra featuring Clay Osborne,” and Dino Govoni, (saxophone, tenor saxophone and woodwinds), who has played with a variety of well-known artists, including Aretha Franklin, at Arista Records star-studded 25th anniversary concert in May 2000.

More information about Professor “Louie” & the Crowmatix is available at www.Woodstockrecords.com.

Tickets for the October performance are $15 for members, $20 for non-members in advance and $25 the day of the concert. Tickets can be charged by phone by calling (518) 408-1033. They also will be on sale in the Museum lobby on October 22nd from 10a.m. until the start of the concert.

The State Museum, a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education, was founded in 1836 and has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. The Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. Further information is available by calling 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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The New York State Museum will open a new exhibition featuring the 70-year career of artist Eugene Ludins on February 16, 2013. Eugene Ludins: An American Fantasist, explores the life and work of a noted Woodstock, New York painter of realist and fantastical landscapes, provocative political allegories, and insightful portraits.

On display in the West Gallery through May 12, 2013, the exhibition features over 60 of Ludins’ paintings and drawings. The public is invited to an opening reception of the exhibition at the Museum on Saturday, March 2, from 2 to 4 p.m.

“The New York State Museum is grateful to Peter Jones and the Estate of Eugene Ludins for its support of the exhibition,” said State Museum Director Mark Schaming. “We are pleased to be a venue for the work of this important New York artist, whose life illuminates the significance of the Woodstock community in the art world. Eugene Ludins lived a life of integrity and civic-mindedness, fully dedicated to art.”

Beginning with his residency at the Maverick colony in Woodstock in 1929 until the time of his death in 1996, Ludins was an important member of the Hudson Valley arts community. He was Ulster County director of the New Deal Federal Arts Program of the Works Progress Administration from 1937-39, a field director of the American Red Cross in the Pacific Theater of World War II, and an art professor at the University of Iowa. Dozens of paintings, drawings, sketch books, photographs, and memorabilia illuminate the life of an artist who was both unique and emblematic of his time.

Eugene Ludins: An American Fantasist is co-sponsored by the estate of Eugene Ludins and is based on an exhibition of the same name curated by Susana Torruella Leval for the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz. Leval will lead a gallery tour of the exhibition at the State Museum on Sunday, April 28 at 1 p.m. Leval, and her husband Pierre, were friends of Eugene Ludins and his wife, Hannah Small.

Photos from the exhibit are available at: http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/PRkit/2013/ludins/index.html

The New York State Museum is a program of the State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – Medium and large-sized wild animals in North America are more likely to be killed by humans than by predation, starvation or disease, according to research conducted at the New York State Museum.

The study was conducted by Christopher Collins, a graduate student from the State University at Albany and Dr. Roland Kays, the State Museum’s curator of mammals.

Published online at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469- 1795.2011.00458.x/abstract in the journal Animal Conservation, the research shows the extent to which humans are affecting the evolution of mammals today and will be used to predict the conservation threats that mammals face.

Although studies of mortality causes have been conducted for many mammal species, this is the first to gather this data together and examine trends across species. Collins and Kays reviewed data for 2209 individual animal deaths in 69 North American mammal populations across 27 species. They only considered studies that used radio tracking collars to monitor animals because they are the least biased in finding recently deceased animals.

Of the 1874 deaths that had known causes, 51.8 percent were caused by humans. Hunters killed 35.3 percent of the animals studied -- 29.9 percent legally and 5.4 percent illegally through poaching. Vehicle collisions caused 9.2 percent of the deaths and 7.2 percent resulted from other human causes. Predation by other animals caused 35.2 percent of the deaths, disease accounted for 3.8 percent, starvation for 3.2 percent and other natural causes for 6.1 percent.

Data included animals that lived in a variety of habitats throughout North America including urban, rural and wilderness areas. Animals in urban areas were more likely to die from vehicle collisions, while animals in rural and wilderness areas were more likely to die from hunting. Animals living in protected areas had a 44 percent lower level of human-caused mortality.

Kays noted that “this shows that legal protection has a direct impact on the survival and evolutionary pressures faced by animals.” Larger species, especially carnivores, are more likely to be killed by humans, with smaller species, particularly herbivores, dying more from predator attacks. Although the deaths attributable to hunting by humans were very high, none of these hunted populations were endangered. “These results may be more important when considering the forces driving modern evolution of species, than their conservation status,” said Collins.

The study suggests that animals with traits that allow them to escape these prominent mortality causes for longer will have a selective advantage. However, the scientists conclude in the study that the pace of “human activity may exceed species’ ability to adapt, particularly in the face of habitat loss and climate change.”

The research also noted a scarcity of knowledge about smaller species, and Collins and Kays have since initiated new field research on the cause of mortality in small mammals in New York State.

The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Started in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, it is Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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MAMMALS REVEALED EXHIBIT OPENS JAN. 29TH AT NYS MUSEUM – Mammals Revealed: Discovery and Documentation of Secretive Creatures opens Saturday, January 29th at the New York State Museum.

Located in Crossroads Gallery through December 31st, the exhibition shows how scientists study wild mammals and share their discoveries. Visitors are led through the diverse toolbox of techniques used by field biologists with a series of photographs, video and displays of scientific equipment, as well as a variety of animal specimens. Among the specimens is the world’s second largest polar bear, on loan from the University of Alaska Museum, spanning 9 feet from left to right paw.

The exhibition shows how artists transformed scientific information into detailed works of art appearing in the field guide, Mammals of North America by Dr. Roland Kays, the State Museum’s curator of mammals and Don E. Wilson, curator of mammals at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. The book, published by Princeton University Press in 2003, is the first of its kind to cover all 442 species of mammals north of Mexico and includes more than 1,000 detailed color illustrations. The process of making a field guide is detailed with original artwork and a diversity of Museum specimens, from shrew to bear to musk ox. Visitors will also learn about some recent mammal discoveries.

In the Research section of the exhibition, the 7-foot-high “Funnel of Knowledge” displays objects used to collect reams of data that are then analyzed and funneled into a concise scientific paper. Photographs and videos also show scientists using these techniques to study animal signs, and to monitor, capture and process mammals to gather vital information.

The collaborative process between artists and scientists in the creation of illustrations for the field guide is shown in the second section of the exhibition. This area includes individual illustrations, preliminary artist’s sketches and the Museum specimens on which the artwork is based. The many specimens include a variety of shrews, squirrels, bats, caribou, and a large mounted whale vertebrae that visitors will be able to touch. Illustrating the range of colors and characteristics that scientists must consider within a single species is a display of four “black bear” skins that are actually shaded from black to blonde.

The exhibition’s Species Today section uses photographs, maps and charts to show how many species of mammals there are in the world, which mammals have gone extinct where, and how often new mammals are still being discovered.

A guide on the Mammals Revealed exhibition for the visually impaired will be available at the Museum’s front lobby desk. Copies of the field guide Mammals of North America will be available for sale in The Museum Shop.

The State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Started in 1836, the museum has the nation’s longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey. The museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. Further information is available by calling 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

The New York State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week throughout the year except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

ALBANY, N.Y. - Dr. Roland Kays, curator of mammals at the New York State Museum, will give a talk and sign copies of his new field guide, "Mammals of North America,'' at 7 p.m. December 11 in the Museum Theater.

Kays' lecture, "Am I Being Menaced by a Wolf or a Weimaraner: The Importance of Accurate Mammal Identification," will focus on why it is important to identify mammals in your surroundings and how to do so. He will sign books, which will be available for sale at the lecture site on December 11 and, thereafter, in the museum shop.

The 240-page guidebook, published by the Princeton University Press, is the first book of its kind to cover all 442 mammal species north of Mexico. It provides more than 1,000 Detailed color illustrations of the species and sub-species and, on facing pages, concise descriptions of the physical characteristics, behaviors and habitats.

The guide, co-written by Don E. Wilson, of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, is the first illustrated field guide on mammals since 1964.

"I hope it's used by everybody -- kids who want to look at the pretty pictures, backyard naturalists and hunters, mammalogy students doing research, and professionals trying to tell them apart for a living.'' said Kays, who has been at the museum for three years.

An Albany resident, Kays said he got the idea for an updated mammal book after noticing the popularity of bird identification books. It is far easier to spot birds than most mammals, but Kays said the guide is useful to day hikers who wish to identify common wildlife and learn which species can be found in a particular region. Also, mammal signs are often more easily spotted than the animals themselves. For that reason the authors have included extensive illustrations of tracks and scat. North America's mammal fauna is one of the best documented in the world. Kays and Wilson used top peer-reviewed literature to write the book. They also recruited six illustrators, whose work shows fine distinctions between species. The book is unique in its level of detail. There are 20 pages of descriptions and illustrations devoted to bats and 22 different varieties of chipmunks are delineated. Illustrations show subtle differences so users can identify different species of rabbits, deer, mice and other mammals that look similar.

The text and range maps refer to the illustrations on the facing pages, so that readers are not forced to search for pictures in a separate section.

Over time, species divide, die out or spread into new habitats. "Mammals of North America,'' reflects that moose have returned to the Adirondacks. It also lists so-called exotic species introduced to North American that are roaming wild but can be easily confused with native wildlife. These include the European hare that lives in the Hudson Valley, the black-tailed jackrabbit that escaped around Kennedy International Airport, and the common house mouse that lives in residential basements.

Kays received his undergraduate degree in biology at Cornell University before earning his doctorate in zoology at the University of Tennessee studying rain forest carnivores in Panama. He did post-doctoral research at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, specializing in the study of the lions of Tsavo, Kenya.

As curator of mammals at the New York State Museum, Kays studies the distribution of carnivores in Albany's Pine Bush and in the Adirondacks. His research looks at how disturbances, such as development, agriculture and hunting, affect survival.

The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Department of Education, the University of the State of New York and the Office of Cultural Education. Started in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. The State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free.

ALBANY, NY – The theme of the New York State Museum’s next Family Fun Weekend on March 4 -5th is “Mothers and Daughters: How Iroquois Women Have Shaped Their Culture.”

Activities both days take place from 1 to 4 p.m. and are free of charge. A special guest, Marie Jones, will discuss the traditional and contemporary roles of Mohawk women and mothers from 2-3 p.m. on both days, near the Iroquois longhouse. She will share traditional songs and artifacts. Jones is from the Fonda area in Montgomery County, where she is a member of the Kanalsiohareke community.

From 1 to 1:45 p.m., a “Native Sky’’ show is scheduled in the inflatable Star Lab Planetarium in the Museum Theater. The presentation will focus on the mythology of native people. The show is limited to 30 people. Visitors must obtain a free ticket at the information desk in the lobby.

Throughout the weekend, children can make Iroquois crafts in Bird Hall, including an arrowhead and bead necklace. Activities also include a scavenger hunt, with prizes, and participants will get an activity pack to take home. A 3:30 p.m. story time will take place at the Longhouse.

Family Fun Weekends offer theme-based family activities the first weekend of the month.

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Department of Education. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New

Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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ALBANY, NY – The New York State Museum will be closed to the public on Saturday, March 17th to allow for testing of the Emergency Power System in the Cultural Education Center building.
The Museum will reopen Sunday, March 18th at 9:30 a.m.
The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. It is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is generally open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.
 

ALBANY, NY – “Native People’’ will be the theme of the New York State Museum’s next Family Fun Weekend, March 3 and 4.
The “Family Fun Weekend, Presented by Fidelis Care” takes place from 1- 4 p.m. both days. Most activities, which are free of charge, will be held in Bird Hall on the Museum’s first floor.
Throughout the afternoon both days visitors can view a tabletop model of an Iroquois Longhouse, which will show where up to 14 families, or as many as 80 people, would have lived. Visitors will be able to make a birch bark canoe and an Iroquois headdress to take home. Museum staff will bring out the Native Peoples exploration cart, which displays artifacts visitors may touch. Also scheduled is a scavenger hunt, with prizes. Children will get an activity packet with coloring sheets and puzzles to take home. 
On Saturday afternoon, visitors can participate in a group art project led by Patrick Wadden, co-founder of Arm-of-the Sea Theater. The troupe uses puppetry and masks to tell ancient and contemporary cultural stories. On Sunday, from 2 to 3 p.m., Kay Olan Ionataiewas, a Native Mohawk woman of the Wolf Clan, dressed in a native outfit, will talk about the culture, past and present, and share stories and artifacts from Iroquois culture. 
At 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. both days the Museum’s inflatable planetarium, Star Lab, will present a “Native Skies’’ show devoted to mythology. On Saturday the Star Lab will be in South Hall and on Sunday at the Carole F. Huxley Theater (former Museum Theater).Tickets, which are free of charge, are required and available at the main information desk. Each show is limited to 30 people. 
“Family Fun Weekend, Presented by Fidelis Care” offer theme-based family activities, on the first weekend of the month. 
The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Education Department. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. 
Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum Web site at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

ALBANY, NY – The personal thoughts and feelings of American soldiers and Marines going to war in Southeast Asia come to life in the “Marking Time: Voyage to Vietnam” exhibition opening Nov. 11 (Veterans Day) at the New York State Museum.

The stories of these soldiers and Marines are told through the graffiti they left behind on the bunk canvases they slept on, aboard a ship that brought them to Vietnam in 1966-67. Eight canvases inscribed by soldiers from New York state are included in the traveling exhibition, open until Feb. 26, 2012. Uncertain about their future, the young troop passengers inscribed personal thoughts about families, hometowns, patriotism, love, anxiety, discomfort and humor.

Their canvases, bunks and personal items were discovered in 1997 onboard the General Nelson M. Walker. The transport ship was being scrapped after seeing service during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. In between it was in reserve status in a Hudson River berthing area, near New York City, for six years. Military historian Art Beltrone discovered the historic graffiti and other artifacts during a trip to Virginia’s James River Reserve Fleet, where the ship had been relocated from New York.

When discovered, the Walker was a veritable floating time capsule, filled with hundreds of historical artifacts relating to the Vietnam War, the 1960s, and the men who went to war. Many of those artifacts will be on display. Included is an original eight-man rack of sleeping bunks, complete with the original mattresses, sheets, pillows, blankets and life vests. The rack shows how confining living space was during the uncomfortable 18-23 day, over 5,000-mile voyage to Vietnam. There also is clothing, shoes, comic books, magazines and copies of The Walker Report, the ship’s official newspaper written, printed and distributed by troop passengers. Other personal objects left behind, such as playing cards, empty cigarette and candy wrappers, liquor bottles, religious tracts and rosary beads, were found hidden under the sheets.

The multi-dimensional exhibition also includes two short films, “Marking Time: Voyage to Vietnam” and “Discovery of a Forgotten Troopship,” which can also be viewed at http://www.vietnamgraffiti.com/museums-media-info.

The exhibition is curated by Beltrone and his wife, Lee of Keswick, Va. Together they founded the Vietnam Graffiti Project (VGP) which, assisted by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, is dedicated to finding the graffiti writers and Walker voyage passengers to tell and preserve their stories. VGP is still trying to identify many of the writers, including many of those from New York state. Among those who have been found are Harmon Adams of Kenmore, near Buffalo, and Dave Dubreck of Churchville, near Rochester.

Further information about the exhibition can be found at http://www.vietnamgraffiti.com/the-exhibit.

The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. It is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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(ALBANY, NY) -- A massive, iconic Confederate flag, torn down by a Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, a soldier born in Saratoga County and widely remembered as the first Union officer killed in the Civil War, is now on display at the New York State Museum.

The 14-by 24-foot Marshall House Flag is being exhibited in South Hall through Feb. 24, 2013 in conjunction with the nearby 7,000-square foot exhibition on the Civil War. An Irrepressible Conflict: The Empire State in the Civil War is open through September 22, 2013 in Exhibition Hall.

James Jackson hoisted the Confederate national flag onto a 40-foot-tall flagpole atop his hotel, the Marshall House, in Alexandria, Va. shortly after the Confederates bombarded Fort Sumter, S.C. in April 1861. The flag was so large that it was visible from the White House. Federal forces, including Col. Elmer Ellsworth and the 11th New York Volunteers, crossed the Potomac and entered Alexandria on May 24, 1861.

The 24-year-old Ellsworth, formerly of Malta, decided to remove Jackson’s flag from the Marshall House. With a small party, including Corp. Francis Brownell of Troy, Colonel Ellsworth climbed to the roof and cut down the flag. During their descent Ellsworth and his party encountered Jackson, who was armed with a shotgun. Gunfire ensued, leaving both Jackson and the charismatic Ellsworth dead.

The Marshall House incident became national news and plunged the entire country into mourning – the North for Ellsworth, the South for Jackson. President Abraham Lincoln ordered an honor guard to deliver Ellsworth's body to the White House for a funeral service.

Ellsworth had worked in Lincoln’s law office in Illinois when he moved there from his childhood home in Malta. He became a tireless Lincoln supporter during the election of 1860 and accompanied him to Washington. When war broke out, Ellsworth returned to New York State to raise a regiment.

Following the White House funeral, Ellsworth’s body laid in state at City Hall in New York City and at the State Capitol in Albany, respectively, before being buried in Mechanicville. The Marshall House flag accompanied Ellsworth's body home to New York state. Relics connected to Ellsworth’s death became prized possessions, including pieces cut, or “souvenired,” from the Marshall House flag.

"One really has to see this flag in order to appreciate it,” said New York State Historian Robert Weible. “It's enormous and its significance in American history isequally big.By exhibiting this iconicflag, we are better able tocommunicate the lasting meaning and relevance of the Civil War to a large and appreciative audience."

In the collections of the New York State Military Museum, the flag was conserved at the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation’s textile laboratory at Peebles Island in Waterford. As part of the New York State Battle Flag Preservation Project, the preservation and display of the Marshall House Flag was made possible with generous support from the Coby Foundation.

Established in 1836, the New York State Museum is a program of the State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

ALBANY, N.Y. – State Museum scientists have used radiocarbon dating to show that mastodons and mammoths, which lived about 12,000 to 15,000 years ago, co-existed in New York state.

Dr. Robert Feranec, the Museum’s curator of vertebrate paleontology and Dr. Andrew Kozlowski, glacial geologist and acting associate state geologist, co-authored the research that appeared in the latest edition of the journal Radiocarbon. The open-access article is available.

This research may help scientists to better understand how the modern ecosystems of New York formed. Ice covered almost the entire area of the state during the height of the ice age about 25,000 years ago. Ice age mammals, such as mastodons and mammoths, could only enter the region after the ice melted. The timing of the migration has been uncertain. The scientists hope their continuing research may show a pattern of how animals established themselves and which ones came first.

Mastodons and mammoths represent the most abundant species of large Pleistocene (ice age) animals recovered in New York. However, many of them had not been dated. Feranec and Kozlowski reported the radiocarbon dates on bone from seven mastodons and three mammoths stored in the Museum’s collections.

Testing showed that the Tunkamoose mastodon dates to approximately 15,000 years ago, which is the oldest date for a mastodon in New York state. Two tusks from this mastodon were discovered by two canoeists in November 2008 in the Black Dirt area of Orange County at the confluence of Tunkamoose Creek and the Wallkill River. One tusk measured more than nine feet and the other less complete tusk was about 5-6 feet long.

It was determined that the most recent date for a woolly mammoth recovered in the state is the Randolph mammoth, dating to about 12,000 years ago. It was discovered in May 1934 during expansion of the East Randolph Fish Hatchery in Randolph. At present, these remains represent the most complete woolly mammoth skeleton found in the state. It consists of the skull, two tusks, the left lower third molar and distal portions of the right ulna, right radius and left femur.

This research project was primarily funded by the United States Geological Survey’s state mapping program.

Established in 1836, the New York State Museum is a program of the State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, N.Y. – Research under way at the New York State Museum indicates that a huge mastodon tusk, recently excavated by Museum scientists in Orange County, may be the largest tusk ever found in New York State.

The nearly complete but fragmented tusk, measuring more than 9 feet long, was one of two excavated this past summer in the Black Dirt area of Orange County at the confluence of Tunkamoose Creek and the Wallkill River, on the property of Lester Lain of Westtown. Museum scientists believe that the other less complete tusk, about 5-6 feet long, came from the same mastodon, which has been named the Tunkamoose mastodon.

Glen Keeton of Mount Hope, N.Y. and Chris Connallon of Hampton, N.J. came across the tusks in November 2008 as they were canoeing down the Wallkill River. Keeton contacted the Orange County chapter of the New York State Archeological Association, which then contacted the State Museum. Weather conditions delayed the excavation until this past summer.

Since then, Dr. Robert Feranec, the Museum’s curator of vertebrate paleontology, has been researching other mastodon excavations in New York State. Feranec believes that the Warren Mastodon tusk, which is 8 feet, 8 inches long, is the longest one uncovered to date. It was discovered in New York State in the 1800s and is on exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The tusk of the Cohoes Mastodon, on display at the State Museum, is about 4-5 feet long.

Based on the age of similar fossils, Feranec suspects that the tusks are about 13,000 years old. However, carbon dating results to determine the exact age, will not be available until later this year. In the meantime, the tusks have been taken apart to be cleaned and conserved for their long-term survival. It is hoped that eventually the tusks can be made available for scientific research and exhibits at the State Museum and at a museum in the area where the tusks were found.

Abundant mastodon fossils have been found in Orange County, especially in the rich Black Dirt area which Keeton calls “a gold mine for these fossils.” Other fossils have also been found including those of giant beavers, stag moose, ground sloths, peccaries and reindeer.

Several Museum scientists will be involved in an integrative research project in the Black Dirt area where they will investigate the ancient environment in which the mastodon lived, as well as how that environment changed over the last 13,000 years.

“From my perspective, this is a significant find,” said Feranec. “These fossils will tell us more about the ancient history of New York. We hope to be able to reconstruct the environment in which the mastodon lived, as well as to try to understand why they went extinct.”

In 2007, Feranec oversaw the relocation of the Cohoes Mastodon from the State Museum lobby window to its new location in the Museum’s Exhibition Hall, where temperature and humidity levels are more stable and more conducive to the skeleton’s long-term preservation. The iconic Museum treasure is now the centerpiece of an expanded exhibition. Discovered in 1866 near Cohoes Falls, the Mastodon once stood about 8 ½ feet tall, was about 15 feet long, and weighed between 8-10,000 pounds. Its tusk weighs 50 pounds.

The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Founded in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY – As part of the continuing Museum Series, the New York State Museum geologists will present evening lectures through May focusing on the “The Ever-Changing Earth—A History: Earth and Life Through Deep Time.”

The Thursday lectures will be held weekly beginning Thursday, May 4th and continue through May 25th. All lectures are free and take place in the Museum Theater at 7 p.m. Free parking is available next to the Museum.

Lecture topics and dates are:

Thursday, May 4th -- Dr. Chuck Ver Straeten discusses how rocks, and fossils found in them, record the deep history of Earth and the evolutionary history of life. Dr. Martin Lupulescu addresses the origins of the sun, earth, and moon. Dr. William Kelly intertwines the origin of life and the development of oxygen in the atmosphere into Earth’s early history. Thursday, May 11th -- Dr. William Kelly discusses assembly and the destruction of the continents. Dr. Taury Smith talks about climate change through time. Dr. Chuck Ver Straeten presents how to read the grand history of life by examining how fossils in rocks change. Thursday, May 18th -- Dr. Taury Smith discusses the ever-changing North American continent. Dr. Chuck Ver Straeten talks about catastrophes in the history of life that resulted in mass extinctions. Dr. John P. Hart shares new evidence for the complexity of human evolution Thursday, May 25th -- This night’s lectures explore New York’s deep geological and life history. Dr. William Kelly brings to life Precambrian New York, from 1.3 billion to 500 million years ago. Dr. Chuck Ver Straeten discusses the Paleozoic and Mesozoic Eras in New York, from 500-200 million years ago. Dr. Taury Smith talks about the Pleistocene Ice Age, when 22,000 years ago Albany was under a mile of ice and 11,000 years ago it was under 400 feet of water.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of

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Education. Founded in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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ALBANY – A panel of area sports writers and TV sports directors will gather at the New York State Museum on Tuesday, November 15th to challenge Times Union columnist Mark McGuire on his selection of New York’s top 10 greatest sports moments for the Museum exhibition that he curated.

Miracles: New York’s Greatest Sports Moments, open through March 26, 2006 in the Museum’s Exhibition Hall, complements Sports: Breaking Records, Breaking Barriers, a larger traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, open through January 8, 2006.

The media panel will discuss “Did He Get It Right?” at 7:30 p.m. in the Museum Theater. Joining McGuire on the panel will be TV Sports Directors Rodger Wyland (WNYT-13), Rich Becker (FOX 23), Doug Sherman (CBS-6) and sports writers Pete Dougherty (Times Union) and Bob Weiner (Daily Gazette). The event is free and open to the public. Audience members will be welcome to weigh in on the discussion.

McGuire, who writes a sports column for Times Union.com and co-authored two books on baseball, faced a daunting task in selecting the state’s top 10 sports moments, choosing from the many historic events New Yorkers have witnessed in every major U.S. Sport.

McGuire’s top 10 list, in reverse order, includes: 10 – Secretariat, (1973 Triple Crown winner); 9 -- Don Larsen’s Perfect Game, (1956 World Series); 8 -- The Shot Heard ’round the World, (The New York Giants’ 1951 pennant win); 7 -- Lou Gehrig: “The Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth,” (the ailing Yankee’s 1939 goodbye speech); 6 -- The Bills Fall to the Giants in Super Bowl XXV; 5 -- Louis Knocks Out Schmeling; 4 -- The Greatest Game Ever Played, (Dec. 28, 1958 NFL title game); 3 -- 1969-70, (winning seasons for The New York Jets, New York Mets and the New York Knicks); 2 -- Jackie Robinson Breaks the Color Barrier; 1 --The Miracle on Ice (US hockey team victory over Russia during 1980 Lake Placid Olympics).

The exhibition also lists an additional 15 other memorable moments in New York’s sports history

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that were considered but did not make the list. Visitors to the gallery are invited to select from the total list of 25 greatest sports moments and use a computer interactive to vote on their personal top 10 favorites. The computer has kept a running tally of the top vote getters since it opened on October 15th.

The Miracles exhibition also features objects relating to the state’s greatest sports moments, on loan from a variety of institutions, including the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame and Basketball Hall of Fame, as well as the 1932 and 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympic Museum.

The adjacent exhibition, Sports: Breaking Records, Breaking Barriers, focuses on 35 athletes in 17 sports. Highlighting artifacts from the Smithsonian's sports collection, the exhibition spotlights the pioneering men and women who dominated their sports, championed their country, race, or sex, and helped others to achieve. Both on and off the playing field, these individuals broke records for themselves and broke barriers for everyone.

Near the entrance to the two exhibitions is a viewing area where a special video presentation of FOX 23 News will be shown. “Miracles and Moments,” a 45-minute film based on the two exhibitions, takes the viewer through a nostalgic retrospective of sports history and also provides a behind-the-scenes journey through the installation of the exhibitions. An adjacent viewing area features continuous video feeds from three different cable sports channels.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Founded in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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ALBANY, NY --- Marrone Organic Innovations, Inc. (MOI) of Davis, Calif. has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to commercialize technology invented and patented by a New York State Museum scientist that uses a natural bacterium to control invasive mussels that have fouled water supplies across the United States.

The NSF has awarded Marrone a two-year $500,000 Small Business Technology Transfer grant for the “Commercialization of an Innovative Green Technology for Controlling Zebra Mussels.” Last year, the State Museum selected MOI as a commercial partner for this microbial biopesticide technology that was invented and patented by Dr. Daniel Molloy, director of the Museum’s Field Research Laboratory in Cambridge, N.Y. The award includes $275,000 to support the Museum’s research efforts in this industry-government partnership. Another subaward of $25,000 will go to another small business, Particle and Coating Technologies, Inc. of St. Louis, Mo. to assist in product formulation.

The fouling caused by zebra mussels and their close relatives, quagga mussels, represents billions of dollars in economic damage and has a major negative impact on freshwater ecosystems. To find an environmentally safe control method, Molloy’s lab screened over 700 bacteria before identifying a strain of the common bacterium, Pseudomonas fluorescens, as being lethal to these mussels when ingested.

Museum scientists also discovered that dead cells of this strain were equally as lethal as live cells, providing clear evidence that the mussels died from a natural toxin in the cells, not from infection. This is very significant because it means that future commercial formulations may contain dead cells, thus further reducing environmental concerns. Testing at the lab also revealed the extraordinary selectivity of the bacteria in killing zebra and quagga mussels without killing other aquatic organisms, including fish and other species of freshwater clams and mussels.

Introduced from Europe in the 1980s, zebra and quagga mussels are tiny, fingernail-sized mussels that foul freshwater ecosystems and clog the intake pipes of industries that draw water from infested lakes and rivers. Although populations have been widespread in the Great Lakes region and mid-west for almost two decades, these mussels were only found for the first time west of the Rockies in the last 18 months, specifically in regions of Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and California. Power plants and other raw-water dependent facilities currently have no choice but to use non-selective, polluting chemicals to reduce these fouling mussels. For open water (rivers, lakes, etc.), there is currently no cost-effective and environmentally safe solution and, therefore, these mussels continue to spread. When this NSF-funded, bacterial biopesticide is commercially available, it will represent a distinctly new approach to control these mussels in an environmentally responsible way.

The research at the Museum lab was made possible by about $3 million in grants from private, state, and federal agencies. Most recently, the Museum received a grant of $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, which recognized the devastation these mussels caused at electric power generation facilities and the lack of environmentally acceptable methods to control them (http://www.netl.doe.gov/technologies/coalpower/advresearch/pubs/ARSS-005_4P.pdf).

“We are honored that NSF recognized the extensive, excellent work conducted by Molloy and his Museum research team, as well as MOI’s experience and capability to bring this exciting technology to market,” said Dr. Pam Marrone, MOI’s founder and CEO.

“Because of its extraordinary safety, this green technology represents a real alternative to the widespread use of chlorine and other polluting biocides for zebra and quagga mussel control” said Molloy. ”We are thus very pleased to be receiving this NSF funding to partner with MOI, a company whose staff have an unparalleled track record of success in commercializing microbial biopesticides.”

The Museum will use the NSF funding to further define environmental safety testing and will also work closely with MOI on other scientific aspects of product development. Project activities will be carried out at the Cambridge lab by Molloy and his staff, which include chief scientist Denise Mayer and scientists Mike Gaylo and Paul Sawyko. Since its establishment in 1973, the state lab has focused on investigating the biology, ecology, taxonomy, and biological control of aquatic invertebrate pests. Molloy discovered the control potential of the P fluorescens strain in 1995 and patented it in the U.S. in 2001.

MOI’s NSF award, combined with its own resources, will be used to develop commercial formulations, optimize the manufacturing process, identify mussel-killing natural compounds produced by the bacterium, conduct field trials, and complete all other tasks required to submit the product to the US Environmental Protection Agency for approval. MOI expects to have the biopesticide on the market by early 2010.

Through a combination of in-licensed technology and its own R&D, MOI discovers, develops and markets natural products for pest management that target markets needing effective and environmentally responsible solutions. MOI’s own R&D finds naturally occurring microorganisms from unique habitats and develops them into products for controlling insects, weeds, nematodes, and plant diseases.

Founded in 1836, the New York State Museum in Albany is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. It has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and

collection survey in the U.S. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

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Work is under way at the New York State Museum on a new introductory gallery to New York Metropolis that will use satellite images, computer interactives, graphics and significant pieces from the museum's collections to give visitors a new perspective on the Big Apple.

Visitors entering the gallery from the museum lobby will begin to see many of the new additions in the coming weeks while work on other portions of the gallery will continue throughout the fall. When completed, the transformed space will provide an overview of the city utilizing three themes - the vertical city, transportation and culture.

The vertical city section will feature views of the city as seen from a Landsat satellite, a helicopter and rooftop. Providing a close-up of one of the city's most impressive structures will be a cast iron, ground-floor facade from a five-story building (circa 1869 -1870), which was located at 58-60 Worth Street in the SoHo district. The building stood among 11 "first class stores and warehouses," with cast iron fronts, erected on a square block of Manhattan, bounded by Broadway and Worth, Thomas and Church streets. These buildings were the core of the city's textile district for almost a century and these commercial "palaces" became popular coast to coast from the 1850s to the 1880s.

This section also will include samples of the bedrock upon which Manhattan's towering skyscrapers were built and an elevator door from the St. Regis Hotel.

The transportation section will provide an overview of how people have moved around the city. Representing one of the most common ways is the "GMC/Yellow" 1929 model taxi, which operated in the Bronx before being stored in a garage there from the depression era until 1958. The cab passed through several owners before the museum acquired and restored it in 1976. A cast iron "Bishop's Crook" street light from the early 1900s completes the scene.

Also in this section is an elaborate cast iron cartouche (circa 1930), from the West Side Highway. The elevated highway, part of a system of parkways conceived by New York master planner Robert Moses, allowed for ground level, east-west commercial traffic between the shipping piers along the river and Manhattan's commercial districts. The cartouche served as a location sign for Pier 98 west and 58th street and was mounted on the guardrail of the highway. This section also features a graphic showing a cross-section of the city's underground infrastructure, including subway, water, cable and sewer lines and a panel on how New York City gets its water.

The gallery also will include a wall of prints and posters that will provide an overview of the diverse cultural attractions -- theaters, museums, opera and ballet venues and more -- which are still a mainstay of the city's economy.

Visitors will be able to search for additional information on New York through a touch-screen computer kiosk. They will be able to access information on important attractions, find maps of the city's five boroughs and travel from there into individual neighborhoods.

The New York State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week throughout the year except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

ALBANY, NY – Visitors to the New York State Museum will have the chance to operate models of solar and fuel cell cars, build a 21-foot puzzle of the Hudson River, create new treasures out of recycled materials and participate in a wide variety of eco-friendly activities at Earth Day’s 40th anniversary celebration on Saturday, April 24.

There also will be presentations on environmental problems and solutions and opportunities to learn more about planet Earth and all that have inhabited it, past and present. The free event will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the main lobby and on the fourth floor.

Alternative energy applications of Nanotechnology, the science of the super small, will be discussed by Aline Gianfagna of the Center for Sustainable Ecosystems Nanotechnologies, College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the University at Albany. She will talk about how nanotechnology can be used to solve the world’s global ecosystem and environmental problems.

The puzzle of the Hudson River, available through the Hudson River Estuary Program, will allow visitors to explore the river’s history, physical features and wildlife. At this table they also can see a life-size model of a six-foot Atlantic Sturgeon and find out why these fish call the Hudson home. Bryan Weatherwax, of the State Museum’s Fish Lab, will invite visitors to examine live fish that use the various habitats of the Hudson River.

Smokey Bear and Ranger Karen Glesman will be on hand to provide information on what forest rangers do to protect the state’s forests.

Ralph Rataul, Janice Morrison and Susan Winchell-Sweeney, of the Museum’s

Anthropology Lab, will use ancient and recent objects New York State residents have left behind to demonstrate how archaeology is used to answer questions about how people once lived.

Michael Kossev of the Collected Seed Farm will provide advice on succession and companion planting, square-foot gardening, maximizing space and using other plants to ward off pests. There will be an opportunity to plant lettuce seeds to take home.

The Albany Vegetarian Network will have soy crayons available. Jan Lajeunesse will also distribute healthy recipes and information on how to help stop or reverse global warming.

Environmental educator Carol Morley will display State Museum specimens of Monarch Butterflies and provide tips on how to help the endangered insect, including information on how to raise them this summer, then tag and release them in the fall for their migration to Mexico.

Information about the state’s official mammal – the beaver – will be provided by Jennifer Brinker, Columbia Land Conservancy education coordinator, and Chelsea Benson, Mud Creek Environmental Learning Center education program coordinator.

Master Gardeners from the Cornell Cooperative Extension will share creative ideas on how to use objects found on nature walks to make mobiles, a field journal and placemats.

The Department of Environmental Education (DEC) will have staff from its Division of Air on hand to provide tips on reducing air pollution at home, saving energy and reducing waste. They’ll also show visitors how they can make flowers from old magazines. DEC’s Division of Lands and Forests will provide information on invasive insects and their effect on the state’s forests. They also will help participants create a mask from recycled cereal boxes. Staff from DEC’s Public Affairs and Education department will show visitors how to look for wildlife in their area using binoculars they make themselves. DEC’s Five Rivers Environmental Education Center will have an interactive display.

Adirondack artist Ryan Abrial will display sculptures he has made from recycled aluminum cans. Peggy Steinbach, the Museum’s art instructor, will teach visitors how to make a “flutter ball,” using recycled materials, and then create games to play with family and friends. Robin Tubolino of Nature Revealed will also show how to reduce, reuse and recycle, with lessons on making bird feeders, flowerpots, kites, sandals and jewelry.

Patrick Clear of the Environmental Clearinghouse will provide information on how to avoid poison ivy and what to do if one comes in contact with it. Alli Schweizer, environmental educator with Saratoga State Park, will have animal pelts and skulls that visitors can touch.

Information on how campers can have the least possible impact on the landscape will be

available from Ted Beblowski, master educator with the Leave No Trace program. Visitors will also be able to see and touch objects from the sea through activities led by State Museum staff members Nancy Berns and Paula Russo.

The State Museum is a cultural program of the State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, it is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

ALBANY, NY – A man who has become a leader in promoting awareness of missing persons as a result of having a missing loved one in his own family will tell his moving story to families and friends of abducted children and other missing persons at the 11th annual Missing Persons’ Day ceremony Saturday, April 9 at the New York State Museum.

A father of four, Frank Williams has devoted himself to working on behalf of missing persons ever since one of his own children went missing. The child was eventually safely recovered. In addition to sharing his personal story, Williams will talk about his work as president of the advisory board of the National Center for Missing Children—NY/Mohawk Valley Office and chairman of the annual Ride for Missing Children.

The Missing Persons’ event is held in conjunction with Missing Persons’ Day, which is observed annually on April 6th, Suzanne Lyall’s birthday. The former SUNY Albany student has been missing since March 2, 1998.

Prior to Williams’ speech, a ceremony will be held in the Museum’s Huxley Theater, beginning at 1 p.m., with Assemblyman James Tedisco as master of ceremonies. It will include a talk by Doug and Mary Lyall, the parents of Suzanne Lyall, who will discuss the Center for Hope, the Ballston Spa-based non-profit organization they founded. This will be followed by remarks by Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings and other notables.

Following the speeches and presentations, members of families with missing loved ones will place wreaths of yellow roses and hold a candlelight vigil at the Missing Persons’ Remembrance monument, located on the southeast corner of Madison and Swan Streets. Constructed in 2006, the monument features an eternal flame to “light the way home” for the missing.

Jim Viola, a filmmaker and husband of Patricia Viola, who has been missing from Bogata, New Jersey since 2001, will present several short videos about a variety of missing persons’ cases. The New York State Police, the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), and other organizations will be present during the event to hand out literature and answer parents’ questions.

During the morning of April 9, nearly 200 survivors and friends of missing persons, are expected to attend a private morning session exclusively for the families and missing person organizations, sponsored by the Center for Hope.

“Imagine one of the people that you love most disappears,” said Mary Lyall. “There is no goodbye, no letter or last phone call. There is only silence and an empty place in your heart that can’t be filled by anything or anyone but that person. This is the reality that families and friends of the missing must face every day. The annual Missing Persons’ Day event offers the families the hope, support and guidance they need to cope with this reality.”

Established in 1836, the State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and exhibits can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – Families and friends of abducted children and other missing persons from across the country will gather at the New York State Museum on Sunday, April 1, to talk about their own experiences and to teach other families how to prevent such tragedies. 
The event is part of the 6th annual Missing Persons Day ceremony. Missing Persons Day is observed annually on April 6th, Suzanne Lyall’s birthday. The former SUNY Albany student has been missing since March 2, 1998.
Abby Potash will be the keynote speaker at 2 p.m. in the Huxley Theater. The subject of Potash’s address will be non-custodial parental abductions, which happen 500 times a day in the United States and which Potash endured when her 10-year-old son, Sam, was snatched by Potash’s estranged husband. Now reunited with his mother and nearly 20 years old, Sam is a student at Temple University where he is studying social work in order to help other young people who have been similarly victimized. Prior to the keynote speech, a ceremony will be held in the Museum’s Huxley Theater, beginning at 1 p.m. with Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco as master of ceremonies. New York State Trooper Dan Hart will play the bagpipes and the National Anthem will be sung by Brittany Kissinger of Ballston Spa, who formerly starred as “Annie’’ on Broadway. 
Also among the day’s speakers will be Doug and Mary Lyall, the parents of Suzanne Lyall. The Lyalls are scheduled to speak at 1:20 about the Center for Hope, the Ballston Spa-based non-profit organization they founded. This will be followed by remarks from New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings and District Attorneys David Soares of Albany County and Patricia DeAngelis of Rensselaer County. 
Following the speeches and presentations, members of families with missing loved ones will place wreaths of yellow roses and hold a candlelight vigil at the Missing Persons Remembrance monument next door to the Museum. The monument was constructed in 2006. It is located on the southeast corner of Madison and Swan Streets and features an eternal flame to “light the way home” for the missing.
The New York State Police, the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) and other organizations will be present during the event to hand out literature and answer parents’ questions. Jim Viola, a filmmaker and husband of Patricia Viola, who has been missing from Bogota, New Jersey since 2001, will present several short videos about a variety of missing person’s cases. 
The Museum is among several sites in the Capitol Region that hosts a computer kiosk that allows visitors to access information year-round about missing persons. 
During the morning of April 1st nearly 200 survivors and friends of missing persons and interested parties are expected to attend a private morning session exclusively for the families and missing person organizations, sponsored by the Center for Hope. 
“ This annual event provides families with missing loved ones with support and guidance,” said Doug Lyall. “Collectively, we offer one another hope.”
The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Department of Education. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.
 

ALBANY, NY – Families and friends of abducted children and other missing persons from across the country will gather at the New York State Museum on Sunday, April 6, to talk about their own experiences and to teach other families how to prevent such tragedies.

The event is part of the 7th annual Missing Persons Day ceremony. Missing Persons Day is observed annually on April 6th, Suzanne Lyall’s birthday. The former SUNY Albany student has been missing since March 2, 1998.

Dr. Arthur J. Eisenberg, one of the nation’s leading authorities on DNA technology, will be the featured speaker at 2 p.m. in the Huxley Theater. He will talk about the ways in which DNA technology is being used to help solve missing persons’ cases. Dr. Eisenberg helped establish the world’s first DNA paternity and forensics laboratory and, over the past 23 years, he has been responsible for the development of many of the systems and methodologies used in the field of DNA identification testing.

Prior to Dr. Eisenberg’s speech, a ceremony will be held in the Museum’s Huxley Theater, beginning at 1 p.m., with Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco as master of ceremonies. New York State Trooper Dan Hart will play the bagpipes.

Doug and Mary Lyall, the parents of Suzanne Lyall, the parents of Suzanne Lyall, also will speak. The Lyalls will discuss the Center for Hope, the Ballston Spa-based non-profit organization they founded. This will be followed by remarks from New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings and District Attorney David Soares of Albany County. 
Following the speeches and presentations, members of families with missing loved ones will place wreaths of yellow roses and hold a candlelight vigil at the Missing Persons Remembrance

monument, located on the southeast corner of Madison and Swan Streets. Constructed in 2006, the monument features an eternal flame to “light the way home” for the missing.

The New York State Police, the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), and other organizations will be present during the event to hand out literature and answer parents’ questions. Jim Viola, a filmmaker and husband of Patricia Viola, who has been missing from Bogota, New Jersey since 2001, will present several short videos about a variety of missing person’s cases.

The Museum is among several sites in the Capitol Region that hosts a computer kiosk that allows visitors to access information year-round about missing persons.

During the morning of April 6 nearly 200 survivors and friends of missing persons and interested parties are expected to attend a private morning session exclusively for the families and missing person organizations, sponsored by the Center for Hope.

“This annual event provides families with missing loved ones with support and guidance,” said Doug Lyall. “Collectively, we offer one another hope.”

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Department of Education. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – A national expert known for his success in helping to solve long-standing missing persons’ cases will speak to families and friends of abducted children and other missing persons at the 8th annual Missing Persons’ Day ceremony Sunday, April 5 at the New York State Museum.

The event is held in conjunction with Missing Persons’ Day, which is observed annually on April 6th, Suzanne Lyall’s birthday. The former SUNY Albany student has been missing since March 2, 1998.

Todd Matthews, known for his involvement in the “Tent Girl” case, will be the featured speaker at 2 p.m. in the Huxley Theater. The “Tent Girl” was an unidentified young woman found dead near Georgetown, Kentucky on May 17, 1968. As a result of the ongoing efforts of Matthews, she was positively identified 30 years later, in 1998, as Barbara Ann Hackmann Taylor.

Matthews will talk about his work as media director for the Doe Network, which maintains a searchable database of information about missing persons. He is a consultant on a new TV series being developed by Dick Wolf, producer of the TV show “Law and Order,” and he is on the advisory board of the U.S. Department of Justice’s NamUs.gov (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System) database project. A documentary film about Matthews’ life, entitled “Resurrection,” is currently in production.

Prior to Matthews’ speech, a ceremony will be held in the Museum’s Huxley Theater, beginning at 1 p.m., with Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco as master of ceremonies. It will include a talk by Doug and Mary Lyall, the parents of Suzanne Lyall, who will discuss the Center for Hope, the Ballston Spa-based non-profit organization they founded. This will be followed by remarks by Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings and Albany County District Attorney David Soares.

Following the speeches and presentations, members of families with missing loved ones will place wreaths of yellow roses and hold a candlelight vigil at the Missing Persons’ Remembrance monument, located on the southeast corner of Madison and Swan Streets. Constructed in 2006, the monument features an eternal flame to “light the way home” for the missing.

The New York State Police, the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), and other organizations will be present during the event to hand out literature and answer parents’ questions. Jim Viola, a filmmaker and husband of Patricia Viola, who has been missing from Bogota, New Jersey since 2001, will present several short videos about a variety of missing persons’ cases.

The Museum is among several sites in the Capitol Region that hosts a computer kiosk that allows visitors to access information year-round about missing persons.

During the morning of April 5, nearly 200 survivors and friends of missing persons, are expected to attend a private morning session exclusively for the families and missing person organizations, sponsored by the Center for Hope.

“The families of missing persons share a common bond -- pain, anger, sorrow and the agony of losing a loved one,” said Mary Lyall. “Each family has a story to tell about people who are hurting because their missing loved ones have not come home. The annual Missing Persons’ Day event offers these people hope, support and guidance.”

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Education Department. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

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ALBANY, N.Y. – The New York State Museum will participate in the Capital District’s week-long MoHu arts festival, which includes the opening of a Black Dimensions in Art exhibition, complemented by a performance of the Empire State Youth Orchestra (ESYO) Jazz Ensemble and the Tutti Celli Jr. Quartet.

The Concert for the Artist “I” will be held October 15 from 1-2 p.m. in Adirondack Hall. The Artists’ I art exhibition, open October 7-15, is on the Museum’s fourth-floor Terrace Gallery, and was created especially by Black Dimensions in Art to celebrate MoHu www.mohufest.com. Both events are free. MoHu will feature dance, music and visual arts from sundown October 8-16. The largest arts festival in the Capital District’s history, it celebrates the quality, vitality and diversity of the arts throughout Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer and Saratoga counties – the area that surrounds the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers.

The Artists’ I includes paintings, drawings, photographs, quilts, textiles and mixed media. The exhibition represents the essence of all things creative that an artist draws upon. Whether the artist is inspired by beauty, a place in time or a particular story, the “I” is the movement of energy that flows from the artist to his or her work.

In a collaboration of visual and performing arts, the concert is designed to open the eyes and ears of both the musicians and audience to the richness and synergies found in different art forms. The Concert for the Artist “I” is based on the premise that music and art serve as vehicles that encourage the “I” to reach beyond boundaries and inspire the individual.

The Empire State Youth Orchestra first joined forces with Black Dimensions in Art in November 2010 when the organizations presented “Pictures of an Exhibition” at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. The ESYO jazz ensemble consists of 17 outstanding high-school jazz musicians from across the Capital District. Tutti Celli Jr. is a cello quintet of African-American youths, both elementary and high school students. They are mentored by the larger TuttiCelli, a multi-cultural cello choir of all ages that performs in the Capital District.

Black Dimensions in Art Inc. is a not-for-profit organization of artists, craftsmen, and art enthusiasts working together to stimulate interest in the creative expressions of art by people of African descent. The mission of Black Dimensions in Art is to educate the public about the contributions of past and present artists of African descent through exhibitions, publications, and other media. It provides exposure and sales opportunities for artists, and encourages youth, especially African-American youth, in the practice and appreciation of the arts.

Founded in 1836, the State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – New York’s Goodwill moon rock from the Apollo 17 mission will be on exhibit at the New York State Museum beginning December 19 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the last manned moon mission when the rock was collected. The rarely seen moon rock – a small piece of the Moon, 3.7 billion years old and the only fragment in the State’s collections – will be on exhibit in the Museum lobby from December 19, 2012 through February 10, 2013.

The highly successful Apollo 17 mission was the last and longest manned lunar mission and brought back the largest amount of moon samples in history. The mission was manned by NASA astronauts Eugene A. Cernan, Ronald E. Evans, and Harrison H. Schmitt. Schmitt was the only geologist on the mission and later became a U.S. senator for New Mexico and a university professor. Scientific objectives for the mission included geological surveying and sampling of rocks, surface and in-flight experiments, and high-resolution photographic tasks.

While retrieving samples from the Moon’s Taurus-Littrow Valley, Schmitt and Cernan picked up a rock that became sample 70017 and dedicated it to all the young people of the planet Earth. In 1973, President Richard Nixon had fragments of sample 70017 presented to all 50 U.S. states and provinces, as well as 135 foreign heads of state. These fragments of moon rock became known as the Goodwill moon rocks. Nixon sent the Goodwill moon rock to New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller who entrusted it to the care of the New York State Museum.

Photos of the Goodwill moon rock are available at http://www.oce.nysed.gov/moon/.

The New York State Museum is a program of the State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from
9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

ALBANY, NY - - Favorite nursery rhymes and children’s songs, colored by jazz and the blues, will be presented during two performances of the Mother Goose Jazz Band at the New York State Museum Saturday, November 26th at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

The interactive performances introduce children, ages 2-10, to the world of jazz. But the music is designed for both young and adult audiences. Familiar children’s songs have been set to the music of jazz greats Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk. The performances provide a fun way to teach children about steady beat and syncopation, improvisation and the Afro-European roots of the blues.

Special guest vocalist Laurel Massé, founding member of the Manhattan Transfer, will join the musicians. The band is directed by Josh Greenberg, a composer, educator and saxophonist whose jazz albums have won awards from the National Library Association, Parents’ Guide to Children’s Media and Family Life magazine. The band also includes jazz musicians Gene Garone, Ryan Lucas, David Gleason, Ken Olsen and Cathy Olsen. A youth chorus of high school and college age girls round out the band.

The Mother Goose Jazz Band has been performing throughout the Northeast for the past 10 years, playing such venues as First Night New York City, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the International Association of Jazz Educators National Conference.

Admission is $5 for children 12 and under, $7 for adults, and children under two are free. Tickets may be purchased the day of the performance.

The New York State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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ALBANY – A Monster Movie Fest, a children’s festival and a Halloween version of “Cooking the Tree of Life,” featuring a mad scientist and a Food Network chef, will be part of the New York State Museum’s “Monster Mayhem,” beginning October 22.

The fun begins with “Muckman Movie Fest” October 22, from noon to 5 p.m., and the “Monster Mash and Bash” festival for children October 22 and 29, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. “Cooking the Tree of Life Halloween Special: the Food Origins of Monster Myths” will be held October 26 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The entrance fee for all events is $5. Proceeds from the Movie Fest and Monster Mash and Bash will benefit the Museum’s after-school program.

"Cooking the Tree of Life,” in the Clark Auditorium, (concourse level) will explore the possible food-based origins of three monster myths – witches, zombies and vampires. Museum curator and “mad scientist” Dr. Roland Kays will provide the science behind spooky stories of human-food interactions while Food Network Chef David Britton cooks up samples of unique food using the same ingredients. Those who come in costume will get an extra treat. Reservations can be made by contacting Peggy Steinbach at 518- 474-1569 or emailnysmpp@mail.nysed.gov.

The Movie Fest in the Clark Auditorium will feature the films of Brett Piper, a New Hampshire-based director, screenwriter and makeup and special effects artist. Piper will make a personal appearance at the Museum anddebut his latest feature film, “Muckman.”The other movies that will bescreened arethe mutant insect drama “Bite Me!” andthe zombie classic “Shock-a-Rama,” both of which feature Misty Mundae.

Since the early 1980s, Piper has released many science fiction epics, vintage drive-in flicks and tongue-in-cheek horror shockers featuring such cult movie icons as Linnea Quigley and Matt Mitler. He is considered a master of old school stop-motion techniques, handmade special effects and gruesome latex monsters. The moviefest is open to those 16 and older.

“Monster Mash and Bash,” in Adirondack Hall, is the annual Halloween festival for toddlers to 10-year-olds. It will feature goblin games and puzzles, arts and crafts, stories, fun-house mirrors, face painting and a “boo-gy” dance floor. There will be a costume parade at 1 and 3 p.m.

Since 1987 the State Museum’s after-school programs – the Museum Club and Discovery Squad -- have provided tutoring and educational enrichment opportunities for nearly 4,000 youths from Albany’s underserved neighborhoods, ages 8-18. The programs are designed to encourage young people to enjoy learning through interactive, hands-on activities. A friendly, diverse staff and informal approach encourages students to explore, discover and challenge themselves in a unique, educational environment.

The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – The New York State Museum will be closed to the public on Saturday, September 16th to allow for major electrical repairs and testing of the emergency power system.

The Museum will reopen Sunday, September 17th at 9:30 a.m.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. It is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is generally open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

ALBANY, NY – The New York State Museum will be closed to the public on Sunday, March 12th to allow for testing of the emergency lighting system in the Cultural Education Center building.

The Museum will reopen Monday, March 13th at 9:30 a.m.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. It is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is generally open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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ALBANY, NY – The New York State Museum will be closed to the public on Saturday, September 16th to allow for major electrical repairs and testing of the emergency power system.

The Museum will reopen Sunday, September 17th at 9:30 a.m.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. It is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is generally open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

ALBANY, NY --- The New York State Museum has received a $1 million federal grant to conduct a new research project aimed at protecting endangered species of native freshwater mussels from the lethal fouling impacts of invasive zebra mussels.

With the grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), through its Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, Museum scientists will use their environmentally safe invention – a biopesticide – to continue their research with a new emphasis on open water applications. The project will be led by Museum research scientists Daniel Molloy and Denise Mayer.

The Museum will collaborate with two federal institutions along the Mississippi River – the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Genoa National Fish Hatchery and the U.S. Geological Survey’s Upper Midwest Environmental Services Center – to develop protocols to protect native freshwater mussels, many of which have been listed as threatened or endangered species, often due to the lethal impacts caused by zebra mussels covering their shells.

The EPA grant will allow Museum scientists to pursue a new aspect of the use of this biopesticide by exploring its effectiveness in lakes and rivers as a way to protect native freshwater mussels from the lethal fouling of zebra mussels and their close relatives, quagga mussels. They will further examine the impact of the biopesticide product formulations on the species of fish and native mussels that could be present in a river or lake when the product is applied to open waters. This environmental safety information will allow fishery and native mussel conservationists to select the most appropriate treatment regimes for their needs to help reduce the impacts of zebra mussels.

“This is an exciting research opportunity since we’ll be developing real protocols using a technology that was invented here at the Museum to help protect native freshwater mussels -- some of the most imperiled aquatic animals in North America,” said Mayer, the scientist who will manage the project.

Mayer and Molloy’s prior research focused on finding a remedy for the clogging of pipe systems by zebra mussels and quagga mussels in industrial systems, such as power plants that use water for energy production or cooling. This results in billions of dollars in economic damage due to lost production and costs for remediation. The chemical treatment of these industrial pipe systems to reduce these mussel infestations risks polluting lakes and rivers. Scientists at the Museum’s Field Research Laboratory in Cambridge, led by Dr. Molloy, sought to discover an environmentally safe control method, and screened over 700 bacteria before identifying a strain of the common bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens as being lethal to these mussels when ingested.

Museum scientists also discovered that dead cells of this strain were equally as lethal as live cells, providing clear evidence that the mussels died from a natural toxin in the cells, not from infection. This is very significant because it means that future commercial formulations will contain dead cells, thus further reducing environmental concerns. Testing at the Cambridge laboratory also revealed the extraordinary selectivity of the bacteria in killing zebra and quagga mussels without killing other aquatic organisms, including fish and other species of freshwater clams and mussels. Marrone Bio Innovations of Davis, CA is expected to make the Pseudomonas fluorescens product commercially available in 2011 following biopesticide registration by the EPA.

Founded in 1836, the New York State Museum in Albany is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. It has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – The New York State Museum’s Family Fun Weekend on March 20-21 will focus on “Native People of New York.”

The free event will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. both days. Activities will include a tour of the Native Peoples of New York gallery, led by a State Museum educator, on Saturday at 2 p.m. A Star Lab program on “Native Constellation Mythology” will be held at 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Sunday in the Huxley Theater. Tickets are free but are limited and must be obtained in advance at the front desk in the Museum lobby. The program is not recommended for children under five.

A make-and-take craft activity, coloring table and Native People hands-on teaching cart will be available both days outside of Discovery Place. Family Fun Weekends offer theme-based family activities on the third weekend of the month.

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling

(518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, N.Y. – Nationally-acclaimed hip-hop violinist, composer and band leader Daniel Bernard Roumain will perform in a concert for Capital District middle and high school students on Thursday, January 21 at the New York State Museum.

The free after-school special event will be held at 3 p.m. in the Museum’s Clark Auditorium. It is a production of The Egg Empire Center for the Performing Arts, The New York State Museum and Black Dimensions in Art, Inc. CDTA is assisting with transportation for some students.

Roumain, also known as DBR, will present a musical autobiography, illuminating his artistic inspiration, and perform excerpts of his work, which combines classical music with rock and hip-hop. He will also discuss and demonstrate his approach to composing music. The Haitian American artist has carved a reputation for himself as an innovative composer, performer, violinist, and band leader who melds his classical music roots with his own cultural references and vibrant musical imagination.

Proving that he’s "about as omnivorous as a contemporary artist gets" (New York Times), DBR recently collaborated and performed with Lady Gaga on FOX’s “American Idol.” He has been featured on the CBS Evening News segment “Assignment America,”spotlighted as a "New Face of Classical Music" (Esquire Magazine), chosen one of the "Top 100 New Yorkers" (New York Resident), "Top 40 Under 40" business people (Crain’s New York Business) and named one of the entertainment industry’s "Top 5 Tomorrow’s Newsmakers" (1010 WINS Radio).

DBR regularly composes for orchestras and chamber music ensembles around the globe and tours with his genre-jumping ensemble DBR & The Mission. He will be a soloist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra for the Canadian premiere of Voodoo Violin Concerto at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics on February 14.

A native of Margate, Florida, DBR studied music as an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music where he currently serves as a visiting professor ofcomposition, and completed his masters and doctoral work at the University of Michigan under the tutelage of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom.

Pre-registration is required for the Museum event and can be made by contacting Peggy at 474-1569 to reserve a seat. Students should not bring instruments.

Further information about DBR is available at ttp://www.dbrmusic.com/dbr.htm or ttp://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/10/assignment_america/main1391508.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Started in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – A traveling exhibition about New Netherland -- the 17th century Dutch province that stretched from modern-day Albany to parts of Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut – opens at the New York State Museum on December 12.

“Light on New Netherland,” open through February 8 in the Museum’s Terrace Gallery, provides insight into the role the Dutch played in the settlement and development of colonial America. Based on original Dutch documents in the collections of the New York State Library and State Archives, the exhibition traces the history of the Dutch in New Netherland, beginning with Henry Hudson’s exploration in 1609.

It is curated by Robert E. Mulligan, retired history curator at the State Museum, and produced by the New Netherland Institute to celebrate the 2009 quadricentennial of the Hudson voyage. The Institute works to enhance awareness of the Dutch history of colonial America by supporting the translation and publication of early Dutch documents through the New Netherland Project, located in the State Library and also supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The New Netherland Project has been working since 1974 to translate and publish the official 17th-century Dutch colonial documents of one of America’s earliest and longest-settled region.

The exhibition presents information about the fur trade that initially brought settlers to New Netherland, as well as the growth of farming and communities as families relocated there. It discusses the establishment of government, the practice of religion, and the interactions between settlers and native peoples, among other aspects of life in the colony.

Although New Netherland existed only from 1609 to 1664, when the colony was conquered by the English in a time of peace, the Dutch language, religion and culture could still be found in various pockets of the province well into the 19th century. The Dutch influence is still apparent in present-day American institutions and culture. Santa Claus and American Christmas traditions trace back to Sinterklaas or St. Nicholas, the patron saint of Holland and New Netherland. Former Presidents Martin Van Buren and Franklin Roosevelt, and modern-day celebrities Tom Brokaw, Bruce Springsteen and Meryl Streep, all share a Dutch heritage. The exhibition also notes that the tolerance the Dutch showed to neighbors and new settlers set the stage for the ethnic and cultural diversity for which New York and America have long been recognized.

Many of the illustrations in the exhibition are the work of Len Tantillo, the foremost artist in recreating historical images of New Netherland. He was the subject of a public television documentary entitled “Hudson River Journeys” in March 2004. In 2005, the American wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art commissioned him to create a painting for a permanent exhibition of Dutch architecture in colonial America.

“Illuminating New York’s Dutch Past,” a short video about the New Netherland Project, will be shown in the exhibition gallery. Nineteen volumes, or about 60 percent of the 12,000 volumes that survive, have been published to date under the direction of Dr. Charles Gehring, project director, and Dr. Janny Venema, associate director.

At the conclusion of the Museum exhibition, “Light on Netherland” is scheduled for various sites in New York State, as well as some in Connecticut, Delaware and Michigan.

The State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department, the University of the State of New York and the Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

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Albany – The New York State Biodiversity Project has announced the publication of “Legacy: Conserving New York State’s Biodiversity,” the first comprehensive book on the Empire State’s extraordinary flora and fauna and diverse natural areas.

Written for the general reader, this 100-page book offers a complete tour of New York State’s plants and animals and is illustrated with color photographs, original illustrations, and graphics,. The focus is on ecological communities and there are suggestions for ways that scientists and the public can advance conservation efforts. The book is designed to educate New Yorkers about the state’s biodiversity, how it affects their daily lives, and why it should be protected for future generations. It is published by the New York State Biodiversity Project.

From salamanders to songbirds and fungi to diatoms, the book seeks to impress upon readers the multitude and spectrum of the natural wealth of New York State -- and points out that new species are still being discovered. Recently, scientists from the American Museum of Natural History discovered a new genus and species of centipede (Nannarrup hoffmani) in New York City’s Central Park.

The book also details the defining characteristics of the state’s natural communities that make New York unique and beautiful. These include salt marshes, alpine meadows, lakes, streams, spruce-fir forests and grasslands as well as some important human-modified landscapes, such as farm fields, community gardens and cemeteries, where a surprising diversity of life also can be found.

The final chapter offers recommendations to ensure that biodiversity is preserved for all New Yorkers, their children, and future generations.

A free copy of Legacy: Conserving New York State’s Biodiversity can be requested from: New York State Biodiversity Research Institute, New York State Museum, 3140 CEC, Albany, NY 12230 (email: bri@mail.nysed.gov).

The book is a publication of the New York State Biodiversity Project, a collaborative effort by the American Museum of Natural History, New York State Biodiversity Research Institute, New York

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State Department of Environmental Conservation, New York Natural Heritage Program, and The Nature Conservancy. The group’s aim is to improve the public’s understanding of the state’s biodiversity and to identify both challenges and solutions to protect it.

Since its founding in 1869, the American Museum of Natural History has advanced its global mission to explore and interpret human cultures and the natural world through scientific research, education, and exhibitions. The institution houses 45 permanent exhibition halls, state-of-the-art research laboratories, one of the largest natural history libraries in the Western Hemisphere, and a permanent collection of more than 30 million specimens and cultural artifacts. In 1993, the Museum established the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC) in response to the accelerated loss of animals, plants, and habitats worldwide. The Center combinesresearch, training, and public outreach so that people become participants in conservation. To learn more about the Museum or the CBC visit: http://www.amnh.org/ or http://cbc.amnh.org/

` The New York State Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) was created by the New York State Legislature in 1993 to help meet the challenges associated with preserving the state’s biodiversity. The BRI serves as a comprehensive source of biological information, which is used to advise both public and private agencies on matters relating to the status of New York’s biological resources. The BRI is housed within the New York State Museum and is funded through the Environmental Protection Fund. The BRI is collaboration between the state Department of Environmental Conservation, New York Natural Heritage Program, Audubon New York, state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and The Nature Conservancy. To learn more about the BRI and its programs and initiatives, visit: http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/bri/index.html.

The Nature Conservancy is a private, international, non-profit organization that preserves plants, animals and the natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy, and its more than one million members, have been responsible for the protection of more than 14 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 117 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. In New York, The Nature Conservancy has helped preserve more than 500,000 acres of land. To learn more about the Nature Conservancy programs call (212) 997-1880, or visit nature.org/newyork.

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ALBANY, NY – After months of being closed for repairs, the New York State Museum has reopened its popular antique carousel and announced the establishment of a special fund to ensure its continued operation for years to come.

The Museum was forced to close the carousel last summer after years of heavy use took its toll. Since opening in the Windows On New York gallery in 2001, the circa 1915 carousel hosted as many as 180,000 visitors a year, becoming one of the most popular attractions at the Museum. It operated seven days a week throughout the year, closing for short periods every June for routine maintenance. Last summer it was discovered that the carousel’s main gear, which had been in place since it was built, needed to be replaced.

One Museum visitor discovered the unfortunate downside to the carousel’s popularity when he found the carousel closed during a visit with his granddaughter. Shortly thereafter, Carl Ernst approached Geoffrey Stein, an extended family member and senior historian at the Museum, and offered his assistance to keep the carousel operating in the future.

The Carol and Carl Ernst New York State Museum Carousel Fund has now been established to address any future mechanical problems that might occur. The Ernst family has committed $3,000 annually, over the next five years, to purchase the parts that will be needed to keep the carousel operating continuously. The Museum hopes to raise additional funds from the private sector to ensure that adequate resources are available in the future to supplement state funding for carousel maintenance and repairs.

“Carol and I have championed the carousel to help the Museum keep it available to the community whenever the Museum is open,” said Carl Ernst, an Albany resident and CEO of Ernst Publishing Co., LLC., an Albany-based company and recognized authority on land recording offices in the United States.

“We are very grateful to the Ernst family for their generosity and support in helping us toestablish a dedicated fund for this historic treasure,” said Museum Director Dr. Clifford Siegfried. “This will ensure that the carousel will continue to delight old and young alike for many years to come.”

The carousel has now been outfitted with a new custom manufactured gear, built and installed by Brass Ring Entertainment of Sun Valley, Calif., the same company that restored the carousel seven years ago. A backup gear has also been manufactured so that if the new one needs to be replaced at some point in the future there will not be a long wait to create a new one.

Nearly one-fourth of all Museum visitors travel to the Museum’s fourth floor to ride the carousel, where it is located in a circular glass enclosure specially built for it. The carousel has repeatedly been listed in area “best of” lists compiled through area newspaper readers’ polls.

The animals on the carousel, consisting of 36 horses, two donkeys and two deer, were carved around 1895 by Charles Dare of Brooklyn. The animals were stationary and Dare used them on a track carousel, which had wheels beneath its platform that ran on a circular track. When track carousels later became obsolete, the Herschell-Spillman Carousel Factory in North Tonawanda, Niagara County reused the animals from Dare’s track carousel on a new carousel suspended from a central pole with a mechanism allowing the horses to move up and down and “gallop.” Herschell-Spillman also added a Neptune Chariot, a Rocking Chariot and a spinning “Love Tub.”

The new 48-foot diameter carousel, with a 10-inch diameter center pole, was one of the largest traveling or carnival carousels made. Brothers Fred and Albert Stadel of Wellsville, Allegany County purchased the carousel in the spring of 1915. From 1915 through the 1929 season, the Stadel brothers traveled the carousel by train throughout New York’s southern tier and bordering northern Pennsylvania. In 1930 and 1931 the carousel also operated at Olcott Beach, on the shore of Lake Ontario, in Niagara County. By 1933 the Stadel brothers had sold their carousel to J. Fenton Olive at Olivecrest Park on Cuba Lake, near Cuba, Allegany County. The carousel continued to be the main attraction at the park until it closed in 1972. The State Museum, with the foresight of Chief Curator John J. Still, purchased the carousel in 1975. It remained in a warehouse until Siegfried decided to bring it out of storage and restore it.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. The State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – A native New Yorker and nationally recognized historian, who has held various leadership positions on the state and national level for the past 28 years, has been appointed the new chief historian.

Robert Weible, the current director of public history at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, a unit of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), will take on his new role as New York State’s chief curator of history in late March.

“Robert is a public historian who has built strong partnerships throughout his career with diverse community groups, universities, cultural organizations and local historical societies,” said Museum Director Dr. Clifford Siegfried. “His proven leadership skills will also be important to his internal role at the Museum as we plan for the renewal of the Museum galleries and the transfer of our extensive history collection to a new storage facility.”

Weible will work with Museum management and history staff to plan and implement movement of the history collections and staff to a new collections facility. He also will be instrumental in planning for a new history gallery at the Museum, slated to open in 2010, which is part of an overall plan to renew the Museum galleries. Weible also will work with local historians and academic and cultural institutions to increase the public’s understanding of New York State history and its role in U.S. history. He will also oversee management of the Museum’s history collections and help develop content for public programs and teacher workshops.

Weible was selected following an exhaustive search that began in 2006 as soon as funds became available for the position. Following the budget crisis of the 90’s the Museum has faced an uphill battle to obtain the funds necessary to rebuild capacity as several key positions were vacated due to retirement and other budgetary factors. Kenneth Ames, the Museum’s last state historian, left in the mid-1990s. Joseph F. Meany Jr. assumed the role of acting state historian, retiring in 2001. Hugh Hastings, the first state historian, was appointed in 1895.

Born in Queens, Weible grew up in Seaford on Long Island. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Penn State University and a master’s in history from the University of Rhode Island. In his most recent position at PHMC, he developed partnerships with professional organizations, historical societies, universities and others to create and support public history programs for adult audiences. He also directed content management for ExplorePAhistory.com, an award-winning website developed in partnership with PBS and NPR affiliate WITF. The website is designed to make Pennsylvania and American history more exciting and accessible to public audiences. It also promotes tourism and provides teaching resources for K-12 teachers. Previously, Weible was the acting director of the Pennsylvania State Archives. He also worked as the chief of the division of history for PHMC from 1989 to 2003, and managed a staff of professional historians, librarians and educators to provide research, writing and programming for diverse public audiences.

In 1979 he became the first historian at Lowell National Historical Park in Lowell, Massachusetts, serving there through 1989. During this time he helped draft the park’s General Management Plan and develop its major museum and interpretive facilities. Lowell has since become a model for the development of other national parks and many state and federal heritage projects.

Weible was president of the National Council on Public History from 2005-06, and on the nominating committee for the Organization of American Historians from 1987-89. He also has served on various boards and committees for the American Historical Association, the American Association for State and Local History, the Mid-Atlantic American Studies Association, the Pennsylvania Historical Association and others.

Books he has edited include “The Continuing Revolution: A History of Lowell, Massachusetts,” “The Popular Perception of Industrial History (with Francis R. Walsh),” and “The World of the Industrial Revolution: Comparative and International Aspects of Industrialization.” He has published articles and reviews in The Public Historian, The Journal of American History, Pennsylvania History, Pennsylvania Heritage and elsewhere.

The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Department of Education, the University of the State of New York and the Office of Cultural Education. Started in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

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(ALBANY, NEW YORK) -- A new exhibition -- 1934: A New Deal for Artists -- will open at the New York State Museum on October 19 showcasing paintings created against the backdrop of the Great Depression with the support of the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), the first federal government program to support the arts nationally.

Open until Jan. 20, 2013 in West Gallery, 1934: A New Deal for Artists is organized and circulated by the Smithsonian American Art Museum with support from the William R. Kenan, Jr. Endowment Fund and the Smithsonian Council for American Art. The C.F. Foundation in Atlanta supports the Museum's traveling exhibition program, Treasures to Go.

During the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised a "new deal for the American people," initiating government programs to foster economic recovery. Roosevelt's pledge to help "the forgotten man" also embraced America's artists. The Public Works of Art Project lasted only six months, from mid-December 1933 to June 1934. Its purpose was to alleviate the distress of professional unemployed American artists by paying them to capture "the American Scene" in works of art that would embellish public buildings across the country. Artists painted regional, recognizable subjects — ranging from portraits, to cityscapes and images of city life, to landscapes and depictions of rural life — that reminded the public of quintessential American values such as hard work, community and optimism.

“This exhibition is very timely, opening in an election year when Americans are again grappling with questions about what course the nation should take as it struggles to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, “said State Museum Director Mark Schaming. “We think visitors will be inspired as they see this outstanding artwork that bears witness to this New Deal cultural program.”

The exhibition began a national tour in 2010 celebrating the 75th anniversary of the PWAP by drawing on the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s unparalleled collection of vibrant paintings created for the program. The 55 paintings in the exhibition are a lasting visual record of America at a specific moment in time.

Artists from across the United States who participated in the program were encouraged to depict “the American Scene,” but they were allowed to interpret this idea freely. They painted regional, recognizable subjects—ranging from portraits to cityscapes and images of city life to landscapes and depictions of rural life—that reminded the public of quintessential American values such as hard work, community and optimism. These artworks, which were displayed in schools, libraries, post offices, museums and government buildings, vividly capture the realities and ideals of Depression-era America.

The exhibition is arranged into eight sections: “American People,” “City Life,” “Labor,” “Industry,” “Leisure,” “The City,” “The Country” and “Nature.”

The PWAP employed artists from across the country including Ilya Bolotowsky, Lily Furedi and Max Arthur Cohn in New York City; Harry Gottlieb and Douglass Crockwell in upstate New York; Herman Maril in Maryland; Gale Stockwell in Missouri; E. Dewey Albinson in Minnesota; E. Martin Hennings in New Mexico; and Millard Sheets in California.

Ross Dickinson paints the confrontation between man and nature in his painting of southern California, “Valley Farms” (1934). He contrasts the verdant green, irrigated valley with the dry, reddish-brown hills, recalling the appeal of fertile California for many Midwestern farmers escaping the hopelessness of the Dust Bowl.

Several artists chose to depict American ingenuity. Stadium lighting was still rare when Morris Kantor painted “Baseball at Night” (1934), which depicts a game at the Clarkstown Country Club’s Sports Centre in West Nyack, N.Y. Ray Strong’s panoramic “Golden Gate Bridge” (1934) pays homage to the engineering feats required to build the iconic San Francisco structure. “Old Pennsylvania Farm in Winter” (1934) by Arthur E. Cederquist features a prominent row of poles providing telephone service and possibly electricity, a rare modern amenity in rural America.

The program was open to artists who were denied other opportunities, such as African- Americans and Asian-Americans. African-American artists like Earle Richardson, who painted “Employment of Negroes in Agriculture” (1934), were welcomed, but only about 10 such artists were employed by the project. Richardson, who was a native New Yorker, chose to set his painting of quietly dignified workers in the South to make a broad statement about race. In the Seattle area, where Kenjiro Nomura lived, many Japanese-Americans made a living as farmers, but they were subject to laws that prevented foreigners from owning land and other prejudices. Nomura’s painting “The Farm” (1934) depicts a darker view of rural life with threatening clouds on the horizon.

During its brief existence the PWAP hired 3,749 artists who created 15,663 paintings, murals, sculptures, prints, drawings and craft objects at a cost of $1,312,000.

In April 1934, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., exhibited more than 500 works created as part of the PWAP. Selected paintings from the Corcoran exhibition later traveled to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and other cities across the country. President Roosevelt, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and government officials who attended the exhibition in Washington acclaimed the art enthusiastically. The Roosevelts selected 32 paintings for display at the White House, including Sheets’ “Tenement Flats” (1933-34) and Strong’s “Golden Gate Bridge” (1934). The success of the PWAP paved the way for later New Deal art programs, including the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project.

Nearly 150 paintings from the PWAP were transferred to the Smithsonian American Art Museum during the 1960s, along with a large number of artworks from subsequent programs that extended into the 1940s, especially the well-known WPA program.

A catalog, fully illustrated in color and co-published by the Smithsonian Art Museum and D Giles Ltd. in London, will be for sale in the Museum shop, in both the hard-cover and soft-cover version.

The State Museum will be sponsoring several programs to complement the exhibition including tours of the exhibition on Oct. 20 and Nov. 17 and a Creative Art Day program on Oct. 20. Further information is available on the Museum website.

More information on the exhibition is available.

Established in 1836, the New York State Museum is a program of the State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

ALBANY, NY – Children will be invited to imagine the events leading up to the Revolutionary War in a play presented at the New York State Museum’s next Family Fun Weekend, February 16 and 17.

The Family Fun Weekend takes place from 1 – 4 p.m. both days. All activities are free of charge.

At 1 p.m. on Saturday only, Kit’s Kaboodle, a Philadelphia-based interactive theater organization, will present a play about the American Revolution. Set in 1776, the story follows the fictitious Abigail Datchery and Founding Father Samuel Adams as if they were attending the first reading of the Declaration of Independence. The audience will be asked to help recreate events, such as the Boston Tea Party, which led to the war for independence.

Kit’s Kaboodle presents one-woman plays that invite children to get a close look at history. Kitty Jones, the owner and performer, is a Delmar native who appears frequently in the Capital Region. “The American Revolution,” which will be staged in the Carole F. Huxley Theater, is being provided to the Museum by the Irish American Heritage Museum in East Durham.

There also will be a craft activity, both afternoons, related to Albany’s Dutch heritage. Children also will receive a packet filled with coloring sheets and puzzles to take home.

Family Fun Weekends offer theme-based family activities on the third weekend of the month.

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Education Department. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible.

Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – The closing date for Rockwell Kent: This is My Own, the latest exhibition in the Bank of America’s Great Art Series, has been extended to July 5.

On view in the Museum’s West Gallery, the exhibition is the 20th installment of the Bank of America Great Art Exhibition and Education Program, which brings works from New York State’s leading art museums and collections to the State Museum. This exhibition features works from the collection of the Plattsburgh State Art Museum, State University of New York at Plattsburgh, the most complete and balanced collection of Kent’s work in the United States. The collection was established by a gift and bequest from Kent’s wife, Sally Kent Gorton. This exhibition is curated by Cecilia M. Esposito, director of the Plattsburgh State Art Museum.

"We at Plattsburgh, and I as a Regent, are delighted to share the life work of Rockwell Kent with visitors to the New York State Museum from across the state and the nation,” said James Dawson, member of the State Board of Regents. “This powerful and unique exhibition will give visitors an opportunity to engage with, and understand, the life and artistic contributions of Rockwell Kent to American art. As a faculty member at the State University of Plattsburgh, I have been familiar with the Kent Collection for decades. So, I am delighted to see that others in the state and nation will have this same profound opportunity to share in Kent's incredible artistic talent.”

A critically acclaimed artist who provided the illustrations for such classics as “Moby Dick” and the “Canterbury Tales,” Kent succeeded in multiple endeavors during his lifetime. He was a painter, muralist, illustrator, printmaker, book designer, graphic artist, architect, builder, writer and editor, lecturer, navigator, world traveler and political and social activist.

Kent once said that “art is no more than the shadow cast by a man’s own stature.” This exhibition is unique in the breadth of materials on display, including hundreds of items that chronicle Kent’s life and work, reflecting remarkable personal experiences and a deep sense of moral and political principle. On display are paintings, drawings, prints, books, bookplates, photographs, dinnerware, advertising art and more. “Rockwell Kent,” a documentary produced by Frederick Lewis, and the book, “Rockwell Kent: The Art of the Bookplate” will be for sale in the Museum Shop.

Kent achieved both critical and financial success as an artist during the 1920s and 1930s. He became well-known for his book illustrations, bookplates and commercial work. Private collectors and major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, acquired his paintings and prints.

Between 1918 and 1935, Kent traveled to remote parts of the world, often staying for long periods of time to learn about the people who lived there and to express and record his experiences through his paintings and books.

In 1915, during World War I, he was ordered to leave Newfoundland over fears that he was a German spy. While in Newfoundland he painted one of his major works, “House of Dread.”In Alaska, as in other countries he visited, Kent demonstrated his building skills, renovating an abandoned goat shed and turning it into a comfortable home.“Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska” chronicled his adventures there. He also traveled to Tierra del Fuego, where he wrote “Voyaging” about his dangerous travels through the most exposed islands of the archipelago. “N by E” was about another hair-raising adventure -- an ill-fated cruise he took to Greenland in 1929. He returned to Greenland in 1931 where he wrote “Salamina,” named in honor of his housekeeper and mistress. Kent also designed dinnerware by the same name. 
Kent purchased a dairy farm in the Adirondacks, outside of the village of Au Sable Forks, in 1927 and named it Asgaard, meaning “home of the gods.” It served as his retreat for the rest of his life.

From 1912 to 1968, Kent practiced the time-honored art of the bookplate, creating more than 185 custom-designed bookplates in response to mail orders that came his way, including one for Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.. He also pursued wood engraving, a passion that rivaled his great love for painting.

Kent painted several major murals during the 1930s and 40s. His designs for the 1939 Christmas Seals campaign were used on billboards, stamps and posters. During this time, Kent also produced political art, becoming very active in social and political issues as a member of the Socialist Party he had joined in 1908. In 1953, he was summoned to appear before a subcommittee, chaired by U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, to answer questions about his membership in the Communist Party. From 1957 to 1960, three major exhibitions of Kent’s work were held in the Soviet Union, and in 1960 he gave the country 80 canvases and 800 drawings and prints. He traveled to Moscow in 1967 to accept the International Lenin Prize for Strengthening Peace Among Peoples.
Kent died at the age of 88 and is buried at Asgaard. His gravestone bears the title of his first autobiography “This is My Own,” a line taken from “Native Land,” a poem by Walter Scott.

On February 14, from 1 to 3 p.m., the Museum will sponsor “ARTventures,” a program planned to complement the Kent exhibition. During a hands-on, art-making experience with instructor Peggy Steinbach, participants will visit the exhibition and then create their own interpretations in paint. Pre-registration is suggested. Call 518-473-7154 or e-mail psteinba@mail.nysed.gov. The program is limited to 15 participants. It is free for Museum members and $5 for non-members.

The New York State Museum expresses its gratitude to Bank of America, the New York State Senate and New York State Assembly for making the Kent exhibition possible. Additional support is provided by The Times Union, WRGB (CBS 6) and Potratz Partners Advertising.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Started in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

ALBANY, NY --- Using a genetic marker, scientists at the New York State Museum and Germany’s University of Giessen have now conclusively confirmed that the mussels that recently invaded western states, and are threatening to foul their water supplies, are quagga mussels.
For two decades, the quagga mussel and its close cousin, the zebra mussel, have created imbalances in ecosystems in lakes and rivers, and caused billions of dollars in damage in water systems in the eastern U.S., including New York State. But until January, the much feared mollusks have remained out of western waters.
There has been general agreement that mussels found in Lake Mead, Nevada, and other western water bodies since January, were almost certainly quaggas because the shape of the quagga mussel shell is rather distinctive. But in the 21st century, DNA analysis tops the list as the most conclusive proof.
By sequencing the COI gene (mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase subunit I) from Lake Mead specimens, research scientists Dr. Daniel P. Molloy and Dr. Thomas Wilke have now confirmed that the fouling mussels in Lake Mead are a perfect genetic match to Dreissena rostriformis bugensis — the quagga mussel. Molloy, an invasive species biologist with the New York State Museum, did the fieldwork and Wilke, a molecular biologist with the University of Giessen, handled the lab work on this collaborative project. Molloy and Wilke are part of an international team that tracks the movement of invasive species, especially mollusks. Last year they collaborated with Dutch and French scientists to document the movement of quagga mussels across Europe.
“ The COI sequences in Lake Mead are genetically all identical and match 100% those of the quagga mussel,” Wilke said. 
“There was little doubt that the Lake Mead mussels were quaggas, but this genetic evidence is the icing on the cake for a conclusive identification,” said John Morse of the University of Texas at Arlington, one of the scientists who initially identified the mussels as quaggas based on their morphology. 
“With genetic markers now available to discriminate among species, it was good science to take this additional step,” Molloy added.
The accurate identification of animal pests is always important. This is especially true when they’re invasive Dreissena mussels — finger-nail sized, striped bivalves with a nasty reputation for causing havoc in lakes and rivers. Native to Europe and known only to have invaded eastern North America in the 1980s, they can attach by the thousands to almost any underwater surface, clogging pipes, cutting bathers’ feet, fouling boat hulls, and costing the power industries millions of dollars. Based on their shape alone, the tiny mussels that were discovered in Lake Mead, North America’s biggest reservoir, were identified as quagga mussels — a species of Dreissena. Although there are at least a half dozen species of Dreissena in Europe, thus far only two species are known to have successfully invaded North America — Dreissena polymorpha (zebra mussel) and Dreissena rostriformis bugensis (quagga mussel). 
Quaggas, like all zebra mussel species, spread by attaching themselves to the hulls of boats or floating objects, or their larvae can drift downstream. Following their detection in Lake Mead, state and federal authorities have also confirmed the presence of quaggas further down the Colorado River in Arizona and in an aqueduct leading into California. This has generated great concern in southwestern states, and California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona are now moving quickly to assess the situation and prepare for potential multi-million dollar fouling problems in their waterways. Since there is no known method of eradication, the focus is on preventing the mussels from spreading to other waterways. 
“Although quagga mussels were only detected two months ago in Lake Mead, based on the large size of some specimens I’ve seen, they were likely introduced into that lake at least several years ago” said Molloy. 
In relation to Lake Mead, the Great Lakes are the closest water bodies harboring large populations of quagga mussels and are thus suspected of being the source from which a mussel-infested boat was transported to Lake Mead. Molloy and Wilke will now collaborate on trying to better identify which location in the Great Lakes region the quaggas came from.
Molloy is an aquatic biologist with the New York State Museum and is the director of its Cambridge Field Research Laboratory in Cambridge. His research over the last 30 years has focused on natural enemies (parasites, predators, and competitors) of freshwater invertebrates, particularly pest species such as zebra mussels and black flies. Understanding the invasion dynamics of zebra mussel species and the impact of biological control on their populations are his current research focus.
Wilke is a professor at the University of Giessen, where he heads the Systematics and Biodiversity Group. His research is centered on the phylogeny, biodiversity, and evolutionary strategies of benthic invertebrates, with special emphasis on ancient lakes.
The New York State Museum in Albany is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department .Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural 
history research and collection survey in the U.S. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.
 

ALBANY, NY – In honor of Governor-Elect Elliot Spitzer’s inauguration, the New York State Museum will be open during regular hours on New Year’s Day with free family programs, as well as a special exhibition of rare artifacts reflecting more than two centuries of New York State politics and social history.

Running for Governor: New York Election Campaign Collections, 1777 to 2006 will be open outside West Gallery from New Year’s Day through mid-January and documents the gubernatorial elections spanning the eras from former Governor George Clinton to Governor –Elect Eliot Spitzer. Complementing the exhibition will be artifacts from other non-gubernatorial campaigns held in New York State, such as those for the Supreme Court, comptroller, attorney general, U.S. Senate and others.

The exhibition will include collections from the State Museum, State Library and State Archives. Many of the items are from a one-of-a-kind collection of artifacts, recently acquired from Bill Winnewisser of Syracuse, which represents major, as well as third party candidates.

The exhibition will include furniture, rare broadsides, early campaign buttons, bumper stickers, election leaflets, banners, artwork and other objects. They show how campaign literature has evolved from being very formal to more casual and creative. The artifacts reflect historically important issues that were discussed and debated by candidates in New York State and the country-at-large, including transportation, civil rights, education, abolition, the environment and prohibition.

Some of the specific items that will be on display include former Governor DeWitt Clinton’s chair, circa 1825; circa 1816 Clinton painting; a colorful 1994 Peter Max poster that was a tribute to former Governor Mario Cuomo; an 1899 tray bearing the image of former Governor and President Theodore Roosevelt; a 1900 practice voting machine; a 1919 Al Smith

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inaugural badge; an expenditure listing for the 1931 inauguration of former Governor and President Franklin Roosevelt; several tickets to various 1933 inaugural events for former Governor Herbert Lehman and a 1795 broadside depicting former Governor Robert Yates.

Other activities at the Museum on New Year’s Day will include gallery tours, Trash to Treasures and friendship bracelet crafts, various interactive exploration station activities and scavenger hunts. In addition, the Museum carousel will be operating and Discovery Place for children will be open. Reservations are not necessary to participate in Museum activities.

The inauguration will take place at 12 p.m. on New Year’s Day outside the Capitol in West Capitol Park. The inclement weather location is the Times Union Center (formerly the Pepsi Arena). Following the inauguration, the governor-elect and his wife will receive members of the public at the Executive Mansion between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m.

A reception will also be held in the Empire State Plaza concourse from 1 to 5 p.m. The concourse will feature displays of New York’s cultural highlights including art shows, dance exhibits and other performances. Members of the cast of the Broadway show Wicked and the Garth Fagan Dance Company of Rochester will perform. Several restaurants will also offer regional specialties.

At 5 p.m. there will be a free concert at the Times Union Center featuring James Taylor, Natalie Merchant and children’s performer Dan Zanes.

The public is asked to RSVP for non-museum inaugural events at www.InaugurationNY.org or by calling 212-370-7755.

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Education Department. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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ALBANY, NY – The New York State Museum will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center (WTC) attack with a new multi-faceted exhibition and new additions to Museum galleries that present the many ways this monumental event has been documented and depicted a decade later.

The Museum is one of 30 sites statewide that are opening “New York Remembers” exhibitions to recognize the anniversary. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced the exhibitions as part of a statewide effort to “remember the day the world changed for all of us” http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/. The State Museum and the governor’s office organized the exhibitions, which feature timelines depicting the events of September 11, 2001 and historical artifacts from the collections of the Museum and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Support for the development of the WTC timelines was provided by RBC Wealth Management and RBC Capital Markets.

The Museum’s exhibition – “Reflecting on September 11, 200” – will be open September 9, 2011 through April 28, 2012 and will be open on Sunday, September 11 to commemorate the 10th anniversary. Two parts of the exhibition will be in West Gallery. One will focus on the creations of artists who worked in the World Trade Center towers prior to 9/11, and the other will be a multi-media film installation depicting the aftermath of the attacks and how an artist and filmmaker chose to respond. On the walls outside of West Gallery there will be a photography display, as well as an original mural, depicting first responders. There also will be new artifacts and updates added to the permanent exhibition, The World Trade Center: Rescue Recovery Response, and elsewhere in the Museum.

"Ten years ago New York lost a piece of its heart, but we showed the world our courage and compassion” said State Education Commissioner John B. King Jr. “The new exhibition and the Museum’s permanent World Trade Center exhibition are tangible, physical evidence that takes what happened on that day off the pages of the textbooks and makes it a part of us. The Regents and I thank Governor Cuomo and the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, for helping bring this exhibit to life.”

Before the Fall: Remembering the World Trade Center will display 40 works by 13 artists who were part of a residency program at the World Trade Center from 1997 through September 10, 2001, which was created by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC). In late summer of 2001, 25 artists started their residencies in the North Tower (WTC 1) on the 91st and 92nd floors. As events on September 11 unfolded, one artist lost his life, one would escape from the 91st floor and almost all of them lost irreplaceable works of art. Before the Fall includes works that were recreated after being lost, as well as new works created in response to the attacks. They not only document the experience of the artists working in the World Trade Center but also provide a memory of a place that no longer exists.

A multi-film installation – the cedarliberty Project – includes 100 hours of footage shot by artist Elena del Rivero, whose studio-home directly across from the World Trade Center was badly damaged during the collapse of the towers. The footage was shot both inside and outside of del Rivero’s studio. The resulting film installation – created in collaboration with filmmaker Leslie McCleave – reflects the enormity of the tragedy’s aftermath.

Documenting a Decade: From September 11, 2001 to Today, in West Hall, will showcase photographs submitted by the public that document the post-9/11 world. All of the photographs submitted for this exhibition will be available on Flickr.

Also in West Hall is a mural depicting first responders at Ground Zero, created by artist Chris Stain as part of the Living Walls project. The goal of Living Walls is to raise awareness about the use of public space. It is designed to celebrate and expand the role of art in the revitalization of our communities. In conjunction with the symposium, artists from around the world will be creating murals throughout Albany. Stain grew up writing graffiti in Baltimore, MD in the mid 1980s. Through printmaking in high school he adapted stenciling techniques, which later led to his work in street stencils and urban contemporary art.

A 28-foot-by-9 foot trailer, which was used by family members of WTC victims at ground zero, will be on display in Adirondack Hall. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey installed this trailer in the early summer of 2002 to provide the families with a private space to view the recovery operation. The trailer became a place of comfort where family members left photographs, cards, sympathy posters, and other objects of remembrance. Initially located at the south end of the World Trade Center, the trailer was moved several times to accommodate construction at the site. During one of the relocations, the original trailer was replaced by a smaller one. The family members installed the memorial objects in the new trailer. Last year, the trailer was removed from the site to be stored by the Port Authority with other artifacts from the World Trade Center.

In the Museum’s permanent World Trade Center exhibition visitors will be able to use iPads to access videos, images and recorded oral histories documenting the personal experiences of some of those whose lives were touched by the events of September 11, 2001. Survivors, family members of those who died, and rescue and recovery workers, share powerful stories that evoke the moments of the day and aftermath.

There also are new artifacts in the Response section of the exhibition, which show how the world reacted to the 9/11 attacks with an unprecedented outpouring of sympathy. Items include a tapestry, 22.5 x 144.5 inches, made by Yvonne (Breitmar) Renner and Andreas Renner of Germany, while they were students at the German University of Pedagogy. Also on display will be a rug made by Afghan rug weavers, a police patch from Peru, and an Australian flag left on a fence around the former World Trade Center site. There also will be a banner constructed by Japanese elementary school students and Japanese peace cranes that were left as keepsakes at the Tribute WTC Visitor Center.

With more than 2,000 artifacts, the State Museum is the world’s largest repository of objects recovered from the World Trade Center site after September 11, 2001. They are rotated through the Museum’s permanent World Trade Center exhibition, which opened in September 2002. The Museum also supports other institutions nationwide and around the world with their World Trade Center-related exhibitions. The Museum’s exhibition is online at http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/exhibits/longterm/wtc/.

The State Museum is a program of the State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Monday through Saturday from

9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY -- The New York State Museum is inviting the public to submit digital photographs that document the post 9/11 world, some of which will be showcased in an exhibition at the Museum and online on Flickr.

The exhibition – Documenting a Decade: From September 11, 2001 to Today – will be on display in the Museum’s West Gallery from September 9, 2011 to April 28, 2012. It will chronicle the decade following September 11, 2001 when people from around the world mourned, gathered and comforted each other, both publicly and privately. Submissions can be images of Ground Zero at the site of the World Trade Center, photos shot in and around New York City after the attacks, images of a community’s response to the events of 9/11 or others interpreting the post 9/11 world.

The State Museum has the world’s largest collection of 9/11 artifacts. They are rotated through the Museum’s permanent World Trade Center exhibition, which is also online at http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/exhibits/longterm/wtc/. The Museum also supports other institutions nationwide and around the world with their World Trade Center related exhibitions.

To submit photographs and obtain further information on image specifications and terms of use visit http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/exhibits/special/reflectingon911/index.html.

The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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