FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                    
Contact:  David Mayhew for Cohn Dutcher Associates
March 14, 2008                  
(203) 533-5621     david@davidmayhew.net

CARAMOOR'S HOUSE MUSEUM ANNOUNCES 2008 SPECIAL EXHIBITION
A JOURNEY IN MAIOLICA: ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
TO AMERICAN CONTEMPORARY
OPENING TO THE PUBLIC ON SUNDAY, MAY 18

Notte Italiana - House Museum benefit and exhibition preview party to be held
on May 17 - Honorary Chairs are Hollywood luminaries Chazz and Gianna Palminteri

Katonah, New York - Remarkable works of colorful Italian tin-glazed earthenware will be on display in a special exhibition at the House Museum at Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts.  A Journey in Maiolica: Italian Renaissance to American Contemporary, opens on Sunday, May 18 and continues during regular museum hours through December 19. 

A Journey in Maiolica: Italian Renaissance to American Contemporary, organized by guest curator Liz Quakenbush, Associate Professor of Art at Penn State, features remarkable works of Italian maiolica pottery dating to the  -16th -century, brilliantly colored in vivid yellow, blue, green, and beautiful ochre hues, and depicting an array of fanciful scenes.  The objects on view, selected from the House Museum?s outstanding permanent collection, include drug jars or "Albarelli," flasks, large plates and vases and are all fancifully decorated with biblical, historical, and mythological images:  crowned goddesses flanked by winged cherubs, serpents swarming in a turbulent sea, horned satyrs dancing in the forest, and Adam and Eve tempted in the garden.

The exhibition also includes a set of twelve Catalan tiles from the 18th- to early 19th-century, designed by Francisco Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) and depicting whimsical musicians.  A related outdoor exhibition with works by Kathy Ruttenberg is scheduled for the autumn.  Both exhibitions are part of All Fired Up! - A  Celebration of Clay in Westchester, an all-county effort organized by the Westchester Arts Council and the Clay Art Center to explore the versatility of ceramics.  Caramoor's fine examples of the popular Renaissance art form maiolica will be displayed along with artwork by several of today's top ceramic artists working on contemporary majolica.  The name maiolica refers to Majorca, where the Spanish Moors sailed with pottery to Pisa.  Europeans, believing the brilliantly colored Urbino pottery originated in Spain, referred to the Italian works as maiolica.  A Victorian-era revival changed the name from maiolica  to majolica.  The contemporary majolica artists are Rosie Wynkoop, Terry Seibert, and the exhibition's guest curator, Liz Quakenbush.  The artists will have several pieces for sale in the Museum Shop.

"By juxtaposing contemporary artwork next to historic pieces, the Caramoor exhibition shows how the maiolica technique has evolved over the past 500 years," says Merceds Santos-Miller, House Museum Manager and Director of Museum Programs.  While the Renaissance works are quite at home in the House Museum?s ornate interior, the contemporary pieces are unexpected.  "We thought it would be interesting to see how a contemporary artist would interpret this centuries-old technique," explains Ms. Santos-Miller.  "By placing the new work in the Museum?s period rooms, we highlight how the art evolved".

 For the exhibition, curator and ceramic artist Liz Quakenbush selected contemporary pieces that bridge the divide between elegant china and down-to-earth pottery.  In her own work she draws inspiration from ceramics made during the 13th through the 17th centuries in Iran, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, and England.  "I call my art a 'crazy quilt' homage to ceramic history because I patch together many different inspirations," she explains.  "As I seek to develop my own ?garden of earthly delights' motif, I draw inspiration from the tradition of personal intimation in ceramic form and decoration that has been handed down, quite literally, through the ages."

Notte Italiana - Special Exhibition preview party and House Museum benefit

The exhibition's opening will be preceded on Saturday, May 17, by Notte Italiana, an exhibition preview party and House Museum benefit.  Honorary Chairs for this evening of Italian-style exuberance will be Hollywood luminaries Chazz and Gianna Palminteri.  Actor Chazz Palminteri is best known for the films The Usual Suspects and his Oscar-nominated performance in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway.  He recently completed a critically acclaimed run on Broadway in his play, A Bronx Tale, based on the film for which he wrote the screenplay.  Benefit co-chairs are Barbara DuPont of Pound Ridge and Nina Stanton of Bedford.

Notte Italiana will begin with hors d'oeuvres at 7:00 pm while a harpist plays and marionettes perform in the style of Commedia dell'arte.  A tour of A Journey in Maiolica: Italian Renaissance to American Contemporary, led by curator Liz Quakenbush, precedes dancing to music performed by Alan Simon Music, dinner catered by Ann Neto Catering, performances of Italian arias, a scrumptious dessert and champagne table, and a spectacular silent auction.

$500 Artista Benefactor tickets include a pre-cocktail party at 6:30 pm and photo opportunity with Chazz and Gianna Palminteri.  $275 Artigiano Patron tickets include the pre-cocktail party.  $175 tickets include all aspects of the evening beginning at 7:00 pm.  Tables of ten are also available at $5000 Grande Donatore and $2750 Molto Generoso levels and include the pre-cocktail party and photo opportunity with the Palminteris, as well as special recognition.

Notte Italiana tickets may be ordered by telephone by calling the Caramoor Box Office at 914.232.1252 or the House Museum at 914.232.5035 ext. 221.

House Museum Tours
Twenty magnificent rooms of the House Museum are open to the public, filled with the extraordinary collection Walter and Lucie Rosen, Caramoor's founders, amassed through the years:  Renaissance, 18th-century, and Eastern art objects and furnishings; tapestries, sculptures, paintings, textiles, furniture, exquisite wall coverings, stained glass, Urbino maiolica, and a major jade collection.  This remarkable museum is one of only five famous mansions in the United States that incorporate entire rooms from European palaces and country manors.

The House Museum opens its regular hours for the season on Saturday, May 3.  Guided tours are Wednesday through Sunday from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm (last tour begins at 3:00 pm).  During the summertime Caramoor International Music Festival Saturday hours are extended to 5:00 pm (last tour begins at 4:00 pm). 

Tickets for tours of the House Museum, including the special exhibition, A Journey in Maiolica: Italian Renaissance to American Contemporary, may be purchased at the Museum and are $10, children under 16 are admitted free.

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The House Museum at Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is located at 149 Girdle Ridge Road, Katonah, New York.

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About Caramoor
Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is the legacy of Walter and Lucie Rosen, who built the great house and filled it with their treasures. Walter Rosen was the master planner of the Caramoor estate, bringing to reality his dream of building a country home to showcase his decorative arts collection and to entertain friends from around the world.  The Rosens' musical evenings were the seeds of the International Music Festival of today.  Realizing the pleasure their friends took in Caramoor - the house with its art collection, the gardens, and the musical programs on summer evenings - the Rosens gave the estate to the public as a center for music and the arts.

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