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Thousands attend opening Holocaust Museum Chicago suburb Skokie
Updated: April 20 2009, 10:32 CET
CHICAGO/SKOKIE: Last Sunday 19 April thousands gathered to celebrate the opening of the new Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in north suburban Chicago. Dignitaries from Japan, Venezuela, Serbia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, and leaders of human rights centers and holocaust memorials from around the world attended the rainy day ceremony. Nobel laureate Elie Wieseland former President Bill Clinton were the key speakers at the event. 65,000 square foot $45 million complex houses testimonies of more than 2,000 Holocaust survivors. The new museum is considered the largest of its kind in the Midwest.
Skokie, once home to thousands of Holocaust survivors, garnered international attention in the 1970s when neo-Nazis threatened to march in the streets. Organizers hope the museum will tell the story of the Holocaust through narratives, help survivors heal and prevent future atrocities.
When neo-Nazis threatened to march in Skokie in the late 1970s, Holocaust survivors around the world were shocked. They realized that despite their desire to leave the past behind, they could no longer remain silent. In the wake of these attempted marches, Chicago-area survivors joined together to form the Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois. The group focused on combating hate with education. Since 1981, the organization has educated school and community groups through its speakers’ bureau and existing museum. About 30,000 students visited the original site in Skokie in 2005. The new facility, to be located just west of the Edens Expressway, will serve more than 250,000 annual visitors, reaching a significant portion of the nearly 2.5 million Illinois school children.
Other American cities that have a Holocaust Museum are Washington, New York, Houston and Los Angeles.
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New blockbuster exhibition opens in Bonn
Updated: April 16 2009, 13:10 CET
BONN: Again the the Kunst und Austellungshalle in Bonn organizes a blockbuster. Today the museum opens her doors to a comprehensive retrospective of the Italian painter, draughtsman and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920), who died tragically young at the age of only 35. The show present a representative selection of paintings, drawings and sculptures from 1909 to 1919, giving a vivid impression of the oeuvre of Modigliani. The exhibition is structured biographically, reflecting the decisive turning points of his life. With the exception of a handful of landscapes, his creative energy was entirely devoted to portraits and nudes. Modigliani's paintings are deeply rooted in Italian art history, drawing particularly on the formal languages of the Renaissance and Mannerism.
In 1992 the Kunst und Austellungshalle of the Federal Republic of Germany was founded as an institution for changing exhibitions and has since then offered a varied programme of international significance. During the first fifteen years over 143 exhibitions have been organized in the areas of art, cultural history, science and technology. An exhibition on the Bronze Age is just as suited to be presented here as a retrospective on a contemporary artist. Exhibitions on architecture, design, photography are offered to the public just as those on genetic engineering or the weather.
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Major show of Gandharan art in Berlin
Updated: April 8 2009, 14:16 CET
BERLIN: Tomorrow the Martin-Gropius Bau will open its doors to the major exhibition ‘Gandhara. Pakistans’s Buddhist Legacy. Legends, Monasteries and Edens’. This travelling display of Gandharan art, that was earlier on show in Bonn, is focusing on stone reliefs depicting the life of the Buddha. On show are some 270 objects such as stone sculptures, highly detailed reliefs, precious coins and elaborate jewellery – introducing the visitor to the art of the ancient kingdom from the 1st to the 5th century AD. The presentation highlights the multifaceted artistic production of Gandhara under Kushan rule and explores the rich artistic heritage of the region, a melting pot of many different cultures. The show places Gandharan art in a wider context, from the establishment of Greek culture in the region to its legacy in Central Asia and present-day Afghanistan. This legacy garnered worldwide attention when the gigantic rock-cut Buddha sculptures of Bamiyan were destroyed by the Taliban in March 2001.
Since its meticulous restoration in the 1970s the Martin-Gropius-Bau has become one of the most famous and most beautiful exhibition halls in Germany. Many international exhibitions have since found a fitting venue there. Many millions of visitors have seen the exhibitions in the Martin-Gropius-Bau. The house was further restored in 1999/2000 with funding from the federal government.
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Beatles reunited in New York after seven years
Updated: April 6 2009, 12:21 CET
NEW YORK: Last Saturday remaining Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have performed together for the first time in seven years at the finale of an all-star benefit concert of The David Lynch Foundation at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, to raise money to help at-risk youth learn a meditation technique the 1960s icons practiced at the height of their fame. The surviving members of the Beatles performed a selection of Beatles and Wings classics from ‘Can't Buy Me Love’ to ‘Let It Be’. McCartney and Starr last played together in November 2002 at the Concert for George in London's Royal Albert Hall after Harrison's death from cancer at the age of 58.
McCartney played a handful of The Beatles tunes as well as some from his solo career and paid a tearful tribute to the late John Lennon, before playing 'Here Today', a song he wrote for him. He also dedicated The Beatles classic 'Blackbird', which is sometimes claimed to be a tribute to the American civil rights movement, to US President Barack Obama. After McCartney played his set he introduced Starr as "Billy Shears", Starr's pseudonym on 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'.
The David Lynch Foundation, an organisation fronted by the film director which promotes transcendental meditation in schools. The Beatles helped popularize Transcendental Meditation -- described as a simple mental technique to combat stress -- in 1967 when they sought spiritual guidance from an Indian guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Filmmaker David Lynch's foundation says that since 2005 it has provided scholarships for more than 100,000 at-risk young people, teachers and parents in 30 countries to learn Transcendental Meditation. This concert was intended to raise money to help 1 million children learn to meditate.
For more information: www.davidlynchfoundation.org
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Munich presents Swedish icon in major exhibition
Updated: April 1 2009, 12:54 CET
MUNICH: This week at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich one of Sweden’s icons is presented in a major exhibition. ‘Democratic Design – IKEA’ tells the story about the Swedish company IKEA, which since 1948 has grown from a one-man-business to become the biggest furniture store in the world and shaped the concept of ‘democratic design’ like no other. The show presents such themes as The Beginnings, the IKEA Principle of Do-it-yourself, The Billy System, Design Process, Material Change, Sustainability and Ecology, Kiddy-Land and PS Collection. For IKEA, design is one the central factors that contribute to realising the idea of functional, well designed furniture that is affordable to most people. A decisive aspect of this philosophy is the development of a specific language of form and product range that combines different directions in design. A further aspect is the commitment to ‘Swedishness’, which manifests itself in ‘country house’ design inspired by homeland traditions and experimental works by young Swedish designers.
Together with the Alte Pinakothek and the Neue Pinakothek the Pinakothek der Moderne is part of Munich's "Kunstareal" (the "art district"). The Pinakothek der Moderne unifies the "Sammlung Moderne Kunst" (National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Arts, which is under supervision of the Bavarian State Painting Collections), the "Staatliche Graphische Sammlung" (National Collection of Works on Paper), the "Neue Sammlung" ('New Collection': National Museum for Design and Applied Arts) with the "Architekturmuseum der Technischen Universität" (Munich Technical University's Museum of Architecture), in one building and is deemed one of the most important and popular museums of modern art in Europe.
www.pinakothek.de
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