WonderCabinet (wunderkammer), Cazenovia Public Library’s new permanent display, will open on May 31 in conjunction with Assembling Wonder, a gallery exhibition featuring contemporary curiosity boxes and assemblages created by noted Cazenovia artists.
WonderCabinet features natural and man-made objects from the Library’s eclectic collection, displayed in a nineteenth-century cabinet — likely a local construction that was included in the Library’s original furnishings. Each of the cabinet’s drawers holds objects of historic, scientific, or artistic interest, carefully selected and arranged by the Library’s educators and guest artists.
The exhibition offers a brief history of cabinets of curiosity, including their evolution during the early days of the Renaissance. In an attempt to make sense of an ever-changing world, explorers, physicians and European royalty often collected objects of interest for scientific study. These objects were densely arranged in drawers, boxes, and later entire rooms and palaces, and shared with visitors.
The museum inaugurated by Robert James Hubbard in 1890 for the Cazenovia Public Library evolved from the tradition of the “cabinet.” Thus, it is fitting that the new exhibition will open on his birthday, May 31, with a public reception and cake party from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
The Assembling Wonder exhibition will be presented in the Library’s gallery and will feature curiosity box assemblages designed by Cazenovia artists Marlene Burrell, Amanda Bury, Marianne Dalton, Naomi DeMuth, Roger DeMuth, Valentina Heishman, Jonathan Holstein, Kevin Mann, Paul Parpard, Jen Pepper, Dave Porter, Jim Ridlon, and Allyn Stewart. The artists were asked to interpret the words “wonder” and “curiosity,” and to place their work, in the spirit of the early cabinets, in a box of some sort. The exhibition will run through Sept. 28.
“We are thrilled to have so many talented people involved with these exhibitions,” said Library Director Betsy Kennedy. “Mr. Hubbard would be over the moon to see how his dream has materialized.”
Funding for WonderCabinet (wunderkammer) is provided by the Friends of the Cazenovia Public Library.
For more information on this or other library events, call 655-9322 or visit cazenoviapubliclibrary.org
