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April 30, 2008
Gifts of Professor Luciano Pizziconi
Professor Luciano Pizziconi, who in the month of October 2007 visited Binghamton University and was conferred an Honorary Citizenship both by the city of binghamton and the Town of Vestal, has recently gifted Binghamton University with several historical and modern items explaining in a letter to John M. Meador, Jr., Director of Libraries, that this was done in order to "further deepen aspects of Italian culture and increase friendship between Binghamton University and the 'Athanor'" Project of which he is President.
One of the gifts is an original, intact, brand-new collection, in eight volumes, of Italian popular music and songs from the 1920's to modern times. Titled La Canzone Italiana (The Italian Song), the collection offers songs and music of the 1920's and 1930's covering the radio, the theatre, Italian jazz, and American songs in theatre, flims and musicals as assimilated in Italy.
Each decade from the 1920's to modern times is represented by ten albums of songs for a total of 80 albums contituting a vertiable patrinomy of popular music. Some of the albums deal, for instance, with Neopolitan songs, the salons and Cabaret songs of the 1920's to the 1950's, the San Remo song festivals, the film songs of the 1930's, and post-World War II songs. The eight-volume collection is accompanied by the four-volume critical analysis by experts on song, theatre, cinema, operetta, television, richly illustrated with beautiful iconographic commentary together with sections on practically every divo or diva of the theatrical, musical, cinematic and popular songs world.
In addition, Professor Pizziconi sent four reproductions of original archaeological artifacts in the Region of Abruzzon now kept in the Museum of the city of Boiano:
1) A pointed lance of Samnite origin dating from the VII century B.C.
2) A matrimonial fibula originating especially from Central Italy and assigned to the IX-X centuries B.C.
3) A votive image, a funerary fragment, dated as of the III century B.C.
4) A small fictile head of woman of the Etruscan origin, dated as of the VI century B.C.
5) A bronze reproduction in two tablets of the Tavola Osca (Ocacan Tablet), now kept in the London British Museum, a document which provides information on the language and religion of the Samnites. The alphabet, dating as of the III century B.C., has 21 letters, one more than the Etruscan, with the writing reading from left to right. The text offers an idea of the agricultural life of the times and of its religious cult and deities.
Also donated were a catalogue of Samnite artifacts with photos and description of each item, and a volume by Enrico Guidoni, titled I Tre Arcangeli: Leonardo, Michelangelo e Reaffaello. This volume offers a critical discussion of the portrayal by these three Italian artists of the three archangels: Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.
These latest gifts by Professor Luciano Pizziconi are a most welcome and important addition to the artistic and literary treasures with which he has generously endowed Binghamton University's Library and Special Collections in recent years.
- Dr. Sandro Sticca, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, Binghamton University
Posted by jgreen at 12:02 PM
Molly Peacock Collection
Binghamton University Libraries recently announced the acquisition of the Molly Peacock Collection.
Molly Peacock is an internationally acclaimed poet and is the author of several poetry collections, including Optic Nerve (2005), Cornucopia (2002), Original Love (1995), Take Heart (1989), Raw Heaven (1984) and Live Apart (1980). In 2006, Peacock wrote and performed the critically praised one-woman play, The Shimmering Verge.
Peacock has conducted readings and workshops at the Library of Congress, the Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y, and at universities and libraries in the United States, Canada and England. She has received awards from the Danforth Foundation, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation , the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts Fellowships. Peacock has been the Poet-in-Residence at the American Poets' Corner and has served as president of the Poetry Society of America.
She is also an alumna of Harper College, who has chosen Special Collections as the depository for her papers. The Molly Peacock Collection contains over 100 linear feet of manuscripts, correspondence, poetry notebooks, literary journals, art work, audio-visual recordings, photographs, publicity materials and ephemera.
Posted by jgreen at 11:50 AM
April 08, 2008
MOCA Exhibition Archive
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, has created an exhibition archive. This was a multi-year effort funded by a large Getty Foundation grant. One can find exhibition descriptions, lists of archived files generated by the curatorial department, and images of many shows and performances. The documentation includes virtually everything MOCA ever produced between 1983 and 2003.
To access the MOCA Exhibition Archive, go to http://www.moca.org/archive
Posted by jgreen at 01:38 PM