The newest addition to the Palmer Museum of Art features an eclectic showcase of culture from classic literature to paintings in "A Room of Their Own: The Bloomsbury Artists in American Collections."
Christopher Reed, an associate professor of English and visual culture and guest co-curator of the exhibition, said the exhibition aims to encompass the whole visual culture of the London-based Bloomsbury group through a showcase of the group's paintings, drawings, textiles, ceramics, painted furniture, stationery and bookplates.
The Bloomsbury group was named for a London neighborhood surrounding the University of London, which was centered around writers like Leonard and Virginia Woolf, artists like Vanessa Bell and Roger Fry -- among others, according to a press release issued by the Palmer Museum.
"At the beginning of the 20th century, Bloomsbury's members were trying to imagine what it would mean to live in a modern way," Reed said. "A lot of that imagining took place by way of imagining new and modern environments -- places for people to be modern in."
The Bloomsbury group influenced a wide spectrum of early twentieth-century concerns -- economic, historical, literary and artistic, according to the press release.
"There are many related activities associated with the Bloomsbury exhibition -- a film series, lectures, gallery talks, workshops, even a community read of Virginia Woolf's 'A Room of One's Own,' " said Joyce Robinson, Palmer Museum curator.
As part of the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, volunteers will offer special guided tours of the exhibition, Reed said.
Tours are available on July 8, 9 and 10 starting at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and on July 11 at 2 p.m., according to the museum's website.
Reed said the exhibition highlights how important Bloomsbury is to Americans.
"All the works in the show come from North American -- including Canadian -- collections, from museums and libraries as well as from private houses," Reed said.
Some people collect Bloomsbury works for different reasons, he said. Some collect because they love Virginia Woolf, and some collect because they like the whole group.
Since Bloomsbury was a British group, few realize how many Americans had such an interest in Bloomsbury until the group's works were put together by scholars, Reed said.
The exhibition has been featured over the last year and a half in the museums at Duke University, Cornell University, Mills College, Northwestern University and Smith College, Reed said.
The Palmer Museum of Art has added quite a few pieces to the show, including books and letters from the Rare Books and Manuscripts collection of Penn State's Special Collections Library and some books owned by local collectors, he said.
The exhibition will be open through September 26, according to the museum press release.
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