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Greetings From The City of New York
A New Show in the Back Room Of the City Reliquary!
February 15th – April 28th 2013
Opening Reception Friday Feb 15th
6-9pm, FREE! Donation appreciated.
At the City Reliquary, 370 Metropolitan Avenue
Brooklyn Beer Available for donation
Wish you were here? You dont have to wish, you can simply stroll into the back-room of Brooklyn’s Community Museum, the City Reliquary, to envision a picturesque time-gone-by! Starting Friday, February 15th, we are proud to present a plethora of picture postcards from the collection of Lon Black, each one reversing the clock to the turn of the 20th century.
The subject of Greetings From The City of New York is postcards with views of New York City from the Undivided Back Era.
As soon as they were invented, picture postcards became an extraordinarily popular form of communication. They were quickly delivered by an efficient postal service and city dwellers had multiple mail deliveries (up to 9 separate trips per day in Manhattan!) six days a week (never on Sundays.) Without the ubiquity of telephones, postcards were the next best thing.
But there was a bonus benefit to communicating by postcard: the sender would be providing the receipient with a picture that they would cherish and add to their postcard collection. Such a lucky relative or friend would probably display their collection in postcard albums specially designed and manufactured to display these 3-1/2 by 5-1/2 inch cards. It was a picture postcard cottage industry.
In these early postcard years, the USPS wouldn’t deliver any cards with ANY information on the verso side (reserved for the recipient’s info) other than the name and address. Therefore, many messages were craftily composed on the front side (the image side.) Postcard publishers usually left some white space for nascent authors to do this. But these scribbling Dostoyevskys might also write in any light-colored area of the image; in the sky, for instance.
On March 1, 1907, the United States Post Office cut the public some slack and began allowing postcard writers to write on the back. Thus began the Divided Back Era, so named because a vertical line was printed down the center of the verso (back) of each card. So it continues today.
The exhibit is curated by Lon Black whose interest in postcards began in his early teens. All the postcards featured in the exhibit are from his personal collection. He started collecting New York City views after moving here 32 years ago. Always looking for the unusual or rare postcard, his focus was acquiring images he had never seen. But in the past several years, he has paid more attention to the words or pictures that people wrote on the images of the undivided back cards.
Selected for this show are New York City postcards with messages that refer to the picture and/or express a sentiment about the City. Some are humorous. Some are evocative. The marriage of the message and picture can animate the postcards with personality. Some can inspire the imagination and elicit an emotional charge. They are nothing less than a ticket to a time traveling experience.
“Photos: A Rite of Passage” now on view
As featured in The New York Times!
The City Reliquary’s new installation features pictures taken by Al Criscillo, an immigrant from Naples who an a barbershop on Metropolitan Avenue for 54 years. Starting in the 1960s, Mr. Criscillo would take photos of boys getting their very first haircuts.
“All these people had their own lives, own issues, problems, and they kept coming for this rite of passage in waves, decade after decade,” said David Herman, director of the Reliquary and a former client of Mr. Criscillo’s who curated the show.
On view during the Reliquary’s regular hours.
Volunteer at the City Reliquary!
The City Reliquary is looking for a few good men and women to help us staff the museum, support public programs and events, or take the lead on special projects of your choosing.
Love New York City? Think our museum is the bee’s knees? Have a high tolerance for people who use phrases like “bee’s knees”? Click on over to our volunteer page to learn more about who and what we’re looking for.
The Return of Collector’s Night! Monday October 11th, Columbus Day, at the Knitting Factory
WILLIAMSBURGH, BROOKLYN – On Columbus Day, Monday, Oct. 11th, the City Reliquary will present “Collectors’ Night” a celebration of unique, fanciful and eccentric collections, accompanied by the collectors themselves, with multi-media performances and presentations. Up to two-dozen collectors from all over the city will display their personal collections; everything from an archive of newsstand paperweights to art museum dust to odd coin purses to souvenirs bearing the collector’s name. You too can have your collection on display! Bring in your collection (anything goes) in a jar and display it at the bar! We will also have a Collector’s Cocktail available one night only!
The evening’s highlights, from 7-9pm, will include:
KELLY ANDERSON presenting the New York debut of her documentary “Never Enough.” Do we own our things or do they own us? “Never Enough” probes our relationship with the material world through three Americans’ relationships with their stuff, including: a woman who has 700 sweaters, a marine with 7,800 beanie baby dolls, and a Home Shopping Network addict whose purchases have made his apartment unlivable.
http://www.neverenoughdocumentary.com
HARLEY SPILLER a.k.a. INSPECTOR COLLECTOR who will detail “On Newsstands Now,” an exploration of the material culture of newsstand paperweights. This distinctly New York presentation will carry much interest to anyone invested in advertising, business, graphic arts, history, industrial design, and journalism.
http://www.inspectorcollector.com/
SEAN MILLER, Director of the John Erickson Museum of Art, (JEMA) www.jema.us, a location variable museum, will exhibit and discuss “Art Museum Dust Acquisitions: Points of Access and Departure” offering a rare behind-the-scenes look into the give-and-take world of art museum dust collecting.
LULU LOLO will host as the “City Reliquary NewsBoy,” proclaiming headlines of the mind boggling world of compulsive collectors. LuLu will also perform excerpts from her one-person play OBITS, portraying such eccentric collectors as Elizabeth Tashjian, founder of The Nut Museum, and Hugh Hicks, the prodigious collector of light bulbs. www.lululolo.com
The City Reliquary Museum’s Collectors’ Night
Monday, Oct. 11, 2010 (Columbus Day)
Knitting Factory
361 Metropolitan Avenue (across the street from The City Reliquary Museum)
Brooklyn, NY 11211
347.529.6696
Doors at 6pm, Event starts at 7pm.
Admission: $10.00
Advance tickets on sale: http://www.bk.knittingfactory.com/
BUY A TICKET NOW
The Kyle and Cleo Show Experience Presents: MOVIE NIGHTS!! At the City Reliquary Museum Thursday October 14th 2010 7-10 PM
This Month:
“Unlikely Treasures” A documentary about collectors and the art of collecting!
Come join our first in a series of movie screening spectaculars
Showing documentaries, Vintage movies, and more!
Screening monthly with your hosts Kyle and Cleo!
(The kitschiest due this side of the Mississippi)
WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN – Prepare yourself for the first in a series of movie screenings from esteemed hosts Kyle and Cleo on Thursday, Oct. 14th, the City Reliquary Museum in their outdoor movie screening under the stars theater complete with popcorn and beer on hand for your movie viewing pleasure!
The first in a series of monthly presentations is a fitting documentary titled “Unlikely Treasures,” by director Tally Abecassis which showcases various items from collectors as varied as one gentleman (the Reliquary’s own Bill Scanga) who collects ceramic ET’s figures to a woman who collects staplers and clothing hangers, even Kyle himself makes an appearance with his collection of mid-century furnishings and 1939 World’s Fair Memorabilia.
If you have never been, the City Reliquary Museum is a trove of beautiful, often overlooked objects that tell the story of New York City through the collections of its citizens, young and old alike. Located in the heart of Williamsburg, the City Reliquary is a magical world entered through a modest storefront on Metropolitan Ave., across from the famed Knitting Factory.
The first in a series, October 14’s event runs from 7-10pm
7pm: A welcome, and brief collecting story from hosts Kyle and Cleo.
7:10pm: An appearance and greeting from Museum president Bill Scanga, describing the role the Reliquary Museum had in the creation of “Unlikely Treasures”
7:15pm: The Film plays either in the outdoor theater or inside the Museum’s gallery space depending on the temperatures come mid-October!
8:15pm: Live soul music follows the presentation.
Don’t miss our first film screening as it is sure to be a carnival of delights….
Popcorn, snacks and *beer provided by Brooklyn Brewery*
$5 donation at the door. Proceeds benefit the Reliquary Museum!
Hope to see you there to share the communal spirit of collecting and those who share the collector’s bug!
Take the L train to Bedford or L & G trains to Lorimer.
www.cityreliquary.org
Film Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX_1_ByHvzk
“Kyle and Cleo” on Facebook!
The City Reliquary’s September THurd THursday: The Passing of the Presidential Sash
WILLIAMSBURGH, BROOKLYN; After 8 years, dozens of events, hundreds of late nights and thousands of conversations about the importance of preserving the collected history of our incredible, indelible city, Dave Herman is stepping down from his post as President of the City Reliquary Museum and Civic Organization. Taking his place will be Vice-President Bill Scanga.
But this is no reason to lament or concern. This is a celebration! We want to thank Dave for his hard work and tireless civic pride in keeping the City Reliquary’s heart beating, its soul pulsing, its energy racing through our wonderful borough to the collections of collectors beyond. Besides, although Dave is stepping down from his post as President, he will stay on as Founder and Auxiliary Board Member. So he aint going anywhere.
We feel that the best thank-you possible is a party during September’s THurd THursday monthly event, featuring Dave, Bill, Dave’s favorite rootsy-rock band Frankenpine, and lots of Brooklyn Beer to drink. Please stop by the City Reliquary on THursday September 16th, 7-10pm for a celebration, concert and Passing of the Presidential Sash from Dave to Bill.
September’s Thurd THursday
September 16th, 2010
7-10pm, with ceremony and Frankenpine performance beginning at 8
FREE! Dontations greatly appreciated.
310 Metropolitan Avenue at Havemeyer; Williamsburgh, Brooklyn.
Third Thursday at the City Reliquary: New Critics Speak New York
Third Thursday at the City Reliquary:
New Critics Speak New York
D-Crit Readings at the City Reliquary Museum
Join recent graduates from the Design Criticism program at SVA as they consider design stories, history and ephemera in the city of New York. We will start in Willets Point with your urban adventure guide, Alan Rapp, as he explores a neighborhood curiously missing from the urban gird. Sarah Froelich bridges the Queens/Manhattan divide with her personal essay unwrapping the visual metaphors of the Queensboro Bridge. Midtown mysteries are revealed in John Cantwell’s presentation, as we learn who exactly design the Trump Tower’s signage. The eccentricity of pop-culture is dimensionalized in Chappell Ellison’s look into the transformation of the Movie Palace into the modern day Multiplex. And if you are mourning the loss of cultural icons such as the Roxy Theatre, join Angela Riechers on an audio boat tour of memorial landmarks across the city’s perimeter. This program was organized by fellow design critic Amelia Black and Molly Surno, of the City Reliquary Museum.
D-Crit is a pioneering masters program where students research, analyze and evaluate design and its social and environmental implications. Drawing on the broadest possible definition of design, the curriculum includes graphic, Web and product design as well as fashion, urban planning and network systems. Find more information on the website (dcrit.sva.edu) as well as on our own website at www.cityreliquary.org
Thursday August 19th 2010
7-10pm
FREE at The City Reliquary.
Brooklyn Beer will be sold for a cheap donation.
370 Metropolitan Avenue at Havemeyer
Featured Critics:
John Cantwell
Sarah Froelich
Alan Rapp
Angela Riechers
Forgotten City Lights
A Photographic Archive of NYC’s Street Lamposts
Curated by “Forgotten New York” author and webmaster, Kevin Walsh and NYC transit employee and enthusiast, Bob Mulero
Join us on July 15th from 7-10 pm for the opening reception of a truly illuminating exhibition, FORGOTTEN CITY LIGHTS: A Photographic Archive of NYC’s Street Lamposts. This show focuses on the often ignored but always overhead variants and styles of NYC street lamps.
With photographs taken over the past 30+ years by Bob Mulero, an employee of the MTA and an avid toy collector, Mr. Mulero has been cataloging hundreds of New York’s lampposts since the 1970s. Mr. Mulero is joined in his efforts by the (seemingly) omniscient Kevin Walsh, whose website Forgotten NY chronicles (what appears to be) every single corner, cul-de-sac, dead-end, roundabout, and street direction in New York City.
July 15th, 7-10pm, FREE!
Refreshments by Brooklyn Brewery
Donations gratefully accepted.