The New Jersey State Museum is open for visitors to discover two short-term exhibitions that have been extended, “Preserving the Pinelands: Albert Horner’s Portraits of a National Treasure” and “Fine Feathered Friends: Birds as Mainstay and Muse.”
Visitors will have an opportunity to browse the galleries and experience the wonder of these exhibitions in person. Visitors can also browse “American Perspectives: The Fine Art Collection” galleries to change the works on display, including several new acquisitions.
“Preserving the Pinelands: Albert Horner’s Portraits of a National Treasure” will remain on view through January 2, 2022. The exhibition features images by photographer Albert Horner which capture the quiet beauty and intimate landscapes of New Jersey’s Pinelands National Reserve.
Several artifacts and scientific specimens from the Museum’s collections help tell some of the stories of the land, animals, people, and industries that make this unique area a state and national treasure. “Preserving the Pinelands” is located in the East Gallery on the Museum’s first floor.
“Fine Feathered Friends: Birds as Mainstay and Muse” will remain on view through March 6, 2022, in the Riverview Gallery on the Museum’s second floor. This exhibition brings together nearly 200 rarely-seen artifacts to explore the status of our fine feathered friends as ecological mainstay and their historical role as a design-inspiring force, or muse, for New Jersey craftspeople.
Ceramic sculptures by noted artist Edward Marshall Boehm, original prints by John James Audubon, hand-carved duck decoys, scientific specimens, and other objects help tell the story of our fascination with birds.
One of the newest works is a standing wood mixed media figure by the late sculptor Jonathan Shahn (1928-2020) added to Gallery 9. The Museum is thrilled to have a sculptor painting by Mel Leipzig (b.1935) in Gallery 10.
There have also been a few changes in the “Written in the Rocks: Fossil Tales of New Jersey” gallery, specifically, the installation of the nearly complete Hyposaurus rogersii skeleton, a pre-historic crocodilian which lived in what is now Gloucester County, NJ, about 65 million years ago.
The Museum is operating on its regular schedule, Tuesday through Sunday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Masks are required for all visitors over the age of two years, and social distancing is encouraged. The New Jersey State Museum is located within the State Cultural Complex and is open Tuesday through Sunday, excluding State holidays. For additional information, visit www.statemuseum.nj.gov.
