ART
Protest art is preserved
in libraries, museums
WHEN THE 2017 WOMEN’S MARCH concluded, what
remained behind, stuck on fences and piled on
sidewalks, were the thousands of posters that
served as the visual expression of the marchers’
ire.
Museums, universities, and libraries across the
United States collected signs from the march sites
and put out a call on social media. Now these ar-
tifacts are being placed in archives and displayed
in exhibitions.
At the Sutro Library, located on the campus of
San Francisco State University, professors also
use posters from the march as teaching tools.
For many students, the preservation of artifacts
from the Women’s March signals a shift toward
preserving women’s history. “To me, it means that
the voices of women are no longer going to be
silenced,” says Scarlett Arreola-Reyes, a junior at
the university. “It means that future generations
can see the efforts of women throughout history.”
The New-York Historical Society and the Mu-
seum of the City of New York also sent out a call
for posters, which are now on display in current
exhibitions. Faculty from Northeastern University
in Boston collected thousands of signs from the
local march and added them to an online display
titled “Art of the March.”
At the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,
the “Get with the Action” exhibition explores “the
medium of the political poster as a way to commu-
nicate pressing ideas and organize and inform a
wide audience,” writes Joseph Becker, associate
curator of architecture and design for SFMOMA,
in an email. “Get with the Action” displays political
posters from the 1960s to the present.
For exhibition visitor Beatrice Charles, placing
a Women’s March poster alongside posters from
previous decades gives the march a historical con-
text, she says, and shows that “we’ve learned so
much, and we’re still fighting some of the same
things we all were fighting a long time ago.”
- Bailey Bischoff / Staff writer
Amanda Charles (l.) and her mother, Beatrice, look at political
posters at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s ‘Get with
the Action’ exhibition.
BAILEY BISCHOFF/THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITORSTAFFPICKS
PINNACLE OF HER ART
In this time of the ubiquitous
auto-tuned vocal, what a pleasure it
is to hear a truly gifted vocalist at the
pinnacle of her art. Melody Gardot
Live in Europe finds the pop/
jazz chanteuse from Philadelphia
thrilling her rapturous audiences
from London to Vienna, backed by a
soloist-rich band stretching the very
boundaries of jazz. Listen to Gardot’s
elastic alto effortlessly channel the
best elements of Barbra Streisand, Edith Piaf, and Nina Simone,
and you’ll wonder why she isn’t a household name.BUG ALERTS
The WeatherBug app can be a good go-to whether you’re
still trying to keep track of snow in the forecast, wondering
whether lightning will strike in your area, or wanting to see
the Doppler radar map. WeatherBug is available free of charge
for iOS and Android.COUCH TO MUSEUM
Some of the works at the
Uffizi Gallery, a museum
in Florence, Italy, known for
its pieces from the Italian
Renaissance, can now be
viewed from your couch
via the gallery’s virtual tour.
Check it out at http://bit.ly/
uffizigallery.POST STORIES
The Post, the story of how The Washington Post fought to
release the Pentagon Papers during the 1970s, stars Meryl
Streep and Tom Hanks and is available on DVD and Blu-ray.
Monitor film critic Peter Rainer praised Streep’s performance
as Post publisher Katharine Graham, writing, “In inexorable in-
crements, she transforms what might have been just another
feminist standard-bearer into something far more complex.
Her hesitations, rue, and ultimate valor are soul-deep.”PIZZA CELEBRATION
Dan Bransfield’s Pizzapedia is a lovely
celebration of pizza’s creation, ingredi-
ents, and variations explored through
80 playful watercolor illustrations. The
book details pizza’s origins in the Persian
Empire during the 5th century BC as well
as the various cheeses, toppings, and
crusts of pizzas from Rome to New York to
Chicago. Fun and wacky trivia about am-
bitious inventions, failed pranks, and world records peppers
the pages and is sure to put a smile on your face.1
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APL’ÉCLIPSE