Among the gems of the Brooklyn Museum are its American period rooms, most from 18th- and 19th-century homes. For a new exhibition called “Playing House,” the first in a series intended to give visitors a fresh experience of this popular area of the museum, four artists were invited to create special installations of their work in eight of the 17 rooms. Decorative arts curator Barry Harwood initially discussed the project with Betty Woodman, known since the 1970s for her luminous, color-saturated ceramic pieces. It was her idea to bring in sculptor Anne Chu, video artist Mary Lucier, and multimedia installation artist Ann Agee as well. The four artists’ resulting “activations”—as the museum describes them—range from “very disruptive” to “very subtle,” notes Woodman. Picking out the contemporary additions in the historic interiors—which start in 17th-century Dutch New York and end in 1930s Art Deco Manhattan—is “like a treasure hunt,” she adds. On view through August, the show sparks lively conversations between art and artifacts, between past and present—making the wonderful old spaces seem new again. brooklynmuseum.org
