12 ARROW STREET, CAMBRIDGE, MA 02138

www.pieremenardgallery.com

pierre@pierremenardgallery.com

617.868.2033

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: APRIL 6, 2010  

Woman in the 21st Century: Margaret Fuller and the Sacred Marriage

 The Pierre Menard Gallery 

May 23^rd –June 20^th, 2010 

Opening Reception: Sunday, May 23^rd, 2010, 6:00pm    

Pierre Menard Gallery is pleased to announce Woman in the 21^st Century: Margaret Fuller and the Sacred Marriage, a groundbreaking multimedia group exhibition held in conjunction with the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial. 

The exhibition runs from May 23^rd – June 20^th with a reception and celebration of Fuller’s 200^th birthday on Sunday, May 23, at 6:00 pm, including a Mask Tale Performance by Suzanne Benton.  

What does the female prototype of the 21^st century look like?  What are her characteristics?  How will we recognize her presence in our lives?  

Woman in the 21^st Century: Margaret Fuller and the Sacred Marriage seeks to answer these questions as it explores the coding and iconography surrounding the re-emergence of the “sacred marriage” (hieros gamos) archetype foreseen by Margaret Fuller in Woman in the Nineteenth Century.  “This exhibition is a culmination of a decade spent chronicling a new movement,” says curator Lisa Paul Streitfeld, a former newspaper critic.  “I want to share with the public my surprise and delight of Margaret Fuller’s genius in placing the “sacred marriage” archetype into the American canon.  She broke through the barriers of time in order to make an empowering mythology real for women.” 

Fuller’s trademarked "Conversations" will be revived in the gallery as a method of chronicling the historicity and living presence of this 21^st century icon: 

                June 05, 4pm; Kate Millett The Sacred Marriage in the American Canon 

                June 11, 7pm; Jessica Lipnack: The Sacred Marriage in the 1960s

                June 12, 4pm; Elinor W. Gadon The Sacred Marriage in Antiquity

                June 19, 4pm; Aldo Tambellini: The Sacred Marriage in the 21^st Century 

There will be a Collaborative Performance Painting at the closing reception on June 20, from 2 – 5 pm. 

The exhibition will include 32 artists covering a full range of media: Carl Apfelschnitt, Josef Astor, Vincent Baldassano, Suzanne Benton, Dianne Bowen, Dove Bradshaw, Laurel Jay Carpenter, Walter M. Crump, Linda DiGusta, Rikki Ducornet, Harlan E. Gruber, Heide Hatry, Selma Karaca, Renee Kahn, Marni Kotak, Yuliya Lanina, Michael Manning, Kate Millett, Richard Move, Francine McGivern, Aaron Olshan, Tanya Ragir, Grace Roselli, Daniel Rothbart, Carolee Schneemann, Nancy Spero, Tatyana Stepanova, Aldo Tambellini, Marina Tsesarskaya, May Wilson, Martha Wilson and Mark Wiener. 

Pierre Menard Gallery                                                                                                                       10 Arrow Street, Cambridge, MA 02138                                                                                             617-868-2033                                                                                                                                          pierre@pierremenardgallery                                                                                                                www.pierremenardgallery.com

Gallery Director: Andrea Kalinowski          

In 2010-2011, the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial offered the Conversations Series, modeled after the "Conversations" that Margaret Fuller offered for women (and later men) in Boston in the late 1830s and early 1840s. Each focused on a different aspect of Fuller’s thinking and took place in a venue connected with her.

Time for conversation followed the presentations. The goal of the series was to engage people in thinking about how the issues that concerned this trailblazing woman relate to our lives today. The traveling display, “Why Margaret Fuller Matters,” was available for viewing at most of the Conversations.

These programs were supported in part by grants from Mass Humanities and the Fund for Unitarian Universalism.

Saturday, May 15, 2010, 2 PM. “Why Margaret Fuller Matters to Young Women Today” at Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House, where Fuller was born, with Laurie Crumpacker, Professor of History and Department Chair, Simmons College. Co-sponsored by Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House and the Cambridge Women’s Heritage Project.

Sunday, May 16, 2010, 2 PM. "Margaret Fuller in Groton: Shaping a Life, Framing a Mind" at First Parish Church, Unitarian Universalist, Groton, which is co-sponsoring the event. Panel discussion with Marcia Synnott, Professor of History, University of South Carolina; the Rev. Dr. Dorothy Emerson, co-chair, Margaret Fuller Bicentennial; and Fritz Fleischmann, Professor of English, Babson College.

Saturday, June 19, 2010, 6:30 PM. “Portraying Fuller and Friends on Stage” at The First Church in Belmont, Unitarian Universalist. Gala Reception and Conversation, preceding a performance of the play “The Margaret Ghost.” Conversation with playwright Carole Braverman, director Elizabeth Hunter, and Andrea Humez, who portrays Fuller in the play. $25 ticket includes the Gala, Conversation, and the play. Co-sponsored by Theatre@First.

Sunday, July 18, 2010, 1 PM. “A Celebration of the Life of Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli” at Mount Auburn Cemetery Bigelow Chapel. Reception, Memorial Service, and Wreath-Laying, with appearances by Jessa Piaia as Margaret Fuller, Wendell Refior as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Rob Velella as James Freeman Clarke, Dorothy Emerson as Elizabeth Peabody, Richard Smith as Henry David Thoreau, and Deborah Goss as Julia Ward Howe. Co-sponsored by Friends of Mount Auburn. July 19 is the anniversary of Fuller’s death.

Thursday, August 19, 7 PM.  “Margaret Fuller and Edgar Allan Poe: A Conversation” at the Old Manse, in Concord, with Jessa Piaia as Fuller and Rob Velella as Poe. Co-sponsored by the Old Manse. $5 admission.

Thursday, October 21, 2010, 7:30 PM. “Margaret Fuller in Italy” at First Parish Unitarian Universalist in Concord. Lecture and slideshow presented by the Rev. Jenny Rankin, based on her travels to Rome to research Margaret Fuller’s experiences in Italy and retrace her steps. Co-sponsored by First Parish and the Transcendentalist Council of First Parish.

Sunday, November 7, 2010, 3 PM. “The Radicalization of Margaret Fuller” at Arlington Street Church, Boston. “'Clouded by Secret Sin': Margaret Fuller and the Darker Side of Woman in the Nineteenth Century;” with John Matteson, Professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, and Pulitzer Prize winning author of Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father; “Margaret Fuller and 1848: Forging a United Radical Tradition” with Daniel McKanan, Ralph Waldo Emerson Unitarian Universalist Association Senior Lecturer in Divinity at Harvard Divinity School and author of a forthcoming 200 year history of religion and radical politics in the United States, which includes Margaret Fuller’s friendship with Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini; Rev. Kim Crawford Harvie, Moderator. Co-sponsored by Arlington Street Church.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010, 12 Noon. “‘My own path leads a different course’: Margaret Fuller and her Boston Conversations” at the Boston Athenaeum, with Megan Marshall, Assistant Professor at Emerson College, and author of The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism.
Co-sponsored by the Boston Athenaeum.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011, 6 PM. “What Margaret Fuller Did for Feminism” at Max & Dylan’s Restaurant, 13 West Street, Boston, former site of the Peabody Book Room where Fuller held her Conversations. Keynote speaker is Phyllis Cole, Professor at Penn State, Brandywine, and author of Mary Moody Emerson and the Origins of Transcendentalism. Opening remarks by Megan Marshall, Assistant Professor at Emerson College, with an appearance by Jessa Piaia portraying Margaret Fuller, a slide show by Lynn Hyde “Preservation of the Peabody Book Room,” and a review of the 18-month Bicentennial by Dorothy Emerson. Dinner tickets, $50.

www.margaretfuller.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Carla A. Gomez
(978) 502-3113        
margaretfullerpr@gmail.com 

LOCAL HISTORIANS LEAD WALKING TOUR HIGHLIGHTING MARGARET FULLER’S LIFE IN BOSTON

“MARGARET FULLER’S FOOTSTEPS IN BOSTON”

Saturday May 1st from 10:00 – 11:30 A.M. rain or shine

Boston, MA, April 14, 2010 – On Saturday May 1st, join historian/authors, Bonnie Hurd Smith, and Mary Howland Smoyer, for a walking tour of the sites in downtown Boston where Margaret Fuller lived, worked and visited. The tour, “Margaret Fuller’s Footsteps in Boston,” will take place on Saturday May 1st from 10:00-11:30 A.M., rain or shine.  Participants should meet at the Boston Common Marker (at the Park Street station).  Tickets are $10/person payable the day of the tour.

As a girl, Margaret Fuller attended Dr. Park’s Lyceum for Young Ladies in Boston.  As a young woman, she taught classes at Bronson Alcott’s Temple School on Tremont Street, attended Rev. William Ellery Channing’s Federal Street Church, heard lectures and attended art exhibitions.  Fuller became the first editor of the Transcendentalist journal the Dial, at Ralph Waldo Emerson’s request.“

Boston is where Fuller really propelled herself onto the national stage,” says Bonnie Hurd Smith.  “When Emerson published her essay ‘The Great Lawsuit: Man vs. Men, and Woman vs. Women’ in the Dial after Fuller stepped down as editor, her bold insights into the status of women led to her landmark book Woman in the Nineteenth Century, a far-reaching audience, and a position of international influence as a correspondent for the New –York Tribune.”

Fuller published her own work in the Dial and Present, another Boston periodical, gaining a national reputation as a critic and commanding intellect.  She interacted with some of Boston’s brightest stars, including Julia Ward Howe and James Freeman Clarke. The philosophical, historical, and political “Conversations” Fuller held at Elizabeth Peabody’s bookstore on West Street attracted Lydia Maria Child, Ednah Dow Cheney, and Caroline Healey Dall, among many others.

The walking tour is part of a year-long series of events celebrating Fuller’s life and work.  For a complete list of the other programs in the series, please visit: www.margaretfuller.org.###

Review: "Why Margaret Fuller Matters" Traveling Display

Many thanks for sharing this insightful display with us.

I discovered that the display was easy to mount. Since the ground level of our sanctuary is mostly all clear glass, lighting is always plentiful. The few non-glass areas have protruding beams just narrow enough that two large paper clamps just below eye level allowed a makeshift easel for most of the panels. Each of your panels fit neatly on this simple stand. This allowed easy viewing for anyone. Two regular easels flanked the front of the sanctuary on either side of the pulpit. These held the panels on Greeley and Italy since they were the theme of our service on March 21. We have photographs of this exhibit on our Facebook site. I will download these for you later.

I must say the panels were surprisingly succinct. I think they included all the bits of Fuller information I considered important yet were reliable guides to describing the larger forces--some her own, some unbidden--that shaped her life. Since nearly all the Fuller books are ponderously detailed for average readers--or else cursory to a fault--these were a refreshing and engaging outline of the important details of a singular life. To condense without distorting--the constant UU bugaboo--your author deserves distinctive praise. I especially valued three mentions of Lydia Maria Child, who will be the subject of a fall Sunday service--and a play of her own--in the next part of our Fuller Bicentennial celebration.

The exhibit was on display with docents at the original Sunday service March 21 plus the two succeeding Sundays since you had not yet sent me shipping instructions. The original service focused on Fuller's transformation into a passionate world citizen once she arrived in Italy. It included a Verdi aria. an accordion solo and "Come Back to Sorrento." The Coffee Hour afterward was a buffet of congregants' favorite Italian appetizers.

The docents were costumed members of the cast from our January play on Fuller--the women who played Margaret, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Lydian Emerson. We cast all women in honor of Timothy Fuller's insistence that a woman could do anything a man could do. These docents were also on hand to guide visitors during a Paint and Furniture Sale May 27 and an interfaith seminar on Death and Dying Thursday May 25.

In addition it was in place for participants in independent meetings of Narcotics Anonymous, Buddhist meditation class and Kripalu Yoga.

With many thanks,

Paul Coleman
First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Palm Beaches
North Palm Beach, Florida

www.margaretfuller.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Carla A. Gomez
(978) 502-3113         
margaretfullerpr@gmail.com                                                                                    

NEW EXHIBIT AND GALLERY TALK SHOWCASE GROUNDBREAKING ICON

“WHY MARGARET FULLER MATTERS” opens April 21st in the Koussevitzsky Room at the Boston Public Library

Gallery Talk “In Her Own Words: Margaret Fuller 1834-1846” April 21st from 11:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M. 

Boston, MA, April 7, 2010 –

“Why Margaret Fuller Matters,” a text-and-image display that explains the impact of this important nineteenth-century figure, opens Wednesday, April 21st with a gallery talk at the Boston Public Library.  The exhibit includes a ten-panel display, covering Fuller’s thinking and effect on the world around her.  It answers the fundamental question of why this nineteenth-century figure remains important two centuries after her birth.

“It was an honor and a challenge to tell Fuller’s truly inspiring story,” says display creator Bonnie Hurd Smith, “and I hope people will walk away with a sense of gratitude for what she did.  There are very few individuals to whom we can point and say, ‘that person changed the world,’ and Fuller is one of them.” 

A companion exhibit, “In Her Own Words: Margaret Fuller, 1834-1846,” on display in the BPL’s Rare Books Department, includes objects from the BPL’s collection relevant to Fuller’s life, work, and legacy.  Sponsors for the exhibits include the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial Committee, Boston Public Library Rare Books Department, Boston Women’s Commission, and the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.   

On April 21st at 11:00 a.m., Kimberly Reynolds, Curator of Manuscripts, will speak about Fuller in the Koussevitzsky Room adjacent to the Rare Books Lobby.  “Margaret Fuller made an enormous contribution to the development of American Literature through her influential book reviews, which appeared in the Dial and the New-York Tribune, and earned her the respect of a large circle of writers and poets, including Walt Whitman,” says Ms. Reynolds.  “Many believe she helped shape a new national identity in American Literature.”

Margaret Fuller was born on May 23, 1810, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was a groundbreaking editor, critic, author, journalist, and champion of women’s rights.  She led a series of “Conversations” in Boston that educated women (and later men) of her day and galvanized social reformers.  Her legacy to future generations is the subject of ongoing inquiry for scholars and the general public alike.  “Margaret Fuller was the original’s original.  She did more in her short forty years in the mid-nineteenth century than most of us could even imagine doing.   She was a thinker, an activist, a devoted friend, a brilliant conversationalist, and gutsy beyond compare,” says Jessica Lipnack, co-chair of the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial Committee.

Fuller is perhaps best known for her revolutionary treatise, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, widely considered the first book on women's rights by an American.  She was the first female journalist for the New-York Tribune as well its first female foreign correspondent.   She served as the first editor of the Transcendentalist journal the Dial and was the first woman granted privileges to Harvard’s library to pursue research.

The gallery talk and exhibit are part of a year-long series of events celebrating Fuller’s life and work.  They are free and open to the public. For a complete list of the other programs in the series, please visit: www.margaretfuller.org. 

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