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.
Michelle Fitzgerald is the Curator of Collections at the Johns Hopkins University Museums. With an interest in Chesapeake furniture in the 18th and 19th centuries, she has previously held positions at The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Maryland Center for History and Culture, and the Maryland State Archives. She received her MA from the University of Delaware’s Winterthur Program in American Material Culture and is published in the University of Chicago Press’ Winterthur Portfolio and AASLH’s History News magazine.
Sam Bessen is the Eleanor and Lester Levy Family Curator of Sheet Music and Popular Culture at the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries, and artistic director of the In the Stacks Concert Series based at George Peabody Library. He is a key resource for those who study popular music history, the history of jazz and Broadway, and the history of racism in popular culture.
Sam holds a MM degree in Horn Performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music.
Event DateFriday, October 25, 2024Start Time: 12:00pm EDTEnd Time: 1:00pm EDT
Hopkins at HomeLivestream
ContactOffice of Alumni RelationsJoe LetourneauLifelong Learning(800) JHU-JHU1hopkinsathome@jhu.edu
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