From the De Cordova to Hawthorne's Lenox

How does American history and culture look through the lens of contemporary art? Tune in to Inquiry tonight as we have a very lively and wide ranging panel discussion on this subject. My guests are TOBY KAMPS, Senior Curator at the Contemporary Art Museum, Houston and curator of the wild exhibition OLD WEIRD AMERICA: FOLK THEMES IN CONTEMPORARY ART, currently on view at the DECORDOVA SCULPTURE PARK AND MUSUEM. Also in the studio is an artist from this exhibition: BARNABY FURNAS,whose furious and intense large canvases channel the likes of John Brown, and NICK CAPASSO, Senior Curator at the Decordova Sculpture Park and Museum. Tune in and learn how certain artists are creating amazing works dealing with race, violence, the media, Native Americans, Lincoln impersonators and even square dancing. 

Later on, if you have ever attended a concert at Tanglewood and wondered who used to live in the grand houses on the estate, be sure not to miss tonight’s show. In the middle of the 19^th Century, Lenox Massachusetts was cosmopolitan, cultivated community at the height of its “Gilded Age”. It was a time of grand mansions and their extraordinary families. People like Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Sedgewicks, the Tappans, and Fanny Kemble made Lenox in the 1850s and extraordinary place of beauty, artistry and style. Tonight on Inquiry, we speak with CORNEILA BROOKE GILDER, writer and historian, about her wonderful history of this magical period in the history of the Berkshires: HAWTHORNE’S LENOX: THE TANGLEWOOD CIRCLE.