(Posted August 20, 2001)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- The Juniata College Museum of Art will feature exhibits of groundbreaking photography of New York City and Paris in the early 20th century, a multimedia art installation and an exhibit of sepia-tone landscape photographs.

The museum's first exhibit, "A Tale of Two Cities," will run from Sept. 28 to Nov. 3, featuring the photographs of Eugene Atget, a Parisian photographer renowned for his straightforward, modernist images of Paris taken in a stark, unadorned style, and Berenice Abbott, a New York City photographer who had met Atget in Paris and was influenced by his realistic style.

Eugene Atget, born in 1857, explored careers as an actor and sailor before taking up photography at age 40. He did not work as a commercial photographer, preferring to take documentary images of peddlers, policemen and other subjects on the streets of Paris. Atget took more than 10,000 photographs of Paris, all of which were inherited by Berenice Abbot, who had befriended the French photographer during her residence in Paris during the 1920s.

Berenice Abbot, born in 1898, spent a decade in Paris in the '20 working as an assistant to surrealist photographer Man Ray. She returned to the United States and began the photography program at the New York School for Social Research. She also began a project to document the changing cityscape of Manhattan and other New York City boroughs. She later published "Changing New York," in 1939.

The museum's next exhibit, "Translation," which runs from Nov. 16 to Feb. 2, 2002 features a multimedia art installation by writer Debra Di Blasi and mixed-media artist Sharyn O'Mara.

The show combines text, painting, sound, three-dimensional art and found objects and language to create a panoramic art experience. The installation is part of a larger art project called "Unbroken Vision" produced at Wichita State University.

Artwork from Juniata College students will be on display from Feb. 15, 2002 to March 23, 2002. The exhibition brings together works by students in the fine arts program under the direction of professors of art, Alexander McBride, and Jack Troy.

The exhibit "Laurie Pruitt: Photographs" will be on display from April 5, 2002 to Sept 14, 2002.

Pruitt specializes in landscape images, usually in sepia-tone. She also uses alternative methods of processing such as platinum processing and other photographic print production styles. The artist, based in Kalamazoo, Mich., has displayed her work at exhibitions across the country. She is on the faculty of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts.

The Juniata College Museum of Art is located in historic Carnegie Hall at 17th and Moore streets in Huntingdon. Museum hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday, noon to 4 p.m. Summer hours are Wednesday through Friday noon to 4 p.m. starting in May. For more information, please call the museum at (814) 641-3505, or visit the Juniata College Web site at http://www.juniata.edu/museum.

Contact:
John Wall
office: (814) 641-3132

e-mail: wallj@juniata.edu

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.