The Secret Life of Art: Mysteries of the Museum Revealed
Organized by the Currier Museum of Art
October 2, 2010 – January 9, 2011

In the two years since the museum reopened, visitors have expressed great interest in what goes on behind the scenes at the museum — information about object histories, artistic techniques, conservation, and museum practices that are not regularly conveyed through traditional art history and gallery installations. The Secret Life of Art: Mysteries of the Museum Revealed explores the art museum’s role in identifying, collecting, preserving, and presenting works of art by looking at the Currier’s collection of American and European masterworks from different historical periods and across several media. The exhibition will be presented throughout the galleries and will include major components on the Currier’s website and social media outlets, and through public programs for adults and families.

The Secret Life of Art is generously supported by Public Service of New Hampshire, Putnam Foundation, and TD Charitable Foundation

^{Image credit: Georgia O'Keeffe, Cross by the Sea, 1932, Museum Purchase: Currier Funds, 1960.1 © 2010 George O'Keeffe Museum/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York}

Jon Brooks: A Collaboration with Nature
Organized by the Currier Museum of Art
March - June, 2011

New Hampshire wood artists and Manchester native Jon Brooks (born 1944) has been a leading member of the studio furniture movement for the last 40 years. A sculptor and furniture maker, Brooks is known for the innovative quality and poetic imagery of his work, as well as for his exploration of the line between function and art.  His work is inspired by and constructed from the sinuous and contorted branches and trees that he harvests from the forest surrounding his New Hampshire home. Although rigorous in design and construction, his furniture and sculpture has a whimsical and playful quality enhanced by the woods natural grain and the use of richly colored stains and paints. This will be the first retrospective exhibition of his career and it will be accompanied by the first catalogue devoted to his work. 

Brooks is a graduate of the Currier Museum Art Center and the Rochester Institute of Technology where he earned B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees, Brooks has taught at Haystack, Penland, and the University of Tasmania. He has held artist residencies at Alfred University, Rhode Island School of Design, Philadelphia College of Art, and New Zealand's L'Etacq College. Brooks is one of the founding members of the New Hampshire Furniture Masters Association, a group recognized national for its innovative designs and outstanding craftsmanship.

The Currier Museum of Art owns four works by Brooks and his furniture is included in collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Museum of Art and Design, NY.  Brooks has exhibited widely in the United States and abroad including the "Craft Today, USA" European Tour and, in 1997, "Celebrating American Craft" at the Danish Museum of Decorative Art, Copenhagen, Denmark. He has received awards from the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen and, in 1996, was honored with a New Hampshire State Council on the Arts Fellowship.

^{Images: True Loves Blue, Jon Brooks, 2000. Georgia, Jon Brooks, 1991.}