That’s one Grand piano

John Bettridge and Co., Pianoforte, c. 1867, Women’s Committee Acquisition Fund. Photo: Tom Little

This past October, Carnegie Museum of Art acquired a most unique work of art: a papiermâché piano.

The John Bettridge and Co. Pianoforte, ambitiously crafted in 1867 for the Paris Exposition Universelle, is one of the world’s finest examples of the papier-mâché technique of molding pasted paper, layering sheet after sheet, to form complex surfaces like furniture.

Painstakingly restored by the Museum of Art, it boasts pierced fretwork, reverse-painted glass panels, foiled aluminum, and mother-of-pearl inlay on gilded and black-lacquered surfaces, the highest levels of finish available. And, yes, at one time it actually played. Its revival style, meshing variations of arabesque ornament with Renaissance inspired forms, was all the rage in the mid-19th century. It’s sure to be a standout in the much-anticipated exhibition co-organized by Carnegie Museum of Art and The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Inventing the Modern World: Decorative Arts at the World’s Fairs, 1851–1939, opening in Pittsburgh this October.

SCIENCE
on the open road

Carnegie Science Center is partnering with Milwaukee’s Harley-Davidson Museum to replicate—with a twist—one of the North Shore attraction’s most popular Science on the Road programs, The Great Color Caper. This past February, Science Center educators made the trek to Milwaukee to train Harley-Davidson Museum staffers on how to deliver the new version of the detective-themed, comic-book-styled lesson in light and chromatics (aka the science of color)—Harley-Davidson style!

By the end of 2010, U.S. jobs in science and engineering had increased by 2.2 million, yet only 29 percent of U.S. high school graduates were ready for college-level science. Carnegie Science Center’s new Chevron Center for STEM Education and Career Development, announced in November 2011, aims to be the region’s “center without walls” to tackle the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education gap.

"With so many people on Earth We should cut down the rate of birth ‘Consume less’ is the rumor OR reduce the consumer! Consider our home planet’s worth."

- Limerick left by a visitor to Population Impact, an exhibition at Carnegie Museum of Natural History that explores how Earth’s 7 billion humans (and counting!) affect the planet and everything else
on it.

Andy Warhol is headed back to Asia to make maybe his biggest splash yet.

When it debuts at the ArtScience Museum in Singapore on March 17, Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal, a full retrospective organized by The Andy Warhol Museum and sponsored by BNY Mellon, will mark the largest traveling exhibition of the Pop artist’s work to reach the world’s largest and most populous continent. Over the next two years, more than 300 paintings, photographs, screen prints, drawings, and sculpture will travel to venues in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, and Tokyo through 2014.

Another exhilarating Pop first: reaching brand new audiences in mainland China.

Says Eric Shiner, director of The Warhol, “This remarkable and extensive collection celebrates anew someone whose life and work define the concept: fame is fleeting, art is eternal.”

Dozens of museum staff have been involved in building the exhibition, which includes a companion educational program with online lessons that will eventually be translated into Mandarin.

The Art of Suspense

On April 30, five of the 17 Scaife Galleries at Carnegie Museum of Art will temporarily close for a major reinstallation that will highlight the museum’s strengths in Impressionism, the Aesthetic movement, sculpture, and Realism, allowing visitors to experience old favorites in a new way. The fresh interpretation of the permanent collection galleries will debut in September. Stay tuned!