September 26, 2009 – January 3, 2010

Decordova Museum and Sculpture Park

www.decordova.org

Selected from the Permanent Collection portfolio In the Jewish Neighborhoods, 1946-76, the forty-six photographs on view by renowned street photographer Jules Aarons (1921-2008) vary in subject, site location, and span the artist’s career. While many of the images have appeared independent of each other in a variety of publications and exhibitions, grouped in this portfolio, they take on new meaning and highlight Aarons’s active exploration of historic and contemporary Jewish neighborhoods at home and throughout his many travels. This exhibition includes images of Boston’s ethnically diverse West End, the historically Jewish districts in Paris as well as places symbolic of Aarons’s childhood and family communities in the Bronx and Rockaway, NY. Organized by Koch Curatorial Fellow Nina Gara Bozicnik.

Jules Aaron

October 24, 2009 – October, 2010

Decordova Museum and Sculpture Park

www.decordova.org

In collaboration with one of Boston’s premier venues for photography, the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University (PRC), DeCordova has invited their former curator and now independent curator Leslie K. Brown to organize an exhibition from the museum’s extensive photography collection.

Selections from eleven portfolios will be featured, ranging from the very first photographs to enter DeCordova’s collection in 1980—an abstract portfolio by Calvin Kowal—to well-known leaders in the field such as Larry Fink and Neal Slavin. In addition to the most recently acquired photographs from 2009—a portfolio by Jo Sandman—Out of the Box will also highlight the entire PRC Portfolio, published in 2008, including luminaries such as Emmet Gowin, Laura McPhee, Arno Rafael Minkkinen, Abelardo Morell, and Patti Smith, among others.

Decpordova Museum Photo Show

Lalla Essaydi

September 26, 2009 – January 3, 2010

Decordova Museum and Sculpture Park

www.decordova.org

Lalla Essaydi is a New York-based, Moroccan-born photographer, painter, and installation artist. Over the past decade, she has risen to international prominence with her timely and beautiful work that deals with the condition of women in Islamic society, cross-cultural identity, Orientalism, and the history of art. Like her feminist Muslim expatriate contemporaries—Ghada Amer, Ambreen Butt, Emily Jacir, Sherin Neshat, and Shahzia Sikander—Essaydi has developed a powerful and personal artistic voice that calls into question prevailing myths, power hierarchies, and traditions that limit human freedom.

This solo exhibition at DeCordova is the first American museum presentation of Essaydi’s most recent body of work, Les Femmes du Maroc. Like her earlier photographic series, Converging Territories (2005), the images in Les Femmes du Maroc present Moroccan women in staged narratives. These women inhabit a place that is literally and entirely circumscribed by text, written directly on their bodies, apparel, and their surroundings by the artist herself

Chicago designer and gemologist, Ellie Thompson, unveiled her new collection at the Hawthorne Inn on November 6 and 7, 2009.  This comes just weeks after the Field Museum opened a permanent exhibit,  and published a book “Gems and Gemstones”,  that include several pieces of Ellie’s commissioned for display. We look forward to again hosting her trunk show April 30-May 01, 2010.  It is never too late to have a signature piece, or your own custom design, delivered for a special occasion.

Custom Design-Ellie Thompson

Your Innkeeper,Marilyn, is Ellie’s representative and can arrange preferred scheduling and pricing. Preview the Collections.

30 Prunes, Pitted

1/2 Cup Brandy

¼ Cup Water

1 Stick Butter

1 Stick Margarine1 Cup Dark Brown Sugar

1 Cup White Sugar

4 Large Eggs

3 & 1/3 Cups Flour

2 Teaspoons Baking Powder

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1 & ½ Teaspoons Cinnamon

1 & ½ Teaspoons Cardamom

¾ Teaspoons Nutmeg

¾ Teaspoons Cloves

½ Teaspoon Allspice

½ Teaspoon Salt

1 & ¼ Cups Buttermilk

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

1)       Simmer Prunes in Brandy & Water for 15-20 Minutes ‘Till Full & Tender

2)       Cream the Butter, Margarine and Sugars

3)       Add Eggs & Beat Well

4)       Sift All Dry Ingredients

5)       Drain Prunes & Save ½ Cup Liquid

6)       Alternate the Flour Mixture, Buttermilk & Prune Liquid to the Butter Mixture and Beat Well After Each Addition

7)       Beat in Vanilla

8)       Stir in Prunes

Bake @350 in a Preheated Oven in 2 Buttered & Floured Cake Pans for about 35-40 MinutE

FROSTING

1 Stick Butter

8 Ounces Cream Cheese

1 & ¼ Teaspoons Vanilla

4 Cups Confectionary Sugar

1 & ¼ Tablespoons Lemon Zest

Fresh Lemon Juice

1)       Beat Butter, Cream Cheese & Vanilla

2)       Slowly Beat in Confectionary Sugar

3)       Beat in Lemon Zest

4)       Add Some Drops of Lemon Juice to Taste & to Thicken

Frost Cake and Refrigerate until Cold

Remove for about 40 minutes before serving

4 Bananas:  unpeeled
Maple Syrup or Honey
Cinnamon

1) Halve the Bananas Lengthwise & Bush the Cut Half with Maple Syrup or Honey & Cinnamon
2) Grill, cut side down, for about 5 minutes; turn over & grill for a few more minutes

Vanilla Ice Cream
Spiced Rum

Serve:  Place Banana Halves, skin side down, on a plate
Top:  With Ice Cream & a Splash of Rum

2 & 2/3 Cup Cake Flour

1 & ½ Teaspoons Baking Soda

½ Teaspoon Salt

¾  Cup Dark Brown Sugar

¼ Cup White Sugar

¾ Cup Corn Syrup

1 & ½ Sticks Butter:  softened

3 Eggs

1 Tablespoon Vanilla

1 & ½ Cup Buttermilk:  room temperature

4 Oz. UnSweetened Cocolate or SemiSweet Chocolate;  Melt & Cool Slightly

1)      Sift together dry ingredients

2)      Beat together Sugars & Butter

3)      Beat in Eggs

4)      Beat in Corn Syrup & Vanilla

5)      Beat in Chocolate for several minutes

6)      Alternately Beat in Buttermilk & Flour:  do NOT overbeat!

Bake @350 degrees in Three Buttered, Floured Cake Pans for about 30-40 minutes