The Springfield Museums’ lecture series Museums à la Carte celebrates 45 years of curiosity and learning when it returns on Thursday, September 5. Beginning in 1979 as “Art à la Carte” with just a few dozen attendees, this popular program has reached thousands of people over the years and expanded its reach beyond the walls of the Museums when it began offering lectures digitally via Zoom in 2020.
The first lecture of the 2024-2025 season, entitled Overlooked No More, will explore the intersections of history and art with New York Times journalist Amisha Padnani, and Leverett-based printmaker Julie Rivera. Paying homage to exceptional women across history, Padnani and Rivera consider the ways in which their respective fields—writing and visual arts—work together to tell stories.
Padnani’s book, Overlooked (2023), expands on her project of the same name from The New York Times Obituaries Department. Since 1851, the newspaper has published thousands of obituaries—-only a fraction of which focused on women and people of color. Correcting this, Padnani chronicles the lives of those who were left out. She celebrates “people who, across time and place and experience, staggered us with their bravery, expanded our understanding of the world by inventing and innovating.”
Rivera was inspired by Padnani’s Overlooked series when, in 2018, she embarked on her ongoing portrait series. Through woodblock prints, poetry and biography, Look Again: Portraits of Daring Women, currently on view in the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, celebrates the extraordinary lives and achievements of women who defied the status quo.
Lectures continue each Thursday at 12:15 pm. In-person tickets are available at the Museums’ Welcome Center on the day of the lecture; advance virtual registration at SpringfieldMuseums.org/programs. Admission to the lecture is free for Springfield Museums members; nonmembers are just $4—Museum admission not required. For more information, call 413.263.6800, ext. 488.
Full Museums a la Carte Schedule for Fall 2024
September 5 – Overlooked No More with Amisha Padnani, journalist, The New York Times, and Julie Rivera, printmaker
September 12 – Genealogy Masterclass: Discovering Hispanic Heritage with Irisneri Alicea Flores, professional genealogist
September 19 – Community Poetry Reading: Portraits of Daring Women with Julie Rivera, printmaker; and local and international poets
September 26 – Advancing the Science: The Latest in Alzheimer’s and Dementia Research with Meghan Lemay, Regional Manager, Alzheimer’s Association
October 3 – Bruce Springsteen’s Music and His Women Fans: What Can They Teach Us About the Deep Significance of Creative Works? with Lorraine Mangione, PhD, professor, Department of Clinical Psychology, Antioch University
October 10 – Beginning with the Importance of Intention: Improvisation and other Key Principles and Techniques in the Creative Process with Robert Masla, artist
October 17 – A Plausible Man The True Story of John Andrew Jackson, The Escaped Slave Who Inspired Uncle Tom’s Cabin with Susanna Ashton, professor, department of English, Clemson University
October 24 – Peddler’s Pack of Eerie Tales with Dennis D. Picard, museum professional
October 31 – Literary and Artistic Depictions of Witches in Ancient Greece and Rome with Debbie Felton, Professor of Classics, University of Massachusetts
November 7 – Edward Mitchell Bannister and the Hunt for Under the Oaks with Mike McGuigan, educator and researcher; and Dr. Nick Bruno, art collector
November 14 – Frances Perkins: A Woman’s Work with Jarice Hanson, Professor Emerita, University of Massachusetts
November 21 – Put your John Hancock on it: The Stories behind the Signatures on the Declaration of Independence with Brooke Barbier, public historian and founder, Ye Olde Tavern Tours
MassMutual is the season sponsor of the Springfield Museums.