It's your turn to see the Emperor's Private Paradise at the PEM!

This week the Peabody Essex Museum opened the new, much anticipated exhibition, The Emperor's Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City.

The exhibition has received incredible coverage by Time, The Boston Globe, and the Financial Times.

The PEM created this excellent preview video (3:15, not too long!) to give you a sense of the grandeur and privilege associated with the pieces that have come to Salem from Beijing.

And, in this video (a longer 8:25) Matt Lauer visits and tours The Forbidden City in 2009 with Henry Ng, from the World Monument Fund.

Now that you are so excited to see this exhibition, you may need some place to stay... The Hawthorne Hotel has a Peabody Essex Museum package, and you will find additional accommodations on Salem.org.

The exhibit runs through January 9, 2011. That only feels like a long way away. Make your plans to visit Salem today!

Celebrate Iris Apfel at the PEM

This just in from the PEM...

Celebrate Iris Apfel with a weekend of hands-on fashion fun. The festivities begin on Friday night with a fashion session featuring Iris Apfel and Michael Vollbracht, followed by a live runway show. On Saturday, enjoy a full day of activities including fashion sketching, styling demonstrations, film, fashion slide shows and a live DJ. Headlining the day will be a World of Fashion panel discussion featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion journalist Robin Givhan, designer Michael Vollbracht and the legendary Iris Apfel.

Friday, December 4 | 6:30 – 10 pm

Fashion Session with Iris Apfel

Reservations by December 1

Members $30, nonmembers $40

Enjoy a lively conversation between Iris Apfel and designer Michael Vollbracht as Apfel recounts the experiences and influences that shaped her iconic fashion style. Vollbracht, former artistic director of Bill Blass, launched his own line in 2008. He is a top New york designer and creator of Bloomingdale’s Big Brown Bag. Watch Apfel’s inspiration come to life in a fashion show produced by Christine Robidoux of Salem’s Modern Millie. In collaboration with the Museum Shop, the show features clothing and accessories created exclusively for sale at PEM, vintage fashions from Modern Millie and select pieces from Apfel’s personal collection.

Rare Bird of Fashion: The Irreverent Iris Apfel will be open for viewing from 6:30 to 9 pm and the Museum Shop will have extended hours until 10 pm. Cash bar and light hors d’oeuvres will be available.

Saturday, December 5

Demonstration: The Art of Fashion in Action!

11 am – 4 pm, Atrium

Jay Calderin and his students from the School of Fashion Design in Boston lead this behind-the-scenes look at how a garment comes to life, from fashion sketch to fabric draped on a dress form. Calderin is director of creative marketing at the school and founder and executive director of Boston Fashion Week. His designs have appeared in Vogue, Elle, The Boston Globe and The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine.

Fashion Activity: Iris Style

Noon – 4 pm, Atrium

Stylists from Stilista, a Boston-based fashion style agency, help fashionistas of all ages pay homage to Iris Apfel. Try on necklaces, bracelets, wraps and other accessories to accentuate your individual style. Have your picture taken on the “runway” and be part of PEM’s fashion slide show on the PEM Flickr page!

Film: Unzipped

1995, 73 minutes, directed by Douglas Keeve

12:30 – 1:45 pm, Morse Auditorium

Reservations by December 3

Peek behind the scenes as fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi plans his fall 1994 collection. This documentary features supermodels and Hollywood stars amid the chaos and sublime creativity of high fashion. This film is rated R for mild profanity.

Panel Discussion: The World of Fashion with Pulitzer Prize-Winning Fashion Journalist Robin Givhan, Designer Michael Vollbracht and Iris Apfel

3 – 4:30 pm, Morse Auditorium

Reservations by December 2

Find out what three influential members of the fashion community say will be hot in the coming year. Our panelists discuss how they met, their shared inspiration and their passion for fashion and design. They also talk about the dynamic relationship between art and design. Paula Richter, curator for exhibitions and research, moderates the discussion.

About the Peabody Essex Museum

The Peabody Essex Museum presents art and culture from New England and around the world. The museum's collections are among the finest of their kind, showcasing an unrivaled spectrum of American art and architecture (including four National Historic Landmark buildings) and outstanding Asian, Asian Export, Native American, African, Oceanic, Maritime and Photography collections. In addition to its vast collections, the museum offers a vibrant schedule of changing exhibitions and a hands-on education center. The museum campus features numerous parks, period gardens and 24 historic properties, including Yin Yu Tang, a 200-year-old house that is the only example of Chinese domestic architecture on display in the United States.

HOURS: Open Tuesday-Sunday and holiday Mondays, 10 am-5 pm. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.

ADMISSION: Adults $15; seniors $13; students $11. Additional admission to Yin Yu Tang: $5. Members, youth 16 and under and residents of Salem enjoy free general admission and free admission to Yin Yu Tang.

INFO: Call 866-745-1876 or visit our Web site at www.pem.org.

Arts & Antiques Month in Salem!

November is a perfect time to explore the museums, galleries, and antiques shops in historic Salem, Massachusetts. Salem's rich history has endowed the seaport with incomparable architecture, museums, and collections. Take a moment to rediscover Salem's history through the special events and ongoing exhibits of Arts & Antiques Month.

Special Events

Engraving 2009 Print Portfolio | Salem State College Center for the Arts

Through November 5 | 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

A portfolio exhibit of world-class engravers including Rudy Pozzatti, Evan Lindquist, Jack Orman, and Will Fleishell, who engraved Lincoln on the new five-dollar bill. Salem State College, Winfisky Gallery, Ellison Campus Center. Gallery Hours M-F, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm or by appointment. Free. For more information call: 978-542-7890 or visit salemstate.edu/arts.

Gadgets & Gizmos | The Phillips House

November 8 | 10:30 AM

What are those odd-looking gadgets in the cabinets at the Phillips House? Who made them? Who used them? Explore the kitchen at the Phillips House and learn about domestic technology in the early 20th century on Sunday, November 8, 2009. This specialty tour will consist of a tour of the Phillips’ dining room, china closet, and kitchen and will provide information about the family and their curiosity about the burgeoning technology around 1920. After the tour, visitors will be able to try out antique kitchen gadgets similar to those in the Phillips House. The tour starts at 10:30 a.m. at 34 Chestnut Street in Salem. The cost is $5.00 for Historic New England members and $10.00 for nonmembers. Space is limited and advance registration is recommended. This program is part of Historic New England’s Year of the Kitchen celebration. http://www.historicnewengland.org

Behind the Canvas | The Phillips House

November 8 | 3:00 PM

As part of Destination Salem's Art and Antiques Month, the Phillips House offers a special tour highlighting paintings by American and European artists on display in the house. Learn about both the artists and the Phillips family's passion for collecting. historicnewengland.org

Weekend Festival: The Art of Fire: Glass Beads and Josh Simpson’s Work | Peabody Essex Museum

November 14-15 | 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Spend a weekend with New England glass artists as they demonstrate their skill with small “lamps” of fire and talk about the beads they created in response to objects in PEM’s collection. Meet world-renowned glass artist Josh Simpson, whose Mega Megaplanet is on view in the American Art Gallery, learn to play marbles, listen to glass harmonica music and make a beaded bracelet. HOURS: Open Tuesday-Sunday and holiday Mondays, 10 am-5 pm. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. ADMISSION: Adults $15; seniors $13; students $11. Additional admission to Yin Yu Tang: $5. Members, youth 16 and under and residents of Salem enjoy free general admission and free admission to Yin Yu Tang. INFO: Call 866-745-1876 or visit our Web site at pem.org.

Annual Faculty Art Exhibition Artist Reception | Salem State College

November 18, 2009 | 6:00 PM

This annual show includes faculty works in printmaking, painting, glass, sculpture, photography and other media, with artists Haig Demarjian, Benjamin Gross, Mark Malloy, Ken Reker, more. Winfisky Gallery, Ellison Campus Center, 352 Lafayette Street, November 10 – December 10. Gallery Hours M-F, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm or by appointment. Free. For more information call: 978-542-7890 or visit: salemstate.edu/arts.

37th Annual Antiques Show | Peabody Essex Museum

November 28-29, 2009 | 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM

A Thanksgiving tradition, this year The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) Annual Antiques Show will feature nearly 30 dealers from New England and across the United States showcasing exceptional silver, furniture, paintings, porcelain, jewelry, and decorative accessories, the Annual Antiques Show supports PEM’s educational programs, which serve thousands of children and families each year. Show is included in Museum admission. Get a first look at the annual Preview Party on Friday, November 27, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $125 in advance/ $150 at the door

Sunday Jazz Brunch | Peabody Essex Museum
Sunday, November 29 | 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Join Landry & Arcari Oriental Rugs & Carpeting for a lively champagne brunch and an opportunity to learn more about collecting antique rugs. Great jazz, food, door prizes and more! $25 per guest. INFO: Call 866-745-1876 or visit pem.org

Ongoing Exhibits

The House of the Seven Gables

The House of the Seven Gables constitutes its own national historic district on The National Register of Historic places in Salem, Massachusetts. The property features the 1668 Turner-Ingersoll Mansion, which is the oldest surviving 17th century wooden mansion in New England. Made famous in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The House of the Seven Gables, today exploration The House of the Seven Gables and its neighboring properties provides insight into the lifestyles of Salem's upper class in the 17th and 18th centuries. 54 Turner Street. INFO: 978-744-0991 or 7gables.org

Rare Bird of Fashion: The Irreverent Iris Apfel | Peabody Essex Museum

Explore more than 80 dramatic ensembles from the personal collections of legendary tastemaker and style icon Iris Apfel. Known for her eclectic mixing of haute couture with costume jewelry and exotic baubles, Apfel has inspired bold developments in the fashion industry through her spirited irreverence and pitch-perfect taste. Now in her 88th year, she continues to challenge visual culture with radical juxtapositions of disparate influences. These spectacular and unexpected wardrobe combinations are exhibited with inventive staging and playful displays that underscore Apfel's inexhaustible creative spirit. INFO: 866-745-1876 or pem.org.

Valérie Belin: Made Up | Peabody Essex Museum

Internationally-acclaimed photographer Valérie Belin comes to PEM for her first solo show in the United States. Featuring 17 exquisite, monumental images, Valérie Belin: Made Up explores a photographer’s ability to manipulate perception of artificiality and reality. In her images of mannequins, models and still lifes, Belin’s work treats the iconic and the banal equally and displays both on a disarmingly large scale. Belin’s mid-career retrospective was received with enormous popular and critical praise across Europe – she is rapidly becoming a leader in the world of photography. Valérie Belin: Made Up was organized by Phillip Prodger, PEM’s Curator of Photography. INFO: 866-745-1876 or pem.org.

The Collections of the Peabody Essex Museum

To engage the mind and spirit, the PEM collection offers outstanding works primarily from the 1700s to today: paintings, sculptures, photographs, drawings, textiles, architecture and decorative objects. Our African, American, Asian, maritime, Native American and Oceanic art emphasizes the lively conversation that occurs through creativity across time, place and culture. INFO: 866-745-1876 or pem.org.

Self-Guided Walking Tours

The McIntire Historic District Walking Trail

Salem is well known for the beauty of its architecture. This one hour long self-guided tour will show you around one of the most spectacular areas of the city. Brochure is available at the Salem Regional Visitor Center, 2 New Liberty Street, or you can download and print at here.

Architecture in Salem

This guide introduces the differences between four centuries of architecture in the city, and highlights outstanding examples of architecture that are open to the public. Brochure is available at the Salem Regional Visitor Center, 2 New Liberty Street, or you can download and print at here.

Twilight at the Phillips House

One of Salem's hidden treasures is The Phillips House at 34 Chestnut Street. It is the only house on Chestnut Street that is open to the public, and the collections are an incredible sampling of souvenirs from around the world. The house provides a window into Salem's most elegant era.

The Phillips House is launching a new program this week: Thursdays at Twilight. You are invited to visit the Phillips House at twilight and see how electric light of the early twentieth century transforms a Federal-era house. Selections from Phillips family home movies provide a glimpse of how the family lived in the house and entertained, and where they traveled in their leisure time.

Registration is required, and you can visit historicnewengland.org or call 978-744-0440 for more information. $10 Historic New England members / $15 nonmembers. If you can't go this week, the program will be offered again on July 3, August 7, September 4, and October 2.

Last Chance for Samuel McIntire!

The Peabody Essex Museum's wonderful exhibit, Samuel McIntire, Carving an American Style, closes on Sunday - and if you have not yet seen it, I recommend finding some time this weekend to get here!

McIntire heavily influenced the architecture in Salem and throughout this region. People who are lucky enough to have a McIntire detail, a mantle, a doorway, in their house are very proud of it! Further afield, McIntire's work is exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and in 1792 he submitted a proposal for the design of the Capitol at Washington, DC (alas, it wasn't chosen). His carvings are beautiful, and we are fortunate that its significance was recognized and preserved through the past 200 years.

The following is excerpted from the exhibit microsite: Samuel McIntire (1757–1811) was one of America’s most versatile artists during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when the young nation explored new intersections among ideas, concepts, and cultures to create the foundation of its artistic traditions. Recognized as the architect who transformed his birthplace, Salem, Massachusetts, into the epitome of an elegant American town, after 1795 he also gained prominence as a wood carver. The original design vocabulary that he developed from confident and ambitious experimentation produced one of the first significant carving traditions in the new nation.

McIntire played a major role in expressing the new British neoclassical style, which drew its primary inspiration from the art and architecture of ancient Greece and Rome. He then developed his own distinct version of the style to express the beliefs and aspirations of the first generation of Americans to experience economic, political, and artistic freedom. McIntire worked cooperatively with the town’s leading cabinetmakers, carpenters, and shipbuilders, providing them with carved ornamentation, but his most important surviving carvings are found on furniture and woodwork of his own design done for Salem’s Derby family. His sensitivity to design as a whole produced some of the most beautiful rooms created during the Federal period (1780–1820).

For more on the Peabody Essex Museum, visit http://www.pem.org/. The Boston Globe review of the exhibit ran on November 4, 2007. Read it here.