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WHAT'S HAPPENING in FEBRUARY
Indian Motorcycle Coming to Tower Square
Courtesy of Museum of Springfield History
These Indian motorcycles are currently on exhibit at the new Museum of Springfield
History on Edwards Street, but another Indian on loan from the museum will be on
display at Tower Square for the next three months.
A small sampling of Springfield's history will be available for Tower Square's patrons to enjoy at the Museum of Springfield History's special satellite exhibit scheduled to be on display for the next three months on street level.
The highlight of the exhibit located inside the Tower Square Celebrate Springfield display window is a beautiful antique 1949 Indian motorcycle. The Indian Manufacturing Company produced motorcycles in Springfield from 1901 to 1953.
Examining the motorcycle inside the display window here will pique your interest enough to send you on a visit to the new Museum of Springfield History, which features a collection of more than two dozen motorcycles donated by Esta Manthos, co-founder and president of the former Indian Motorcycle Museum.
Among the rarest Indian motorcycles on exhibit at the museum is a 1904 blue Indian designed and owned by Indian co-founder Carl Oscar Hedstrom. Also featured are a unique 1912 board track cycle, a perfectly restored and operable 1929 101 Scout and a 1927 hill climber.
The new Museum of Springfield History, however, is about more than motorcycles. For those of you who remember Steiger's, Forbes & Wallace and DH Brigham, you will enjoy a stroll down memory lane of the museum's Downtown Retail Gallery. There is also an Automobile Gallery, Granville Brothers Aircraft display, Made in the Valley exhibit and the Springfield History Library and Archives.
For more information on the Museum of Springfield History located at 21 Edwards Street in Springfield, you can call 413.263.6800 or check them out at www.springfieldmuseums.org.
Longtime Tower Square Tenant Named Hometown Hero
LuJuana Hood, Executive Director of PAHMUSA,
is seen here helping local students with a special
educational project she designed for the children,
during one of their visits to the museum.
One of Tower Square's own has been selected as a Hometown Hero by the Reminder Publications. LuJuana Hood, Executive Director of the Pan African Historical Museum (PAHMUSA) was nominated by Renay Jihad for the work Hood has done within the community "...to educate the people of all ages and from all walks of life about the history and contributions of people of color."
Aside from her role overseeing PAHMUSA, located on the upper retail level of Tower Square, Hood also hosts educational trips to West Africa, and conducts tours of downtown Springfield's Freedom Trail.
Hood will join thirteen other nominees to receive her Hometown Hero award at the Log Cabin this month.
This is the eighth year that Reminder Publications has recognized special citizens for the continued efforts and services they offer to make our communities a better place.
Black History Month Celebration Planned
Pieces like this outfit designed by Diane Evans using
African mud-cloth fabric will be featured in the Something
To Talk About fashion show this month in Center Court.
Three of Tower Square's tenants will make Black History come alive this month, in honor of the national Black History Month celebration.
On Thursday, February 18th a fashion show including African mud cloth fabrics will be featured among the beautiful clothing created by designer Diane Evans, as well as other fashions from Something to Talk About boutique, owned by Evans and Bobby Rentas. The Something to Talk About fashion show will take place at noon in Center Court
On Friday, February 19th dancers from DREAM Studios, located on street level, will be performing a new piece entitled "Pearls". DREAM Studios performers include students age 5 - 18, from schools around greater Springfield. They will present a combination of modern jazz and African dance at noon in the Citywalk Cafes.
Throughout the month of February the Pan African Historical Museum (PAHMUSA) located on the upper retail level, will be open for FREE to the public. PAHMUSA exhibits showcase Black history from Africa to present day America, highlighting lesser-known contributions African-Americans have made to our culture and society. The museum exhibits encompass four spaces located on the upper retail level. For more details about the museum contact LuJuana Hood at PAHMUSA at 413.733-1823.
Three Local Artists to Exhibit Work at Valley Photo Center
Chess, Elista Russia - 2009 photo by Frank Ward
If you haven't taken the time to enjoy some of the incredible artistic photography on exhibit at the Valley Photo Center across from the food court, then this month is the time to do so.
From February 16 March 19, the works of three regional artists, Frank Ward, Robert Aller and David Prifti, will be on display at the VPC. From images of Central Asia and Newfoundland to portraits captured using 200 year old photographic methods, this exhibit promises to excite the eye!
Photographer Frank Ward, a photography teacher at Holyoke Community College, will be presenting photos from his Asia Central project. Reflecting on his work, Ward says, "I think of this portfolio as travel writing with a camera, except that my pictures contain few scenic vistas and landmarks. In Central Asia the environment is ancient and the horizons are open to all that globalization has to offer. In my pictures, evidence of the Silk Road with mountain views or vast steppes is sparse. Genghis Kahn's empire remains buried in the dust..my interpretation of the present. What is life like now, how does regional culture manifest, and where is our interconnectedness? These questions linger as my camera contemplates what is before me."
Robert Aller, also a teacher of photography at Holyoke Community College, will present work from his Strange Twilight series of photographs. The works in this exhibit are but a few from a larger portfolio made during Aller's recent excursion to the northeast outer islands of Newfoundland, more notably the Island of Fogo off the coast and the Clift's of Twillingate. According to Aller, " In this work I photographed not just the experience of being in a cultural landscape reminiscent of the traditional ways of life in rural Ireland, but also its Irish descendants, remote garden's, open grazing fields, or "commonage,". The strange beauty of the twilight, and the poetic feeling of simply being witness to a way of life before it all fades from existence was a mesmerizing search to know whom these people were."
David Prifti, a high school photography teacher in Concord, MA, will show his wet plate collodion photographs taken of his students in Concord. David says this of his wet plate work: "Using an 8 x 10 " view camera and the 19th century wet plate collodion process, I make tintype portraits of students, friends and acquaintances. My interest lies in the power of a photograph to describe my subject clearly and with power. What begins with my interest in the physical appearance of the subject develops into an evolving exploration of the sitter and myself. There is power in the tension of modern subjects being rendered in a historic process, pulling them out of time, reexamining the past as well as the present. The wet plate process is slow and labor intensive. Making these portraits requires exposure times ranging from 20 seconds to 2 minutes. It is in that collaboration that I find the power of this medium, as if the commitment required of both me and the sitter is present in the final image. It allows me to make connections with my subjects in more powerful ways than I am able to do with contemporary materials.
To see these photos and meet the photographers for yourself, you are invited to attend a special Artists Reception at the Valley Photo Center on Sunday, February 21 from 1 4pm. Regular gallery hours at the VPC are Tuesday Friday from 11am 2pm, or by special arrangement. For more information call 413. 733.6001 of www.ValleyPhotoCenter.com.
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