Anita Hill, Swoon, Brooklyn Symphony, RUBY BRIDGES & More Set for the Brooklyn Museum, June 2014

The Brooklyn Museum will present a variety of public programs for adults, teens, and kids in June. Public programs include talks, late night events, performances, screenings, and hands-on workshops for children and adults that amplify the Museum's exhibitions and permanent collection, serve its diverse public, and support learning through the visual arts.

Highlights for June include the Sackler Center First Awards honoring Anita Hill, hosted by the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art; Art Off the Wall: Swoon's "Submerged Collaborations," an evening of music and performance celebrating the work of Swoon; a concert by the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra; a family screening of Ruby Bridges; and a special walking tour of Chinatown that highlights Ai Weiwei's connection to New York.

The full schedule follows:

Sunday, June 1, 2 p.m.

Talk: "The Oldness of Abstraction (or Can Abstract Art Be New?)"

Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Forum, 4th Floor

Free with Museum admission

Briony Fer, 2014 Kirk Varnedoe Visiting Professor at the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, and a Professor of Art History at UCL, London, UK, discusses the work of Ad Reinhardt and Agnes Martin in the 1960s in order to explore the problem of so-called pure painting and its ramifications for abstraction, then and now. Hosted by the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.

Sunday, June 1, 2 p.m.

Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra

Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium, 3rd Floor

Tickets: $10 for Museum Members; $20 for non-Members

The Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra continues its fortieth season with a concert featuring works by Sergei Prokofiev, Eli Greenhoe, and Hector Berlioz. Tours exploring the connections between art and music will precede and follow the performance. For tickets and more information, visit www.brooklynsymphonyorchestra.org.

Wednesday, June 4, 2 p.m.
Discussion: "Love the Future: Ai Weiwei and Art for Human Rights"
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art Forum, 4th Floor

Free with Museum admission

Dr. Alice Ming Wai Jim, Associate Professor of Contemporary Art from Concordia University and Co-Editor of the Journal of Asian Diasporic Visual Culture and the Americas discusses the various contexts out of which Ai Weiwei's art and activism has emerged, from the toppling of the Goddess of Democracy statue during the June 4 Tiananmen incident in Beijing to the rise of Internet culture and social media in China.

Thursday, June 5, 6-9 p.m.

2014 Sackler Center First Awards Honors Anita Hill

Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium, 3rd Floor

Tickets: $20 for film screening and award presentation; $200 for cocktail reception, film screening, and award presentation.

The 2014 Sackler Center First Award honors Anita F. Hill for Speaking Truth to Power. This annual award celebrates women who have broken gender barriers and made remarkable contributions in their fields, and will be presented to Hill by Museum Trustee Elizabeth A. Sackler and Gloria Steinem, with First Lady of New York City Chirlane McCray, Honorary Chair of the event. The evening includes a private cocktail reception followed by the award presentation and a screening of the critically acclaimed documentary ANITA (2013), directed by Academy Award-winner Freida Lee Mock. To purchase tickets, email firstawards@brooklynmuseum.org or call (718) 501-6423. Proceeds will benefit the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art and the Brooklyn-based group Girls for Gender Equity.

Thursday, June 12, 6:30-9:30 p.m.

Art Off the Wall: Swoon's "Submerged Collaborations"

Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium, 3rd Floor

Tickets: $15, include admission to the exhibition Ai Weiwei: According to What?; free for Members.

Swoon presents Submerged Collaborations, a night of film and performance. The evening begins in the Cantor Auditorium with a screening of Flood Tide, a fictional film set within Swoon's Swimming Cities project on the Hudson River and directed by her frequent collaborator Todd Chandler. The film is followed by a talk with Swoon and her collaborators, and the evening concludes with a performance featuring The Submerged Motherlands Orchestra, with singer-songwriter Mirah, musician Marshall LaCount (of the bands xxPRSNxx and Dark Dark Dark), Todd Chandler, the band North America, and violinist Chloe Swantner. To purchase tickets, visit www.museumtix.com. Free for Members; to reserve, call the Membership Hotline at (718) 501-6326 or email membership@brooklynmuseum.org.

Thursday, June 19, 7 p.m.

The New York Times Feminist Reading Group

Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Forum, 4th Floor

Free with Museum admission

Jen Kennedy and Liz Linden lead a participatory performance where you're invited to discuss the day's issue of the New York Times from a feminist perspective. Hosted by the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.

Saturday, June 21, 4 p.m.

Make Music Brooklyn

Steinberg Family Sculpture Garden, 1st Floor

Free with Museum Admission

Enjoy live jazz music in our sculpture garden in celebration of Make Music NY, a one-day cross-borough festival of free public concerts. Presented in partnership with WBGO.

Sunday, June 22, 2 p.m.

Film: Ruby Bridges

Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium, 3rd Floor

Free with Museum admission

In commemoration of the exhibition Witness: Art and the Civil Rights in the Sixties, the Brooklyn Museum will screen the acclaimed film Ruby Bridges (Euzhan Palcy, 1998, 96 min.), about the first child to integrate an elementary school in the South. Following the film, families may visit the Witness exhibition and make a button to share their views. Visit www.brooklynmuseum.org for details. Appropriate for children ages 8 and up.

Saturday, June 28, 2 p.m.

Discussion & Tour: Ethan Cohen on Ai Weiwei

Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art Forum, 4th Floor

Tickets: $15, include admission to the exhibition Ai Weiwei: According to What?

Join Ethan Cohen from Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, one of the first galleries in the United States to specialize in Chinese Contemporary Art, as he takes us on a walk through the exhibition Ai Weiwei: According to What? and shares stories of his friendship with Ai Weiwei and what it was like working with him in the 1980s and 90's.

Sunday, June 29, 3 p.m.

Walking Tour: Chinatown

Tickets: $15, include admission to the exhibition Ai Weiwei: According to What? at a later date of the participants' choice.

Explore the connections between the work of Ai Weiwei, who lived in New York in the 1980s and early '90s, and the arts community in Chinatown at that time. The walk addresses activism, alternative art spaces, the streets, and artistic creation and gives a context for the artist's later work, currently on view at the Brooklyn Museum. The walk is led by Ryan Lee Wong, curator of Serve the People: The Asian American Movement in New York, recently on view at Interference Archive, and former Assistant Curator at the Museum of Chinese in America. The meeting location will be shared within a few days of the tour. Capacity is limited and advance purchase is required. Tickets can be purchased at www.museumtix.com.

GENERAL INFORMATION Admission: Contribution $12; students with valid I.D. and seniors $8. Free to members and children under 12 accompanied by an adult. Group tours or visits must be arranged in advance by calling extension 234. Directions: Subway: Seventh Avenue express (2 or 3) to Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum stop; Lexington Avenue express (4 or 5) to Nevins Street, cross platform and transfer to the 2 or 3. Bus: B41, B69, B48. On-site parking available. Museum Hours: Wednesday and Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; first Saturday of each month, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day.

Pictured: "The Story of Ruby Bridges" courtesy of Swank Pictures.

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