Yay for the NBA!

The 2011 National Book Award finalists have been announced, and we’re proud to shout a hearty congratulations to 2008-2009 Cullman Center Fellows Deborah Baker, author of THE CONVERT, and Lauren Redniss, creator of RADIOACTIVE, for their nominations in the non-fiction category. Both artists researched their books while at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, and we’re thrilled to share such wonderful news with everyone. 

Even better news for all… Deborah Baker will be visiting the Library next Tuesday (10/18) to discuss her award-nominated book THE CONVERT with journalist Elizabeth Rubin. It’s a can’t-don’t-won’t miss event! 

This week Lauren Redniss’s beautiful artwork – inspired by her research as a Cullman Center Fellow – will bid adieu to the NYPL’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. Don’t miss this last chance to visit the Radioactive exhibit; a beautiful testament to Pierre and Marie Curie, the science world’s greatest love story. The exhibit is open on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. or Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Valentine’s Day is just a few days away! Are you thinking about love? We are, because it’s one of the topics of the Radioactive exhibition up at our main building on Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street. The full name of the exhibition is Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout, and seeing this free exhibit would be a fantastic part of a cheap date for science geeks. We know this.

Here’s a video from the Radioactive exhibition website; its an animation by Maayan Tzuriel, based on the drawings of Lauren Redniss. Chopin’s “Ballade No. 4” is performed by Martha Kato. It’s one of four videos produced by students at Parsons the New School for Design in collaboration with NYPL and Redniss for the Radioactive exhibit, book, and website. Appropriately, the title of the video is “The Instability of Matter.”

We wish that science class was this much fun! This brilliant video is one of four videos produced by students at Parsons the New School for Design in collaboration with The New York Public Library and artist Lauren Redniss for Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout, a book, exhibition (at the main NYPL location at Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street), and a website. Sean Ferguson created this animation, which is narrated by Redniss. Check out the Radioactive site in its entirety at http://exhibitions.nypl.org/radioactive/.

Atoms have never been so exciting!

The Radioactive website is hot! →

Check out the brand spankin’ new website for the Radioactive exhibition! It is a collaboration between The New York Public Library and Parsons the New School for Design. Fourteen Parsons students and their teacher, Lauren Redniss (author, artist, Former Cullman Center Fellow) worked with the NYPL to create this interactive, online exhibit in conjunction with the Radioactive exhibition now up at the Library on Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street. Animations about love and science; a Raidon Game, and a virtual way to make cyanotypes all await you!

Radioactive exhibition opens today at the Library!

Today’s a great day at the Library, because the exhibition Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout has opened! As you can see from the image above (pages 146-147 of the book with the same name), Radioactive is arty, graphic, and heavy on the cyanotypes!  We’ve been enjoying this book since it came out last month, but you know what? The exhibition is even cooler, because there are library materials hanging on the walls alongside Redniss’ work! (We say that as Library staffers.)  Redniss worked on the book while she was a Fellow at the Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, and she was inspired by our collections. Some of the pieces that spoke to her work are on the walls, displayed next to the original Library pieces. There’s been some stories for the book and the exhibit already: NPR’s All Things Considered, vogue.com, The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, WNYC’s The Leonard Lopate Show, and The Huffington Post. Make sure to check out the amazing exhibition website that Redniss worked on with her Parsons The New School students!