PHILADELPHIA, PA.- The National Museum of American Jewish History opens its next special exhibition Sara Berman’s Closet: a small and monumental story by Maira Kalman and Alex Kalman. An installation of one immigrant woman’s belongings as re-created by Sara’s daughter and grandson – the acclaimed artist and writer Maira Kalman and designer and curator Alex Kalman – the project will feature the Museum’s first-ever public art installation on its Kimmel Plaza, on the corner of 5th and Market Streets. An accompanying art exhibition will continue in the Museum’s special exhibition gallery, featuring new paintings by Maira Kalman and new sculptures by Alex Kalman and will include interventions throughout the core exhibition, as well as in-person appearances by the Kalmans throughout the run. Sara Berman’s Closet will be on view April 5 through September 2, 2019.
Sara Berman’s Closet is adapted from Sara Berman’s modest closet in the studio apartment in New York City’s West Village where she lived. Filled with her fastidiously organized personal effects, Sara’s closet tells a small and monumental story: “How a life is formed. How meaning is found. How mistakes are made. And how we have the courage to go on,” as the Kalmans write in the recently published book of the same name (Harper Design, 2018), a 2019 National Jewish Book Award finalist. Maira Kalman, the acclaimed artist and author, and Alex Kalman, the designer, curator, writer, and founder of Mmuseumm, combine their talents in this captivating family memoir, a creative blend of narrative and striking visuals that is a paean to an exceptional woman and a celebration of individuality, personal expression, and the art of living.
The Kalmans first exhibited Sara Berman’s Closet in Alex’s small museum in a repurposed elevator shaft in Lower Manhattan, Mmuseumm and later at NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in the American Wing’s period rooms. Most recently, the exhibition was on view at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.
The closet has become a phenomenon, making its way around the country and now NMAJH is pleased to present it in Philadelphia where it takes on new meaning.
Positioned on Independence Mall, adjacent to sites commemorating the stories of our Nation’s founding, the installation of Sara’s closet puts a woman’s humble 20th-century story radically on par with that of the Founding Fathers. Each of the stories told on the Mall is rooted in freedom, independence, and the choices we make; Sara Berman’s Closet is a powerful and intimate exploration of these ideas as well as identity, immigration, joy, and courage. They speak to the “universal pursuit of order, meaning, and beauty—from the monumental to the mundane” say the Kalmans. The closet represents Sara’s liberation, and becomes a new monument to freedom and independence on the Mall.
The setting outside of NMAJH juxtaposes the intimacy of Sara’s distinctly female and humble closet with its weighty historic surroundings, highlighting how immigrants came to America to reinvent themselves, and complementing the stories we tell in the Museum every day. It opens visitors up to conversations about who we commemorate and monumentalize, the meaning of material objects in our lives, identity and reinvention, family history, through the power and meaning of small moments. The installation will join an existing sculpture on the plaza by Moses Jacob Ezekiel, Religious Liberty (1876), itself part of a complicated conversation about American freedom taking place every day on Independence Mall. It was dedicated “to the people on the United States” as a monument to religious freedom and the struggle against intolerance. The sculptor was a Jewish Confederate.
Born in Belarus, Sara Berman (1920-2004) left Europe for Palestine in 1932, where both her daughters were born, and witnessed the creation of the State of Israel. At age 60, after years in an unhappy marriage, Sara decided she had to leave. One night she left with just one suitcase. She moved into a studio apartment in Greenwich Village NYC where she was happy at last in a room of her own.
In a burst of personal expression, Sara decided to wear only white. She starched, ironed, folded, and stacked her minimal belongings with precision and loving care. Sara’s closet represents the universal pursuit of creating beauty and order and finding meaning in the everyday. When Sara died, her family saved the contents of her humble closet, knowing that one day, it would become an exhibition.
Josh Perelman, Ph.D, chief curator and director of exhibitions and interpretation at NMAJH, feels that the closet is a strong vehicle for storytelling. “We are inspired by Alex and Maira’s expression of history from an artist’s perspective, as well as the relevance of Sara’s story to the Museum,” Perelman says. “The objects that we choose to place in our homes, those that follow us through our daily lives, carry our stories with them. Giving voice to these traces of memory and identity is at the core of what we do at the Museum. And it’s so important to our capacity to connect with history.”
Maira Kalman, known for her exuberant The New Yorker covers, children’s books, and books for adults, and Alex Kalman, a visionary designer and curator, tell keenly observed stories through everyday objects, and amplify their meanings through different settings.
Sara Berman’s Closet is part of NMAJH’s OPEN for Interpretation program, which invites artists to provide their own perspective on the Museum’s themes through disciplines including visual art, music, dance, writing, and performance. The program’s goal is to broaden the Museum’s audiences and inspire the public to engage with history in innovative and creative ways.
