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YPM to hold MLK Day of Service and Celebration January 19

ses38 — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 20:43:33 +0000

YPM to hold MLK Day of Service and Celebration January 19 ses38 Wed, 12/17/2025 - 15:43

By Steven Scarpa

For three decades, the Yale Peabody Museum has celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy through collaborative music, activities, and poetry. This year, the museum is honoring King’s commitment to community with its “MLK Day of Service and Celebration.”

The event is taking place on Monday, January 19 from noon to 4 pm. Admission is free.

Over a dozen community organizations will be at the Peabody to share their offerings and provide a way for individuals to more deeply connect to the New Haven community.

“We aspire to hold an event that is ‘rooted in service and rising in community.’ What we’ve learned is that by coming together and leaning on one another, we can create a more just community,” said Andrea Motto, Assistant Director of Public Education & Outreach.

To that end, the Peabody will pay tribute to King’s work by hosting experiences focused on civil rights and food, educational, racial, and environmental justice from organizations in New Haven who are doing this important work. Student performers from the New Haven Public School will be sharing music and dance throughout the Peabody’s galleries all throughout the day. In addition, Peabody educators will be on hand in our galleries to offer fun interactive activities for kids, lending their insights into millions of years of natural history.

“This is one of the most exciting days of the year at the Peabody. Recognizing the importance of Dr. King’s legacy has long been something the Peabody has sought to do and this new format deepens that work,” said interim director Erika Edwards.

The Peabody’s community partners include Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, Students for Educational Justice, Mothers and Others for Justice, CitySeed, New Haven Pride Center, Citywide Youth Coalition, Possible Futures Bookstore, NXTHVN, New Haven Reads, Bethel AME Church, United Way of Greater New Haven, New Haven Museum, Yale Center for British Art, and New Haven Public Schools’ Fine Arts department.

“We are excited to host our friends. It’s one way the Peabody can give back – to use our platform to share the good work done by organizations across the city,” Motto said.

In addition, the Peabody will host the “Z Experience Poetry Slam” in Central Gallery from 5 to 7 pm. This long-running spoken word event attracts a large and supportive crowd every year. Admission to the slam is free and suggested for adults. “Spoken word poetry honors the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s remarkable skill as an orator, who himself used the form to fuel the civil rights movement,” said David Heiser, director of student programs.

Schedule of events

12 pm-4 pm, Social Justice & Service Resource Fair - Central Gallery
12:30 pm-4:30 pm, Drop-in Zine Making - Room 112.
12:30 pm-3:30 pm, Conversation Circles – Central Gallery.
12 pm-4 pm, Hands-on activities, crafts and NHPS Musical Performances throughout the Galleries
4-4:45 pm, Community Open Mic – David Friend Hall
5 pm to 7 pm, Z Experience Poetry Slam, Central Gallery

YPM to hold MLK Day of Service and Celebration January 19

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An entomological unicorn

ses38 — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 15:10:42 +0000

An entomological unicorn ses38 Wed, 12/17/2025 - 10:10

By Steven Scarpa

Entomology collections manager Larry Gall has been preparing and preserving insects for study and research for decades. He is, by any definition, an expert at his craft.

Gall spoke plainly when asked how his work compared to that of Matthew Noll. “I am a rank amateur,” Gall said.

The Yale Peabody Museum received Noll’s collection of about 10,000 insects this year, adding an important piece to the museum’s extensive holdings. Noll died in 2024 at the age of 45 and his family sought a home for his meticulously cared for insects. Through a circuitous route – a friend heard of Noll’s work and then reached out to the Peabody – the collection found its way to Gall.

Noll’s collection met many of the criteria for inclusion at the Peabody, Gall explained. He focused his collection on one particular geographic region of curatorial interest, in this case San Diego County in California. Charles L. Remington, who founded the Peabody’s entomology collection in 1948, had a particular interest in the insects of California’s Channel Islands and in that state more generally.

Noll was also relatively indiscriminate in the species he sought, perhaps thanks to his work in pest control. He had over 220 families of insects represented in his collection, representing a sizeable chunk of the insect biodiversity in San Diego County. “He’s a little bit different from many entomologists in that they focus on one particular group,” Gall said.

Occasionally collectors will do what’s called a bio blitz, which is an effort to collect as much biodiversity as you can in a single day. “What Noll did was effective to be a bio blitzer over a 30-year period. People just don’t do this at that scale,” Gall said.

But the real draw of Noll’s collection is condition of the bugs themselves. The specimens are, as they say in the museum business, “charismatic.” They are meticulously prepared, every part of the creature carefully shaped, wings, legs, and antennae extended. The vibrant insects look as if they are poised to take off.

“They are artistically gorgeous and they are absolutely ready for scientific research in a way that many specimens are not. You can see all of the pieces (of the insects), except for the internal structures. They are all visible to you,” Gall said. “(Noll’s work) is an entomological unicorn.”

To illustrate the difference between ordinary preparation and Noll’s work, Gall opened up a case and pulled out a box of mounted moth specimens. The limbs and wings were visible, albeit a bit wilted. “They are pretty well prepared. Nothing really wrong with them, totally serviceable,” he said.

Still, they looked delicate and quite dead. Nothing like a Noll preparation. “Noll had some kind of secret sauce or better understanding than many of us do,” Gall said.

Gall believes that the key to effective insect preparation is to start the work quickly after the specimen’s demise. “Once something expires, the clock starts ticking. The joints start to seize up. It starts to dry out and desiccate, and as that process happens it becomes more difficult to prepare it without damage,” Gall said.

Noll is a bit of a throwback to the era of the amateur scientist, when they collected parts of nature, insects, plants, birds, or whatever caught their fancy. And he was a collector of all kinds of objects – coins, shot glasses, and baseball cards, according to his obituary.

It appears though that insects captured Noll’s imagination, same as Gall. His collection included copious documentation, field guides, scrapbooks with some of his drawings, but nothing written that says why he chose this particular hobby.

“I would have loved to have interviewed him. He would have been at the top of my list of people that I would want to speak to,” Gall said.

An Entomological Unicorn

A insect collection recently given to the Peabody is known for its meticulous preparation

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The Peabody as Portal: A New Mural

ses38 — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 18:49:15 +0000

The Peabody as Portal: A New Mural ses38 Mon, 12/15/2025 - 13:49

A mural has the power to transform a wall into a gateway of discovery, inviting communities to step between the worlds of the past and the possibilities still to come. This fall, visitors entering the Yale Peabody Museum have witnessed such a portal taking shape.

"The Peabody as a Portal," a new mural inspired by the Peabody’s collections, was designed and painted by Yale students in the museum’s central gallery as part of “Cave Paintings to Graffiti: History of Mural Painting,” a course taught by Kymberly Pinder, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Dean of the Yale School of Art, in collaboration with muralist Irisol Gonzalez-Vega.

Visitors are encouraged to stop by the completed "The Peabody as a Portal," set for public unveiling in January 2026.

The Central Gallery became a living studio where visitors observed the evolution of community artwork grounded in plant life, deep time, and collective imagination. Rooted in the Peabody’s botany collection and natural history evolution, The Peabody as a Portal introduces a passageway through geologic eras to the Central Gallery’s Botany exhibition, encouraging viewers to reflect on the past while imagining the future of the natural world.

Under the guidance of Dean Pinder and Gonzalez-Vega, Yale students studied the long history of mural painting, from Paleolithic cave walls to contemporary street art, and drew from this context to design an imaginativepiece unfolding in layers.

Student Gaya Buchta, who led the design team, was inspired by Zallinger’s "The Age of Reptiles." “We chose to transform his idea of an illustrated timeline into a representation of how visitors experience that journey through time, and how vastly disparate eras and locations are represented in one museum,” Buchta said.

The mural depicts ancient flora to potential future plants, incorporating silhouettes of species and objects found in the museum’s galleries and collections. Its furthest layer envisions an imagined future ecology, reminding viewers that evolution continues beyond our present.

Human figures depicted along the bottom right serve as proxies for each visitor entering the museum. Positioned at the base of the mural, the figures welcome viewers into a piece where art and science converge.

“The best part about teaching this course is seeing how the students come together to transform a public space for so many to enjoy long after the class ends,” said Dean Pinder.

“Seeing the mural come together and how it connects the museum, students, and the community has been really meaningful,” said Meena Ambati, a student in the course. “Every layer we paint, from real plants to imagined species, tells a story and invites us to consider the past, present, and future of the natural world.”

Playful “easter eggs” woven throughout the mural tie it to the course, the Peabody, and to Connecticut’s natural heritage: cave-painting motifs, elm trees, and garnet, the state mineral.

This fall, the Peabody hosted a community day, inviting Yale and New Haven community members to paint the mural and imagine the future of plant life. Contributions from that day inspired elements of the mural, directly connecting this project to the perspectives and creativity of the local community.

The Peabody as Portal: A New Mural

Yale students designed and painted a new work inspired by the Peabody’s collections

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Peabody to host Smithsonian exhibition about Taíno culture

ses38 — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 22:09:10 +0000

Peabody to host Smithsonian exhibition about Taíno culture ses38 Thu, 11/13/2025 - 17:09

Yale Peabody Museum will present a temporary exhibition from the Smithsonian Institute called Caribbean Indigenous Resistance / Resistencia indígena del Caribe ¡Taíno Vive!, bolstered by displays developed with local collaborators.

The exhibition will run from December 13, 2025 through June 21, 2026 on the Museum’s second floor. Admission to the Peabody is always free.

The bilingual exhibition brings to life the story of a people whom traditional scholarship once labeled as “extinct,” disproving that narrative through examining the history of resistance and survival in the Caribbean, and the current Taíno movement in the United States.

“Taíno culture has roots in Puerto Rico, Haiti, Jamaica, and other ancestral homes throughout the Caribbean. The culture is also strongly represented in New Haven and across Connecticut. The Yale Peabody Museum is delighted to work alongside Taíno cultural practitioners to help share the history of this community,” said interim director Erika Edwards.

The Peabody is committed to centering community voices and have gathered a team of talented collaborators as curatorial partners for the added elements of the exhibition. This approach to developing exhibition content and programming demonstrates the renovated Peabody’s shift from methods it employed in the past.

“By centering the work of cultural practitioners who examine the history of the islands and the impact of Caribbean Indigenous knowledge throughout the world, we hope to help them convey the story of legacy and endurance,” said Kailen Rogers, associate director of exhibitions. “This community-centered approach will inform how we work with partners moving forward, especially when sharing stories of cultural heritage.”

Members of AraYeke Yukayek, a New York based Caribbean Indigenous Taíno community, Luis Sanakori Ramos, behique or medicine person, and Stephanie Bailey, archeologist and Tribal Chief, curated a list of Peabody collection items to be displayed alongside the Smithsonian’s offerings, and wrote label text for the exhibition.

“As a Caribbean Indigenous person and emerging archaeologist, working with the Yale Peabody Museum on my first exhibition has been the opportunity of a lifetime—one that allowed me to bring together my passions for archaeology and culture in a shared space that amplifies Caribbean Indigenous voices. Collaborating with an inspiring team dedicated to bridging culture and academia, and to centering Indigenous perspectives within museum spaces, has been a deeply meaningful experience and a model for how institutions can honor and uplift the communities they represent,” Bailey said.

Carlos Torre, a professor at Southern Connecticut State University, worked with students from New Haven’s Sound School to create a conuco garden, an important aspect of Taíno heritage and culture.

“By working directly with a team of collaborators who are themselves Taíno cultural practitioners, the Peabody is better able to understand and meet the desires of the community for the exhibition,” said Charlie Catacalos, interpretation manager.

Visitors will learn about the Caribbean Indigenous survival journey through stories, contemporary crafts, musical instruments, and both ceremonial and everyday objects. The exhibition will include video storytelling and more than 60 striking images and graphics.

The Peabody has developed additional content with collaborators and members of the Taíno community. This includes:

Historical materials from the Peabody collections, including religious materials, household items, and other objects that illustrate the Taíno community’s rich cultural life.
Yale’s Marsh Botanical Garden will offer a display of living plants to complement the Peabody’s exhibition. Exhibition content created in partnership with New Haven Public Schools.
Educational materials created in partnership with Carlos Torre, a professor at Southern Connecticut State University.
A series of portraits of members of the Connecticut Taino community from the Afro Caribbean Cultural Center, located in Waterbury, CT.
Public programming throughout the run of the exhibition.

“It will explore the rich and enduring cultural legacies of the region, the value and impact of the culture’s knowledge on the world, and the complicated questions around heritage, ancestry, and race that emerge from Taíno identities today,” Rogers said.

Peabody to host Smithsonian exhibition about Taíno culture

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Looking Back On Time

ses38 — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 13:47:34 +0000

Looking Back On Time ses38 Thu, 10/30/2025 - 09:47

A recent addition to the Peabody’s History of Science and Technology collection harkens back to when religion, astronomy, and astrology together shaped Europeans’ understanding of time.

Yale Professor Emeritus Thomas Lentz, MD donated a rare perpetual calendar to the collection which might have been made in about 1580 in Nuremberg, Germany. It is an intricately engraved silver disc with plates which rotate to reveal information about time, astronomy, and the calendar. Professor Lentz is a curatorial associate and longtime donor for the collection.

“This is a real jewel, combining beautiful craftsmanship with many different types of knowledge,” said Alexi Baker, Ph.D., Collections Manager of the History of Science and Technology. “It is called a perpetual calendar because, in theory, it would work forever. Of course, it doesn’t work forever, but it should work for a good long time. And you can actually look up past, present, and future dates with it.”

The calendar is a little over two inches in diameter and consists of a central fixed disc with four rotating silver discs, riveted two to each side. You can set the day of the week, represented by an astronomical symbol, within the month. The front of the calendar shows the months of January to June, and the back shows July to December. There are important Christian dates including saints’ days engraved under each month.

“This instrument brings together calendrical information including important dates in the Christian faith, astronomical information like where the sun and moon will be on specific dates, and how much daylight you will be getting,” Baker said. “It’s combining the natural, religious, and astronomical knowledge and thought that shaped early modern Europeans’ perceptions and uses of time.”

The discs on the front of the calendar rotate to indicate the seasons, the day of the lunar cycle, and the hours and minutes of moonlight to be expected. They also reveal a little image of where the moon is in its phases, waxing and waning between New Moon and Full Moon.

The discs on the back of the calendar trace the path of the Sun over time. They reveal for each month the zodiac symbol of the constellation through which the Sun will appear to pass in the sky, the time of sunrise, and the length of day. The rotating discs also reveal the time of sunset each day and the length of night.

Baker explained that a metal engraver, who specialized in instruments like this and perhaps sundials and astrolabes, likely made this piece. “Based on its design, this calendar might have been made in Nuremberg, which was a real hotbed of artisanal and mathematical knowledge and skill in the early modern period. Professor Lentz has given us other amazing artifacts from the same place and time, from microscopes to vision aids,” she said.

A well-off individual would have bought a calendar like this. “Because it is silver and finely engraved, it was a somewhat more expensive object,” Baker said. “It would be something to show off to people and still enjoy yourself, but at the same time, it was practical. The original owner could have also been someone we would consider a professional or a religious figure.”

Historical objects like this offer tangible ways for students and researchers as well as the public to understand the past. The calendar has already been included in object-based university classes which take place at the Peabody Museum and is being considered for inclusion in an exhibition about time.

“You can approach this from many different angles,” Baker said. “The calendar can offer insight into early modern science, mathematics, fashion, technology, and of course religion and daily life. We can learn about the craftsmanship and international networks of materials and skills necessary to manufacture these instruments as well. Classes and museum visitors will look at pieces like this and often contrast them with today’s disposable culture. They are always surprised by how finely crafted and long-lasting many past technologies were.”

This and other artifacts from the History of Science and Technology collection, as well as from the museum’s Anthropology collections, reflect the changing perceptions and technologies of time over the centuries. When this perpetual calendar was made in Europe in the 1500s, most people understood and perceived the passage of time in terms of the natural rhythms of the sun and moon and how long it took for light sources such as candles to burn down.

There were early mechanical timekeepers, but they were not yet that accurate, and they were too expensive for most people to own. They also needed to be wound regularly to keep operating, and sundials were often used to reset their time. Baker explained that people continued to use sundials well into the 1800s, both at home and in public spaces.

“It was still largely a natural and religiously oriented conception of time,” she said. “Astronomy was both the mathematical and observational discipline and what everyone could see in the skies and experience with the changing light and seasons, and it was intimately intertwined with Christianity as well as with astrology for medicine and other uses. In some ways, this seems quite alien to how many of us experience time today, but there are also always surprising resonances between life centuries ago and life now.”

Looking Back On Time

A recently acquired 16th century perpetual calendar offers a glimpse into ancient perceptions of time

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A Lively Classroom

ses38 — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 19:59:11 +0000

A Lively Classroom ses38 Mon, 10/27/2025 - 15:59

By Steve Scarpa
Photos by Andy Melien

Yale doesn’t have many classrooms like Horse Island, the largest of the Thimble Islands in Long Island Sound.

Located 1.5 miles offshore from Stony Creek in Branford, the 17-acre island is almost completely wooded with small stands of beech, pine, and cedar trees among mixed scrub and hardwoods. Pink granite lines the rocky shore of the island, which seems to creep from the margins of the woods. It is, in many ways, a scale model of the Connecticut shoreline.

The uninhabited island includes a mix of coastal vegetation with wide rocky intertidal zones, making it a perfect location for exploration and the collection of marine invertebrates.

The Yale Peabody Museum cares for the island and thanks to the work of its staff, the island is actively used for research and for classwork the likes of which couldn’t be replicated in a laboratory.

Professor Casey Dunn’s invertebrate zoology class is the latest to use Horse Island, spending half of the semester’s lectures and labs outdoors actively doing science.

The class meets in the island’s research station, which was designed and built in partnership with the Yale School of Architecture’s Regenerative Building Lab. “It’s incredible. It’s a fully functional place to be teaching,” he said. “But it requires a huge amount of support.”

That’s where the Yale Peabody Museum team comes in. Dunn works closely with the museum’s Student Programs department to coordinate the travel, make sure class resources are deployed on the island, and assure that students and professors have what they need to create an impactful educational experience.

Peabody staffers Andy Todd, who runs the museum’s imaging studio, and Patrick Sweeney, collections manager for Botany, were on hand during a recent trip to the island to help marry scientific theory and practice as closely as possible.

On a perfect early Fall morning out on Horse, you could hear distant sounds of construction vehicles and landscapers’ tool buzzing on manicured lawns back on land. But the predominant sound was wind and waves. Someone suggested music, but everyone agreed that it wasn’t necessary. “Part of me is like we need music, but part of me is like, the island is the music,” said Dunn.

A couple of hours before the class Dunn had one eye on his phone and the other on the rest of the goings on. Getting students from New Haven to Branford and then onto a boat generally goes smoothly, but he wanted to be sure. “It’s a bit of a ballet where I am working with the students,” he said.

As Dunn gently wrangled students, Todd set up a small digital imaging studio on the island, which included multiple stations. “We have a video camera that can shoot up to 120 frames per second, so if students have an organism with moving parts or moves fairly quickly, we can record that,” Todd explained.

Sweeney’s goal was to work with students to collect as many plant species as possible. “I am really excited about working with the students to document the algae on Horse Island because the algae are so amazing. There are upwards of 250 species of algae in Long Island Sound and all kinds of organisms – other algae and animals – grow on and around the algae. The beds of algae are little ecological communities, and documenting their composition over time can tell us things about changing conditions around the island and in the sound ”.

Fourteen undergraduates all found their way to the island and this instance being their third visit, immediately fell into a rhythm. A few fanned out along the water’s edges looking for specimens. Others gravitated towards the microscopes and imaging equipment. Dunn wandered the island, monitoring the student work, looking at their discoveries, and offering guidance.

“This is how invertebrate zoology is actually practiced,” Dunn said. “In a real research setting, you are going to the animals. You don’t know exactly what you’re going to get that day. When you get the animals out of the water, the first thing you do is figure out which species you’re even dealing with. The work begins of documenting its structure and observing its behavior.”

Anita Duncan ’28 waded into the Sound to look at what scuttled around along the shore. As an Ecology and Evolutionary Biology major, Duncan uses the class time to envision what it might be like to do this kind of work during her career. “I would love to say that I am a book learner, but I am really a hands-on learner. This appeals to me a lot more,” Duncan said as she held a tiny crab in her hand.

A short distance away, Sweeney also trawled the rocky shore, picking up algae and pointing out subtle differences between the plants pulled from the water. Later he worked with Celeste Giannoulias ’28 to press samples for the Peabody collection. Giannoulias had found several species of algae.

Back at the station, Todd helped a group of students look through a telescope at a specimen – hydromedusa, a type of jellyfish. The ubiquity of digital cameras can make photography an impulsive process. By using Todd’s sensitive and powerful technology, students can be intentional about their observations.

“It’s a way for them to see an organism that their eyes don’t necessarily allow and a way for them to collect specimens digitally,” Todd said. “It makes it real to them in a lot of ways. When things become manual it allows them to slow down.”

Slowing down. That seems to be a theme with Dunn’s class. Taking a moment to see and touch. A trip to Horse Island, facilitated by the Peabody team, isn’t just a day bathed in sea-salt air filled sunlight. It’s a place to explore fundamental scientific questions – what species live on this island? What are they doing there? Why are they there?

“It is incredibly fun to see it all come together and have such a deep bench of people making it all happen,” Dunn said.

A Lively Classroom

Peabody staff work to bring a class to life on Horse Island

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New addition to Ancient Oceans: Eurypterid

ses38 — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 19:16:08 +0000

New addition to Ancient Oceans: Eurypterid ses38 Thu, 09/11/2025 - 15:16

By Steve Scarpa

Cute. Almost edible. Those are two of the more unusual ways to describe the new sea scorpion (eurypterid) model in the Peabody’s Ancient Oceans exhibition.

Fearsome could be another way to describe it, with its large eyes and long piercing claws.

The Peabody currently displays one of the largest complete eurypterid fossils on the planet as part of what is the world’s largest collection of the creatures. These giant relatives of the modern horseshoe crab, commonly known as sea scorpions, grew by replacing their old outer skeleton with a new one, a process that happened several times during their lives.

While impressive in their fossil form, it can still be hard to imagine how otherworldly these predatory animals looked. Peabody curator Derek Briggs decided to help spark visitors’ imaginations. Briggs commissioned the creation of a lifelike eurypterid model to sit alongside its real-life counterpart in the gallery. The team at 10 Tons in Copenhagen, Denmark, led by Esben Horn, created the model for the Peabody.

The final product is tan with brown stripes, pure speculation, of course, because no information existed about the animal’s color, Briggs said. The most striking feature are the two pronounced claws sticking out from the sea scorpion’s head. Briggs said those claws are rarely if ever found attached in larger fossils, which are generally moults. The detailed model gives a clear sense of the length of those claws.

The installation team gathered on a Monday morning – maintenance a0nd upgrades often happen when the museum is closed. So, the group, comprised of Briggs, Susan Butts, Erynn Johnson (Collection Manager, Invertebrate Paleontology, Nick Pfaff (Museum Technician, Exhibitions), and Jessica Utrup (Museum Assistant, Invertebrate Paleontology) worked to put the new sea scorpion in place.

The team circled the open case. They chatted about the best way to display the model, which they thought was kind of cute. It took a couple of tries to capture the most fetching angle for the sea scorpion against the light blue background of the case.

“My main thing is, can you see both claws and both eyes?” said Butts, Director of Collections and Research.

“Does it need to be higher?” Briggs said.

“It certainly looks edible,” Butts said.

“It’s so incredibly realistic,” Briggs said.

That last point was important to Briggs. He wanted to be sure that the public could envision these creatures. While eurypterids were believed to be apex predators because they had acute vision, the truth is something more complex.

According to Briggs’ research, the giant sea scorpion on display in the Peabody was an ambush predator that reached lengths of about 8 feet, and probably surprised its prey in low-light conditions. Some of its giant relatives, however, actively pursued their prey. It’s certainly enough to fire the imagination.

“People will be more attracted to the case because they’ll say, wow, this what they really looked like,” he said

New addition to Ancient Oceans: Eurypterid

Eurypterids, also known as sea scorpions, were believed to be apex predators, but the truth is more complex

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Peabody Museum to celebrate Fiesta Latina September 28

ses38 — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 20:14:11 +0000

Peabody Museum to celebrate Fiesta Latina September 28 ses38 Mon, 09/08/2025 - 16:14

Yale Peabody Museum and Junta for Progressive Action will host ¡Fiesta Latina!, a celebration of Hispanic cultures that features music and other community events.

The celebration will take place September 27 and 28. Junta for Progressive Action will host programming at 169 Grand Avenue, New Haven from noon to 5 pm on September 27. There will be a day of performances held at the Peabody Museum, located at 170 Whitney Avenue, on September 28 from noon to 5 pm. Programs will be free, community-led, and accessible to participants of all ages.

The event is a collaboration between the Peabody Museum and Junta for Progressive Action, with support from the New Haven Free Public Library, Yale Latino Networking Group, and Arte Inc. Entravision is the media sponsor.

The festival returned to in-person programming in 2024. Several thousand people attended events at both Junta and the museum, creating an electric atmosphere around the celebration. “Our goal is to celebrate Hispanic culture through community programming and through sharing objects from the Peabody’s collections about those cultures,” said Andrea Motto, YPM’s director of education. “Working side by side with Junta, we will celebrate the breadth of identities in the Hispanic community in and beyond New Haven. We hope to foster connection and solidarity through education, performance, storytelling, and hands-on cultural activities.”

“Fiesta Latina is more than a festival. It is a reflection of our mission to uplift and empower the Hispanic and immigrant families of Greater New Haven. Together with the Yale Peabody Museum, we are proud to celebrate our culture while opening doors to education, opportunity, and a brighter future for the next generation,” said Frederic De Pourcq, Director of Development & Operation for Junta.

The festivities at the Peabody will begin at noon on September 28 with a performance by Proyecto Cimarron, a Puerto Rican Bomba performance group. The Spanish Community of Wallingford’s youth mariachi band and dance troupe, committed to preserving the cultural heritage of Mexico, will take the stage at 1:30 pm. The show will conclude with Orquesta Afinke, a salsa band based in Stratford, CT.

All performances will take place in the Peabody Museum’s Central Gallery, a bright and open space featuring an epic battle between an Archelon (a large prehistoric turtle) and a Mosasaur, a fearsome prehistoric fish, high in its rafters.

In addition, prominent Yale neuroscientist Daniel Colon-Ramos present a talk in Spanish on innovations in neuroscience. Throughout the museum, Spanish-speaking scientists will be on hand to talk about how their research contributes to a deeper understanding of the world around us.

For more information about the Yale Peabody Museum, visit Peabody.yale.edu. For more information about Junta for Progressive Action, visit juntainc.org.

SEPTEMBER 28 PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

12:00-1:00- Proyecto Cimarron

1:30-2:00- Spanish Community of Wallingford Youth Mariachi Band and Dancers

3:30-5:00- Orquesta Afinke

Proyecto Cimarron is a Puerto Rican bomba performance group based in New Haven, CT. The members were brought together by their love of Afro-Latino culture, a shared commitment to preserving and sharing bomba rhythms, and utilizing bomba as a gateway for advancing social justice.

The Spanish Community of Wallingford (SCOW)
At SCOW, community is our strength. SCOW supports the Wallingford community with programs exemplifying our core values: guidance, education, and sharing.

Our social service referrals guide people to find the services offered to everyone in the Wallingford community.
Our educational programs help children take full advantage of their educational opportunities and help adults gain the confidence to fully participate in U.S. society.
Our music and dance programs enable all Latinos to share the rich and varied cultures of their native countries, adding to the mosaic of American culture. Conversely, these programs help the children of the Hispanic community to retain the cultural heritage their parents brought with them.

AFINKE (pronounced ah-‘fin-keh and correctly spelled “afinque”) is a traditional Spanish slang term used amongst percussionist and musicians in general to denote a group who plays together as a team (‘nsync). Our 8-piece musical group is comprised of seasoned musicians, who after touring with many notables, decided to come together to share their talents of entertaining audiences and educating them about our Latin musical genre. In addition, we wanted to reach our youth and teach them about our cultural heritage through our music. Our band is highlighted not only for our musicality but also for our showmanship.

Throughout our band’s lifespan, we have had the pleasure of performing in many forums. Some of these include universities, public schools, festivals and even cruises. We have been one of the highlight bands at several large events such as the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven, Norwalk Oyster Festival, Celebrate! West Harford and Queens College Summer Festival Series to name a few. Our diverse repertoire includes styles typical to many Latin American countries including: Salsa, Merengue, Cumbia, Boleros, Plena, Latin jazz, among others. Our repertoire consists of well-known songs as well as original compositions orchestrated specifically for our ensemble.

Orquesta Afinke is led by trombonist Tito Planas and percussionist Samuel Diaz Jr., two educators who have had the pleasure to share the stage with many well known artists such as Frankie Negron, Tony Vega, Choco Orta, Charlie Cruz, Kevin Ceballo, Raulin Rosendo, Hermanos Moreno amongst other greats of the Latin musical field. Many of our members have recorded with many notables in the Latin and Jazz world. We are currently working on our first CD, which should be released soon.

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Peabody Museum to celebrate Fiesta Latina September 28

Peabody and Junta for Progressive Action will celebration Hispanic culture over a two day festival

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Artist Interview: Cameron Patricia Downey, the Summer 2025 Peabody Art Fellow

ses38 — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 18:21:01 +0000

Artist Interview: Cameron Patricia Downey, the Summer 2025 Peabody Art Fellow ses38 Tue, 08/19/2025 - 14:21

Written by Steven Scarpa

Sculptor Cameron Patricia Downey looks at objects in a complex way. Downey imagines where the thing has been, what it might have experienced, and who might have used – and loved – it.

Downey’s latest sculpture, The Rocks Cry Out, brings together rocks and found objects to trouble the line between the animate and inanimate. The work asks whether these materials’ rich histories, touched by the actions of people or the Earth, imbue them with a kind of life.

“Minerals and rocks keep and witness the earth itself and manifest its changes. They are not purported or understood as living, yet they boast a beautiful life,” said Downey, who is an MFA candidate at the Yale School of Art.

The Rocks Cry Out, a sculpture by Cameron Patricia Downey

The new sculpture, inspired by the museum’s collections, was created as part of the Yale Peabody Museum’s Summer Art Fellowship. “The kind of art that inspires me questions what the nature of this world is and how it works,” they said.

She has created a work that melds the craft displayed in the construction of old chairs with the ancient gravitas of Stony Creek granite and kaolin clay found both in South Carolina and the coast of West Africa. By symbolizing the worker’s efforts through the chairs and the deep time of geologic forces through the minerals, Downey asks us to think about the world in a different way.

“I consider discarded materials as witnesses. I hope their juxtaposition alongside the Horse Island rock offers a poetic consideration of these materials,” they said.

Watch an interview with Cameron Patricia Downey on YouTube

Downey’s project is informed by the Peabody’s mineralogy collections, and research into Black craft traditions in the United States dating from the end of the Civil War. “I’ve learned about the grounded importance of joinery, the point at which things connect to one another. Formerly enslaved folks and their descendants have managed to make both sturdy and deeply intimate things,” Downey said.

There is a cultural significance to these rocks, specifically their sediments, Downey explained. Kaolin clay is found both in West Africa in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, and South Carolina low country, an area notorious for being an epicenter of enslaved skilled labor in the United States. The clay was used in religious and cultural practices, like the creation of Edgefield face jugs, some aspects of which were likely carried over from West Africa, she said. Skilled African American tradespeople made items, like pottery and chairs, that were valued for their craftsmanship, beauty, and utility.

“In 1865, there were 120,000 skilled artisans in the United States. According to research by James Newton, theoriginal director of the University of Delaware's Black Studies Program, 100,000 of those skilled artisans were Black folks building many of the places and the infrastructure that we know today. These were labors that have laid the interior and exterior infrastructures of the United States that we see today … all of this connects to this idea of a found object being haunted and a record of the past,” Downey said.

The Peabody chatted with Downey as they finished their sculpture, which would be installed in the case near the museum’s North entrance. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Why do you think linking the disciplines of environmental science and art is important to your creative practice?

I've had the pleasure, and the punishment, of having to explain why I wanted to study both to anybody else who thinks that the two subjects don't belong together. I was really inspired to study environmental science after reading The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert, which addresses the Anthropocene era, in which humans have changed the world and how the environment works.

The thing that ties art and science together for me is this question of curiosity and seeking hypotheses. Both disciplines deal with the question of what the world is like.

There are very lofty and far-reaching questions about how we exist, both over the course of our lives and on a day-to-day basis. How we interact with each other is informed by what we know the world to be. Trying to answer these questions is a beautiful undertaking in both science and in art making.

Storytelling is an important part of this process. When dinosaur fossils were first discovered, the government and the science agencies at the time hired comedians, artists, and other public speakers to convince the masses that what we knew about the world is completely different than before. Both science and art can change your mind about how things are and how they work.

Why do you choose to create your sculptures with found objects?

I believe that found objects have past lives. There's something that's poetic and spectral about an object that has borne witness to events in different time periods, weather, and climates. They’ve already gone through something and have ended up at the junk shop or on the street when I find them.

I'm also interested in objects that reside in the natural environment, specifically rocks and minerals. They are meticulous record keepers and like witnesses to the earth itself. They tell us exactly what was happening millions of years ago. And in different states, they tell us what might happen in the future. Stefan (Nicolescu, collections manager in mineralogy) taught me that this Stony Creek granite, if exposed to warm, humid conditions for long enough, will eventually turn into clay.

The other piece of it is from an ecological consideration. We live in a world of so much stuff. There are constantly things being produced for no real reason, and then we just throw them away. I’m haunted by the images of where things go when we as a consumer class are done consuming them.

I’ve started by taking a few days to go through the museum and take notes on what I’ve seen. I’m trying to hone in on what it is that interests me and has these connections to my practice. I’ve had the chance to meet with people in different collections and spend a long time with the dioramas on the fourth floor – it's so meticulously put together and took so much craft to be made. They are so engulfing.

It took me back to being a kid and having those epiphanies in science museums in front of the same kind of installations.

How did you get your beginning as an artist?

My artistic impulse was always led by storytelling. I grew up in a family where telling stories was a way to exchange gratitude, connection, and entertainment. And, you know, growing up in a place where winter is six months out of the year, there’s only so much you can do besides sit around and eat and talk.

I remember being a little kid, about five years old, making books, making stories, and drawing pictures to match them. When I was about eight or nine my mom signed me up for Juxtaposition Arts, an after school program specifically for the kids in my neighborhood. They would teach us college level skills, like still life drawing and portraiture. My teachers were working artists at the time. They were the first to say to me you can do this. You can make a living off engaging in your creative passions. They were the ones that convinced me art is a viable and worthy undertaking.

Could you describe your creative process?

It can be a very mystical process sometimes. I will gather materials from Goodwill or the junkyard that speak to me or find their way to me. I’ll bring them to my studio and sometimes they’ll just sit for a month. I’ll just greet them every day when I come in and say goodbye when I leave.

Then I’ll start to have an idea of how to alter this thing, but I am always fighting the demon of being too precious with an object. I often don’t want to change it too much because I can’t just find the exact same thing once again. I’ve been picking up a lot of chairs recently because they are in abundance.

I don’t predetermine the outcome of my work. I have an idea first, or a moment or line of words will come to me. Then I will try to work iteratively. I’ll add something, stop, and look and think about what the piece might want or need next. Then I do that thing, re-gauge and keep going.

I have no idea what anybody will receive (from the sculpture). I think, however, the object is a testament to the questions that I've asked. I hope it's taken tenderly.

Why were you drawn to the Peabody Art Fellowship?

I am interested in the nexus of arts and sciences. Also in my practice, I love public art. I think all art should be accessible to the public. Art should be in the world with us in some way or another, at all times, and by any means. In my mind, art is a civic service and a duty in the same way that science is. They help us to think critically about the world. I think we need that.

The Peabody is free for people to go into, and I think that's an important thing for New Haven. It’s beautiful that people come to the museum expecting to be educated and changed. It’s a unique opportunity to have my art where one wouldn’t necessarily expect it.

Artist Interview: Cameron Patricia Downey

Downey's newest sculpture, The Rocks Cry Out, on display at the Peabody

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One-in-a-billion chance

ses38 — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 13:53:05 +0000

One-in-a-billion chance ses38 Thu, 07/31/2025 - 09:53

By Steven Scarpa, Associate Director of Marketing and Communications

Christian Nunez-Rosa had been digging for three hours in the dry desert heat when he struck something he didn’t recognize.

It took a moment to realize what he’d found – the striations on the object were headed in the same direction. He surmised it was bone, but since it was his first fossil dig, he wasn’t sure.

He called over the paleontologist with whom he was working to look. A casual glance affirmed Nunez-Rosa’s suspicion – he had found a vertebra the size of a dinner plate. Nunez-Rosa struck a sauropod, perhaps a Camarasaurus.

The dinosaur-obsessed kid from New Britain never thought he’d find a fossil, let alone bag one on his first expedition. He took a moment to be with the animal and reflect on what happened.

“I was the one who introduced it to present-day sunlight. It was a one-in-a-billion chance that that animal died in that spot, and I was the one to uncover it,” he said. “I felt connected to the animal … It was something I cannot describe. It was amazing,” he said, reflecting weeks after his trip to the Morrison Formation dig site in Hanksville, Utah.

Nunez-Rosa is not a Yale paleontologist or a graduate student. He is a Peabody gallery attendant known for his friendly smile, welcoming demeanor, and ability to engage with young visitors. Part of Nunez-Rosa’s job is to be helpful at the front desk, answer questions, and coordinate with tour groups.

"Christian cares deeply about our guests. He goes above and beyond to make sure their Peabody experience is a great one,” said Aqua Drakes, assistant director, visitor experience/special events.

Nunez-Rosa is also an aspiring paleontologist. He will soon complete his associate degree at Connecticut State Community College and plans to attend the University of Connecticut to study ecology or evolutionary biology.

For Nunez-Rosa, being at the Peabody is a dream job. He was one of the first in line to visit the museum after its renovation. “I came here before the third floor was even open yet,” he said. “I jokingly asked, ‘You guys hiring?’”

As it turned out, they were. Nunez-Rosa sat on the opportunity for a week, deciding what to do. “I couldn’t sleep. I thought I just had to apply. I took a shot and ended up landing a job here,” he said.

It has been a great fit. "Christian has distinguished himself as a leader on our team. He is a pleasure to work with,” Drakes said.

Being immersed in the Peabody’s culture, where being a paleontologist is not a fantasy but a fact of life, encouraged Nunez-Rosa to seek out further opportunities. With the support of the Peabody team, he found a place with the Burpee Museum of Natural History’s expedition.

“It felt like we were just a bunch of nerdy guys going out into the middle of nowhere to go dig for bones. They were very welcoming … I felt like I was in a place with my people,” Nunez-Rosa said.

Now, as Nunez-Rosa greets kids in the museum, he brings a different flavor to those interactions. He knows how a dig happens and how a bone is preserved when it is lifted from the ground. He’s experienced something special, something hard to put into words – a moment of facing a long-lost past.

“When kids see that they are talking to someone who actually went digging, their little eyes just light up, their smiles light up, their entire demeanor changes. One minute, they are a shy kid attached to their mother. Then they start following me around asking questions,” he said.

He remembers that as a little boy, a paleontologist at Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill encouraged his dreams. He believes he can offer that kind of encouragement to the kids who visit the Peabody.

“I want kids to feel like their dreams are not impossible … to hear someone they look up to say you can do it too is something that you can’t put a price on,” he said.

Christian Nunez-Rosa digging at the Morrison Formation site in Utah

'One-in-a-billion chance'

Gallery attendant Christian Nunez-Rosa realizes a childhood dream on fossil dig in Utah

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