Mmuseumm, as seen from Cortlandt Alley (photo by Allison Meier for Hyperallergic)
Exciting events around town are heating up this week as we head right into June and the cultural explosion that is a New York summer. Celebrate the reopening of New York’s smallest museum, visit Picasso’s “Le Tricorne” tapestry in its new home, take a day to explore obscure and overlooked places throughout NYC — and most importantly, learn how to become Insta-famous!
An Evening of Non-Linear Narrative
When: Tuesday, May 26, 8–9:30pm (suggested donation)
Where: The Morbid Anatomy Museum (424A Third Ave, Gowanus, Brooklyn)
Fewer stories are being told linearly today, through traditional forms of media like print books; rather, interactive technology and transmedia approaches are transforming storytelling by reversing, truncating, or even eliminating core elements such as clear beginnings and resolutions. Douglas Rushkoff, director of the Media Studies Graduate Program at Queens College, will lead a highly participatory evening of discussion about new methods of storytelling, encompassing performance, installations, and presentations. —Kemy Lin
How to Become Insta-Famous
Maru Taro has been described by Buzzfeed as “the most popular dog on Instagram.” (via instagram.com/marutaro)
When: Wednesday, May 27, 7–9pm (free; registration required)
Where: The International Center of Photography School, Shooting Studio (1114 Avenue of the Americas, Midtown, Manhattan)
Worried that your Instagramming prowess isn’t up to par? Indecisive about which filter to put on that photo of your chai latte and croissant? In this workshop, three photographers with 50–500K followers — Anka Itskovic (@the_line_up), Dave Krugman (@dave.krugman) and Miki Meek (@mikimeek) — will discuss how they’ve used Instagram as a platform to share their stories and visual brands, and how they monetize their Insta-fame. They’ll also review the Instagram feeds of audience members, so come prepared! —KL
Ideas City
When: Thursday, May 28–Saturday, May 30
Where: Various locations throughout East Village and Lower East Side (Manhattan)
The New Museum’s Ideas City festival — which “explores the future of cities with culture as a driving force” — is a big, enjoyable grab bag, with talks, panels, performances, a street festival, and more. In the past I’ve found the best approach is to figure out what you want to do in advance, rather than just showing up and hoping to catch something interesting. To that end, some of the highlights of this year’s festival, whose theme is loosely visibility and invisibility, are Friday’s late-night “Performative Conference in Nine Acts”; a series of contributions by cyberfeminist collective Deep Lab, including an internet infrastructure walking tour; socially minded plein air portrait-painting sessions, presented by The Lodge Gallery; and a Ministry of Endangered Languages.
Mmuseumm Reopens
When: Thursday, May 28, 7pm; public hours resume Saturday, May 30, 12–6pm
Where: Cortlandt Alley (between Franklin Street & White Street, Tribeca, Manhattan)
Everyone’s favorite tiny New York museum — formerly called The Museum and now named Mmuseumm (for reasons of Googleability?) — reopens this week! The institution housed in a former freight elevator has announced a pretty fantastic lineup for its fourth season, including prison inmate inventions, courtesy Stefan Ruiz; a cornflake index by Anne Griffiths; homemade protestor gas masks and anti-riot gear; pharmaceutical promo items from Ryder Ripps; and 12 incubating chicken eggs. Mmuseumm will also unveil a new annex space a few doors down, which will feature a full-scale re-creation by artist Maira Kalman of her mother’s Greenwich Village clothing closet. This may be their best season yet.
Pablo Picasso, Curtain for the Ballet “Le Tricorne” (1919), tempera on canvas, c. 20 x 19 feet, New-York Historical Society, gift of New York Landmarks Conservancy (courtesy of Vivendi Universal, 2014.19. © 2015 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society [ARS] New York)
Picasso’s “Le Tricorne”
When: Opens Friday, May 29
Where: New-York Historical Society (170 Central Park West, Upper West Side, Manhattan)
The New-York Historical Society (N-YHS) will display the newly conserved “Le Tricorne” (“The Three-Cornered Hat”) (1919), the 19-by-20-foot stage curtain painted by Picasso for Russian ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev. The work has been installed at the Four Seasons restaurant at the Seagram building since 1959; now, after a lengthly legal dispute, the work finally has a new home. N-YHS will display the work in “dialogue” with paintings by other European artists such as William Adolphe Bouguereau, Will H. Bradley, Philippe de Champaigne, Jean-Léon Gérôme, and Childe Hassam. —Tiernan Morgan
Imagining a Menu for Mars
When: Opens Friday, May 29, 7–9pm
Where: The Boiler (191 North 14th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn)
Before humans blast off to Mars in 2026 to establish a settlement, we’ll have to develop an arsenal of Red Planet–appropriate snacks. The Menu for Mars Supper Club, which has been meeting over the past year to study and hone the fine cuisine of Mars, will establish an analog Mars kitchen at The Boiler. The club, with the input of the public — who are invited to sample and critique culinary creations — will document, sample, evaluate, and pack their dishes and send their findings to NASA. Visitors will also be able to view Mars cooking videos, an inflatable greenhouse, live cultures, and kitchen designs that members of the club have produced. —KL
Frida Kahlo Through Photography
Nickolas Muray, “Frida With Pink And Green Satin Blouse” (1938), color carbon print (image courtesy of Throckmorton Fine Art)
When: Saturday, May 30, 3pm (free)
Where: Throckmorton Fine Arts (145 East 57th Street, third floor, Midtown, Manhattan)
Frida-mania has hit New York City, with the arrival of Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life, an exhibition of drawings and plants at the New York Botanical Garden, and Mirror Mirror… Frida Kahlo Photographs, a show of photographs of the artist at Throckmorton Fine Arts. Dr. Salomon Grimberg, a leading Frida Kahlo biographer, will explore how the photos of Kahlo in the Throckmorton exhibit operate in relation to her self-portraits. As Grimberg explained to the Huffington Post, because Kahlo’s father was a photographer, “She saw her looks in his photographs of her before she discovered mirrors, which became the inseparable companions that provided her with a sense of self.”—KL
Obscura Day
When: Saturday, May 30
Where: Various (check site for details)
Obscura Day is one epic day of exploration around the world, from nuclear decay in Chernobyl to witchcraft history at a museum in Iceland to street art in Buenos Aires. New York, where the day’s host, Atlas Obscura, was founded, has a particularly diverse lineup involving some often overlooked local wonders, including a boat tour of NYC islands, a taxidermy workshop in Cypress Hills, urban foraging in Central Park, and, further afield, tours at the Corning Museum of Glass and Hartsdale Pet Cemetery (the latter led by me). —Allison Meier
Sonic Research: Psychoacoustics Session I
When: Saturday, May 30, 5–10pm ($10)
Where: ALLGOLD, 22-01 Jackson Ave, Long Island City, Queens
An experimental symposium in dialogue, performance, and installation at the ALLGOLD MoMA PS1 Print Shop, the evening program features curated installations, artist talks, and performances that, “together, characterize aural cognition as a domain of consonant artistic and scientific investigation.” Conceived as an experimental symposium on contemporary sound and its apprehension, it will feature professor Ron Kuivila, artist and composer Seth Cluett, sound artist C Lavender, art historian Sophie Landres, artist Josh Millrod, artist and composer Jules Gimbrone, artist A.K. Burns, and research scientist Suzanne Dikker. —Hrag Vartanian
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With contributions by Kemy Lin, Allison Meier, Tiernan Morgan, and Hrag Vartanian.