March 20, 2025, Filed Under: Art, Authors, ConservationNancy Cunard in the Studio by DR. TRACY BONFITTO, CURATOR OF ART In the Studio Is it March, spring, winter, autumn, twilight, noon Told in this distant sound of cuckoo clocks? Sunday it is—five lilies in swoon Decay against your wall, aggressive flocks Of alley-starlings aggravate a mood. The rain drops pensively. ‘If one could… read more
August 8, 2024, Filed Under: Art, Exhibitions + EventsPublic Works: An Exhibition of Art by Elizabeth Olds by TRACY BONFITTO, CURATOR OF ART In 1937, WPA artist Elizabeth Olds (American, 1896–1991) persuaded “muckraking” investigative journalist Ida Tarbell to help her secure entrance to the Carnegie-Illinois steel mill. When Olds arrived with fellow artist Harry Gottlieb, skeptical mill workers required the artists to become union members in order… read more
March 4, 2024, Filed Under: Art, Books + Manuscripts, Exhibitions + EventsPreparing Color Illustrations for Elizabeth Olds’s Deep Treasure (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1958) by TRACY BONFITTO, CURATOR OF ART The exhibition Public Works: Art by Elizabeth Olds features original illustrations and preparation art that were used in the creation of Olds’s children’s books. These important process materials are on loan from the Kerlan Collection of Children’s Literature at the University of Minnesota.