Lunch with the Libraries & Museums - Ballets Russes: The Designs of Lèon Bakst and Materials from the Levy Collection

Presented by Hopkins at Home, Sheridan Libraries and Johns Hopkins University Museums

After first meeting Lèon Bakst (Russian, 1866-1924) in Paris around 1914, Alice Warder Garrett (1877-1952) began a years-long relationship with the Russian artist and theatrical designer, both acting as Bakst’s manager in the United States and a collector of Bakst’s art for herself. Today, her acquisitions make up Evergreen’s rare collection, which includes everything from hand-painted set backdrops and costume sketches to a Bakst costume worn by Alice and, perhaps most significantly, the Bakst Theatre itself, which is the only extant theater designed by Bakst in the world and one of very few house interiors that Bakst designed.  

For the first time in 10 years, Evergreen has designed a new installation around Bakst’s artwork, incorporating rare objects from the Alice Warder Garrett papers and the Sheridan Libraries collections of sheet music. In this live webinar, the installation’s curators, Sam Bessen (Eleanor & Lester Levy Family Curator of Sheet Music and Popular Culture) and Michelle Fitzgerald (Curator of Collections for Homewood Museum and Evergreen Museum & Library), will share some of their favorite artworks that are included in this groundbreaking exhibition.