"Grateful Dead: Now Playing at the New-York Historical Society" Exhibition
The New-York Historical Society
This event has ended.
Drawn almost exclusively from the Archive housed at the University of California Santa Cruz, Grateful Dead: Now Playing at the New-York Historical Society, will chronicle the history of the Grateful Dead, its music, and phenomenal longevity through an array of original art and documents related to the band, its members, performances, and productions. Exhibition highlights from the archive will include concert and recording posters, album art, large-scale marionettes and other stage props, banners, and vast stores of decorated fan mail. Together, these materials provide unique glimpses into the political and social upheavals and artistic awakenings of the 1960s and 1970s, a tumultuous and transformative period that has shaped our current cultural and political landscape. The exhibition will examine how the Grateful Dead's origin in northern California in the mid-1960s was informed by the ideology and spirit of both the Beat Generation and the burgeoning Hippie scene, including experimentation with LSD and the Acid Tests. The exhibition will also explore the way in which the band's refusal to follow the established rules of the record industry revealed an unexpected business savvy that led to both innovations in a rapidly changing music industry and also a host of consumer-driven marketing enrichments that kept fans in frequent contact with the band. The Grateful Dead's time in New York will be viewed in the context of cultural traditions and events unique to New York, but also as yet another stop on a long, strange touring trip that included dates in New York, San Francisco, and everywhere in between.
[Image: Alton Kelley "American Beauty" (1970) album cover © 2010 Alton Kelley]
Media
Schedule
from March 05, 2010 to September 05, 2010