The Hammond’s 2024 Season
The Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden will open our 2024 season on Saturday, April 6th with 2 new exhibitions and the first of an exciting array of cultural and nature programs and events. Visitors are also invited to see all the changes and improvements made during the winter months. The day is free with museum admission and will be enhanced by music provided by Chick’s Candy Store. The Somers Brownie Troop will sell Girl Scout Cookies for hungry visitors.
At 2pm, Dr. Lara Netting, vice chair of the Hammond Board of Trustees, and Elizabeth Hammer, Executive Director, will welcome visitors and describe the work done during the past four months. In the Japanese Stroll Garden, most notable is the reshaping of the pond and its surrounding plant life, extensive tree pruning, and repair of the garden shed. In and around the museum, the giftshop has been updated and reorganized, the lighting in the galleries improved and standardized, and the old fountain removed. Creating a bridge between the museum and the garden, the Tea Hut has been repurposed to provide an art space with works closely connected to the natural world. Sculptures of wood, rock, and hemp by Kurt Steger comprise the initial Tea Hut installation.
A Plethora of Plants: Real, Observed, Imagined (April 6-July 14) opens in Guild Hall and brings together a multi-sensory display of works by 19 visual artists, plus a soundscape and fragrance sampling. Curated by Marcy B. Freedman, an accomplished and award-winning art historian and multi-media artist, this exhibition presents visual arts of many styles, techniques, and aesthetic sensibilities together with videos and sound to explore how artists are richly inspired by the world of plants, both ones that are real and those only imagined.
A Plethora of Plants includes the works of visual artists Lisa Breznak, Marsi Burns & Nickolas Riggs, Ivy Dachman, Loren Eiferman, Carla Rae Johnson, Natalya Khorover, Janice LaMotta, Corinne Lapin-Cohen, Rita Maas, Mary McFerran, Linda Nemergut, Loretta Oleck,
Gene Panczenko, Leslie Pelino, Richard Rosenbaum, Ilse Schreiber-Noll, Thomas Sarrantonio, Devin Siglock, and Tom Smith. The soundscape is provided by Skin Against Metal, while Nell Valentine Cote prepared a selection of fragrance. Herbal teas will be served to engage the fifth sense, taste.
Ruby Silvious: Waste Not (April 6-June 9) in the Hays and Goelet galleries features unconventional use of everyday materials that encourages viewers to expand their definition of traditional art and think creatively in a world of excess. In today’s throw-away culture with its immediate access to an abundance of materials and countless media, all things become possible. The result is skillfully crafted artworks, including two kimono, made of such diverse materials as pistachio shells, acorns, fast-food bags, and, especially, tea bags.
At 3pm, Marcy B. Freedman will introduce the exhibition and invite viewers to speak with the artists whose work is represented, while visitors enjoy a reception on the patio. Ruby Silvious will also be available to talk more about her artistic practice and interests.
Opening Day will conclude with a special piano concert by acclaimed pianist Taka Kigawa, who will play compositions by Beethoven, Ligeti, and Chopin, beginning at 7pm. A special visual-musical connection is provided with a set of painted collages by Mikel Frank, which were inspired by Chopin’s 24 Preludes, which Kigawa will perform. Tickets can be purchased on the Hammond’s website.
For more information, please visit www.hammondmuseum.org.
About the Hammond:
The Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden, in North Salem, New York, was founded in 1957 by Natalie Hays Hammond (1904-1985) as a place where Eastern and Western cultures could be appreciated and visitors could enjoy the beauty of nature. The Hammond consists of an art museum that presents a changing roster of exhibitions, as well as offering educational programs and classes. The highlight of the Hammond is the Japanese Stroll Garden, which occupies 3 ½ acres, is centered around its pond, and includes numerous rare Japanese plants and trees, as well as species native to Westchester. Also on the grounds is a traditional Japanese tea room, which was imported from Kyoto and is used for tea ceremony events. The Hammond is open to the public from April to November.
About Hammond Museum & Japanese Stroll Garden
Hammond Museum & Japanese Stroll Garden: The Museum hosts Moonviewing concert in addition to a Swing Band Dance in August and a Shakespeare play during the summer. We also offer children’s programs on designated Saturdays and the Animal blessing in May. The most important exhibit is our garden, it is a beautiful 3 acre Japanese Stroll Garden that will please all, from the young to the old. It features a waterfall, maple terrace and two ponds that are filled with frogs and fish. The exhibits that we offer in the galleries range from Asian to Contemporary art. We also offer a gift shop that specializes in hard to obtain Asian items.
The Hammond Museum was created as a foundation of support to promote global awareness and development of Eastern cultures with the West. It continues to reach out and support its wide community of artists and performers in the Greater New York Metropolitan Region.