Bienvenue Barnes

I said goodbye to the Barnes Foundation collection in its wonderful longtime home in Lower Merion, PA back in july 2011.

It’s now time to welcome the Barnes back, this time on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia. The new Barnes will house:

> 181 Renoirs
> 69 Cezannes
> 46 Picassos
> 59 Matisses
> 18 Rousseaus
> 7 van Goghs
> + other art from the Barnes collection.

The Barnes Foundation, museum and cultural institutions, French art collections, controversial art collections, Barnes Branding

The Barnes Foundation, museum and cultural institutions, French art collections, controversial art collections,

That’s quite a cluster of French art – when combined with the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Rodin Museum collections all within a few blocks of each other – making Philadelphia’s “museum mile” a cultural magnet.

Educators believe that with the new admission policy allowing more visitors with more viewing hours, and a larger space, the Barnes can better fulfill its founder’s mission as a teaching institution.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

You can decide for yourself as the new Barnes Foundation, designed by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien Architects, opens its doors on saturday, 19 may 2012 to members, and on 26 ~ 28 may to the general public with 56 consecutive hours of free admission and activities.

Amusez-vous bien!

Logo/Branding: Abbott Miller of Pentagram
Photo: © 2012 The Barnes Foundation

Camel-jumping in the Yemen

Bored NYTimes photographer in Yemen with resistant subjects, heads off the beaten path to Zaranique and finds men who jump over camels.

As readers of the curious g know, I’ve got quite a collection of camel stories: The camel with the Class C misdemeanor, Humps, bumps and a few bruises too, Camels and ferris wheels and mountains, oh my, It’s Camelicious, and Times are tough… Even for camels.

Read the full story on another good one.

Camel-jumping, traditions in Yemen, cultural celebrations, humor,

Photo: From The New York Times article by Ed Ou/Reportage by Getty Images

The DIY Happiness Meter

A new month, and a good time to release my latest examination on measuring happiness.

As the curious g readers know, I’m fascinated by happiness studies. Last month, the United Nations released a huge report on global happiness, which I covered in Oh, how happy you have made me.

But what if we could easily do a daily (and fun) measure of how we are feeling?

Now we can with The DIY Happy Meter, or How’s Your Day? It’s easy – download this file, print it out, and scribble a daily picture that capsulizes the tone of your day. At month’s end, grade the month. At year’s end, you’ll get a great overview of patterns of the ups (hopefully more) and downs of your life. And have a bit of fun while tracking it.

Here’s my overview for April. Let us know how your months look down the road.

Measuring happiness, DIY Happiness Meter, How’s your day?, fun and humor,

 

From pixel back to pinhole

This year’s celebration of Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day, is Sunday, 29 april 2012.

In case you need some context, Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day is an international event to promote and celebrate the art of pinhole photography. The founders encourage photographers to remove themselves from technology, and to participate in the simple act of making a pinhole photograph. A pinhole photograph (using a pinhole in lieu of a lens) produces soft-edged, somewhat elusive, moody imagery – a bit reminiscent of pre-digital, continuous-tone photography.

I blogged about WPPD last year – you can find more background there, plus tips to make a your own pinhole camera.

To get an idea of what I’m talking about, some wonderful images can be found in Flickr’s pinhole group. Some samples are below.

Leave the tech stuff behind for a day and have fun., then submit your favorite image to the Pinhole Gallery.

Worldwide Pinhole Photography, predigital photography, DIY cameras, black and white photography, Flickr pinhole group members

Flickr images, all licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0), clockwise from top right: By ant.photos; by Stellvilla; by michele_brl; by voigt eck.

Happy Bard Day

In honor of William Shakespeare’s 448th birthday, the World Shakespeare Festival officially kicks off today in London.

William Shakespeare, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre: Globe to Globe Festival, London Olympics, Shakespeare Plays, Shakespeare Quiz, William Shakespeare Birthday, fun and games,

It’s the biggest celebration of Shakespeare ever staged. Thousands of artists from around the world will take part in almost 70 productions across the UK and online. The highlight for me: Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre: Globe to Globe Festival with the entire canon being performed in different languages. (Please take some of those works on tour.)

The World Shakespeare Festival runs from 23 April to November 2012. Part of the London 2012 Festival – the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad – it brings in leading artists from all over the world.

Here’s your chance to test your knowledge of the Bard’s works. Let us know how you do (no Googling!).

A mosque of a different kind

My curiosity has taken me back to architecture. In earlier posts I’ve noted four of the more unusual buildings in use today. I’ve also profiled Austrian artist and architect, Friedensreich Hundertwasser whose one-of-a kind works break out as some of the most unique structures standing.

With the North African and Middle Eastern revolutions still in flux, Islam as it relates to politics remains in the news. It’s a great opportunity to leave the news and debates behind, and simply look at the architecture of mosques (and former mosques) and appreciate them as art, engineering and craftsmanship marvels.

These five structures caught my eye: They are beautiful, and well situated to their environments.

architecture, mosque design, unique structures, form and function, The Great Mosque of Djenné, Mosque of Ibn Tulun,   Baiturrahman Mosque, Qol Sharif Mosque, Great Mosque of Córdoba

1 > The Great Mosque of Djenné :: Djenné, Mali / West Africa (top left)

Many mosques preceded this present one. With its Sahel-style, architect Ismaila Traoré based his design closely on the original structure. As the largest adobe building in the world, work began in 1906 and was completed in 1907.

The Great Mosque is built on a raised plinth of rectangular sun-dried mud bricks – held together by mud mortar and plastered over with mud. It is supported by wooden beams. The massive walls vary in thickness depending on their height and provide insulation from the sun’s heat.

Lauded as one of the most famous landmarks in Africa, it is the center of the Djenné community. An annual festival is held with the primary objective: Repairing the yearly damage to the mosque.

2 > Qol Sharif Mosque :: Kazan Kremlin, Russia (bottom left)

Located in and built to serve the Kazan Kremlin in the 16th century, it was the largest mosque in Russia. In 1552, during the storming of Kazan, the mosque was destroyed by Ivan The Terrible. It is believed that the original building featured minarets, cupolas and tents.

The mosque was rebuilt in 1996 in a modern style and predominantly serves as Museum of Islam, although during major Muslim celebrations, thousands of gather there to pray.

The Qol Sharif complex was designed as an important cornerstone of Kazan’s architectural landscape and includes the main mosque building, library, publishing house and Imam’s office.

3 > Great Mosque of Córdoba :: Córdoba, Spain (center)

This former mosque, The Mezquita (Mosque) of Cordoba – now a Roman Catholic cathedral, is  situated in the Andalusian city of Córdoba, Spain. Under the rule of Islam, it was built as the second-largest mosque in the world, and is perhaps the most accomplished monument of the Umayyad dynasty. The building is most notable for its arcaded hypostyle hall, with 856 columns of jasper, onyx, marble, and granite.

After the Spanish Reconquista, it was transformed back into a church in 1236, and some of the Islamic columns and arches were replaced. The construction of the Mezquita started in approximately 600 AD as a Christian Visigothic church. Later, the Mezquita was reworked for over two centuries to refashion it as a mosque, starting in 784 AD.

4 > Mosque of Ibn Tulun :: Cairo, Egypt (top right)

The Mosque of Ahmad Ibn Tūlūn is the oldest mosque in the city surviving in its original form. It was commissioned by Ahmad ibn Tūlūn, the Abbassid governor of Egypt. Historian al-Maqrizi lists the start date as 876 AD. The original inscription slab identifies the date of completion as 879 AD.

The grand ceremonial mosque was constructed in the Samarran style: Constructed around a courtyard, with one covered hall on each of the four sides, the largest being on the side of the qibla, or direction to Mecca. The original mosque had its ablution fountain (sabil) in the area between the inner and outer walls. At the end of the 13th century, a distinctive sabil was added in the central courtyard.

The mosque has been restored several times, most recently in 2004.

5 > Baiturrahman Mosque :: Banda Aceh, Indonesia (bottom right)

Designed by an Italian architect and built by the Dutch colonial administration as a token of reconciliation (following their destruction of an older mosque during the Aceh wars), the mosque combines colonial and Moghul Indian influences. There are few traditionally Acehenese features, though this mosque has come to represent the city of Banda Aceh, and the cultural uniqueness of the Acehenese.

Construction of the mosque commenced in 1879 and was completed in 1881. The mosque survived the massive 2004 tsunami which destroyed much of the rest of the city of Banda Aceh.

Images: The Great Mosque of Djenné by Andy Gilham; Mosque of Ibn Tulun by Berthold Werner;  Baiturrahman Mosque by Si Gam Acèh / Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Qol Sharif Mosque by Ilya Tsvetkov; Great Mosque of Córdoba by James (Jim) Gordon / Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Support your local library: National Library Week

National Library Week, New York Public Library (NYPL), support local libraries, learning and resourcesAs many of the curious g readers know, I’m a big fan and supporter of the New York Public Library (NYPL). I’ve shared my passions in What stretches 88 miles with 87 branches? and Building Patience and Fortitude: One Lego at a time.

It’s not only what the NYPL has to offer in terms of resources, but here in NY, we have some fantastic, landmark buildings (my local branch, Ottendorfer, for one) to house all the fabulousness – beyond books.

This week I’m thrilled to celebrate National Library Week (8 – 14 april 2012). It’s a great time to rediscover your library with its expanded resources and week-long events – uncover new worlds or connect to your community.

Explore all that your library has to offer. It’s not only for learning about the past – it’s a place to create your future.

Flickr photo: By flickr4jazz / Ottendorfer Public Library

Rare Madagascan pochards quack on

By the late 1990s, the rarest diving duck in the world, the Madagascan pochard, was considered extinct. In 2006, the discovery of one small community of pochards in remote Lake Matsaborimena in northern Madagascar provided hope that the birds might flourish again.

extinct duck species, Madagascan pochards, breeding in captivity, saving rare species

The pochards’ declining numbers have been attributed to degraded wetlands following agricultural conversion, deforestation and the introduction of non-native fish.

A conservation breeding center in collaboration with the government of Madagascar was started. The goal of both The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) and the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (Durrell) was to collect eggs to start a captive breeding program that would safeguard the species.

The ducks have now bred in captivity for the first time – 18 ducklings have hatched, bringing the world population to just 60.

The pochards will quack on. The ultimate aim of the program is to release the Madagascan pochards back into the wild.

Let us hope. Take a look at a video of the duckings.

extinct duck species, Madagascan pochards, breeding in captivity, saving rare species

Image: © Durrell

Oh, how happy you have made me

World Happiness Report, Gross National Happiness, Bhutan, the state of happiness, keep calm and get happy,I’m so excited. Finally, the United Nations has gotten in on this happiness thing. I’ve been writing about the culture of happiness for over three years now: The world has gone happy, Smile when you say that, The happiness quest ~ overrated?, and lastly in Locanomies, locazens + locavores unite. Where has the UN been?

Well, I’ll tell you.

The United Nations has been compiling this gem. The very big, first-ever World Happiness Report (you’ve been warned, it’s a 7.6MB download) reflects a new worldwide demand for more attention to happiness (less to misery) as criteria for government policy. The report reviews the state of happiness in the world today.

This dense report is chock full of stats, case studies (one of them on Bhutan!), metrics, analyses, etc. Enough to keep you happy for days (if not happy exactly, at least your curiosity about the state of happiness will be sated.) Here are a few excerpts to get you thinking.

What’s wrong with our current societal model?

>> We increasingly understand that we need a very different model of humanity, one in which we are a complicated interplay of emotions and rational thought, unconscious and conscious decision-making, “fast” and “slow” thinking. <<
– on Rethinking the Keys to Happiness, from the World Happiness Report

Whose responsibility is it to foster happiness?

>> Most people agree that societies should foster the happiness of their citizens. The U.S. Founding Fathers recognized the inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness. British philosophers talked about the greatest good for the greatest number. Bhutan has famously adopted the goal of Gross National Happiness (GNH) rather than Gross National Product. <<
– on Taking Happiness Seriously, from the World Happiness Report

Can happiness be effectively measured?

>> A generation of studies by psychologists, economists, pollsters, sociologists, and others has shown that happiness, though indeed a subjective experience, can be objectively measured, assessed, correlated with observable brain functions, and related to the characteristics of an individual and the society.

[The chapters ahead] …report on the two broad measurements of happiness: the ups and downs of daily emotions, and an individual’s overall evaluation of life. The former is sometimes called “affective happiness,” and the latter “evaluative happiness.” <<
– on Taking Happiness Seriously, from the World Happiness Report

Listen to Bhutan’s secretary of the Gross National Happiness Commission, Karma Tshiteem, talk about the recent World Happiness Report, and learn how his government promotes the metric.

I’m digging in to that report to get some new ideas on global happiness, what about you?

Poster design (based on the British Government’s 1939 propaganda poster, now in public domain): © 2012 Janet Giampietro

God trumps Elvis

As part of this year’s Oscar coverage, I wrote about the Oscar-nominated documentary God is the Bigger Elvis in 2012 Oscar ballyhoos & controversies.

The documentary focuses on former Hollywood starlet Dolores Hart, now known as Reverend Mother Dolores Hart, and her life in becoming the prioress of the Abbey of Regina Laudis.

It’s the perfect background for a Hollywood film: Rising starlet becomes cloistered nun. Who could make that one up? Not a natural progression – it looks like a fascinating story.

Listen to WNYC’s Leonard Lopate interview with Mother Dolores, and then take a look at the trailer. God is the Bigger Elvis premieres on HBO on 5 april 2012.

God Is the Bigger Elvis: Trailer