Tours of The Patteran Society: A Living Force & A Moving Power

A special M&T Second Friday celebration of the exhibition The Patteran Society: A Living Force & A Moving Power will be held on May 8, 2015, 5:30-8:30 pm with informal tours and dialogue led by SUNY Buffalo State graduate students and their instructor, Nancy Weekly, who serves as the college as the Burchfield Penney Instructor of Museum Studies.

The Patteran Society: A Living Force & A Moving Power was co-curated by Dr. Albert L. Michaels, professor of history and social studies education, and Nancy Weekly, the Burchfield Penney’s head of collections and Charles Cary Rumsey Curator. In addition, Ms. Weekly’s graduate students in museum studies at SUNY Buffalo State selected 18 artworks and wrote interpretive labels bringing a multi-disciplinary approach to accessibility for both adults and children. The class taking MST 622, “Researching and Presenting Museum Collections” includes Danielle D. Delia, Alyssa M. Frijey, Saliym A. Lanzot, Michelle A. Maroney, Amanda L. Niemi, Christine A. Parker, Deirdre B. Reynolds, Ajah S. Session, and Emily Simms. Undergraduate student Abril De Los Santos assisted with research in compiling a list of Patteran Society members.

We invite the public to come and share your voices in our ongoing history of the Patteran, founded in 1933 by a rebellious group of artists and sympathizers that influenced the art world in Buffalo for fifty years. The name “Patteran,” suggested by Evelyn Hill Olmsted, came from Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The Gipsy Trail” from “Tales of the Romany.” By definition, “a patteran is a pattern made with broken twigs that was used by gypsies to point out a direction not taken before.” Follow the trail to the Burchfield Penney and join us for this event. Ongoing Patteran Society history information will be made accessible online at the Burchfield Penney’s web site, www.burchfieldpenney.org.