The Jewish Museum Is Open Today, Christmas Day, with Chagall & Spiegelman Exhibitions and More

Continuing its popular tradition, The Jewish Museum will be open on Christmas Day, today, December 25 from 11am to 4:30pm. When many people are looking for something special to do, The Jewish Museum offers an eagerly anticipated, fun-filled way to spend the day. A highlight this year is two ticketed concerts for families starring The Macaroons at 11:30am and 2:00pm. Concert tickets are $20 per adult, $15 per child.

All of The Jewish Museum's exhibition galleries will be open that day, including the special exhibitions Chagall: Love, War, and Exile; Art Spiegelman's Co-Mix: A Retrospective; threeASFOUR: MER KA BA; Masterpieces & Curiosities: A Medieval Aquamanile; Using Walls, Floors, and Ceilings: Claire Fontaine; and Sights and Sounds: Global Film and Video. Also on view are the Museum's permanent exhibition, Culture and Continuity: The Jewish Journey; and Archaeology Zone: Discovering Treasures from Playgrounds to Palaces, an interactive exhibition for families.

Admission to The Jewish Museum on December 25 is $15 for adults; $12 for senior citizens; $7.50 for students; FREE for visitors 18 and under.

DECEMBER 25 AT THE JEWISH MUSEUM

FAMILY ACTIVITIES

11:30am and 2:00pm -TWO SHOWS!

FAMILY CONCERT: THE MACAROONS

Families can enjoy a guitar-based sound that recalls everything from the Kinks to Queen to the Shins. The Macaroons will perform such songs as Hurry Up and Light The Candle and Mezuzah.

A spinoff from the acclaimed indie rock band The LeeVees, The Macaroons have delighted children and families in synagogues, JCCs, and concert venues across the country. Their first album, Let's Go Coconuts, was released in 2010.

Concert tickets: $20 per adult; $15 per child; $17 adult Jewish Museum family level member; $13 child Jewish Museum family level member

12:30pm - 4:00pm

DROP-IN ART WORKSHOP

Inspired by the exhibition, Chagall: Love, War, and Exile, families will create character finger puppets using collage and patterned papers.

Free with Museum admission

EXHIBITION FOR FAMILIES

ARCHAEOLOGY ZONE: DISCOVERING TREASURES FROM PLAYGROUNDS TO PALACES

In Archaeology Zone: Discovering Treasures from Playgrounds to Palaces, an engaging and thoroughly interactive experience, children become archaeologists as they search for clues about ancient and modern objects. Visitors discover what happens after archaeologists unearth artifacts and bring them back to their labs for in-depth analysis.

EXHIBITIONS ON VIEW DECEMBER 25

CHAGALL: LOVE, WAR, AND EXILE

For the first time in the United States, artwork by Marc Chagall from the 1930s and 1940s is gathered to reveal a lesser-known side of the artist. Beginning with the richly evocative paintings of his years in France, the exhibition illuminates an artist deeply responsive to the suffering inflicted by war and to his own exile and personal losses. By the late 1940s, Chagall returns to colorful, joy-filled work celebrating love. The exhibition includes 31 paintings and 22 works on paper, as well as selected letters, poems, photos, and ephemera.

ART SPIEGELMAN'S CO-MIX: A RETROSPECTIVE

This first U.S. retrospective celebrates the career of one of the most influential living comic artists. The exhibition spans Art Spiegelman's career from his early days in underground comix to provocative New Yorker covers and artistic collaborations in new media. Included are over three hundred preparatory sketches, preliminary and final drawings, plus prints and other ephemeral and documentary material.

threeASFOUR: MER KA BA

The New York-based fashion collective threeASFOUR presents its latest project, MER KA BA, an otherworldly installation that fuses avant-garde couture, architecture, and video projections. Inspired by sacred geometry and tile patterns found in synagogues, churches, and mosques around the world, the exhibition brings together ancient motifs and contemporary design aesthetics to reflect the group's hybrid identity and utopian vision.

MASTERPIECES & CURIOSITIES: A MEDIEVAL AQUAMANILE

The first in a new series of installations centers around a rare Jewish aquamanile, a lion-shaped handwashing pitcher made of bronze and created in Germany in the twelfth century.

USING WALLS, FLOORS, AND CEILINGS: CLAIRE FONTAINE

The first Using Walls, Floors, and Ceilings lobby commission, Tears by French artist Claire Fontaine, consists of nine neon signs suspended from the ceiling. Each reads "isle of tears" in a different language, a reference to the experience of immigrants passing through Ellis Island.

SIGHTS AND SOUNDS: GLOBAL FILM AND VIDEO

This new long-term series offers a rotating selection of vigorous film and video works by contemporary artists from around the world - with a particular emphasis on work being made outside western Europe and the United States. The first offering in this series features four works by artists who live and work in Cambodia, as selected by Berlin/Phnom Penh-based curator Erin Gleeson. These works address contemporary cultural, social, and political issues, and express an ongoing tension between the traditional and the new in Cambodian society.

CULTURE AND CONTINUITY: THE JEWISH JOURNEY

This vibrant, two-floor exhibition, comprised of close to 800 works, examines the Jewish experience as it has evolved from antiquity to the present over 4,000 years. Visitors to the 4th floor see the Ancient World galleries, featuring archaeological objects representing Jewish life in Israel and the Mediterranean region from 1200 BCE to 640 CE, and a dazzling installation of selections from the Museum's renowned collection of Hanukkah lamps. On the 3rd floor alone close to 400 works - including ceremonial objects, fine arts, photographs and videos - from the 16th century to the present are on view in this dramatic and evocative experience.

About The Jewish Museum: Widely admired for its exhibitions and collections that inspire people of all backgrounds, The Jewish Museum is one of the world's preeminent institutions devoted to exploring art and Jewish culture from ancient to contemporary. Located at Fifth Avenue and 92nd Street, The Jewish Museum organizes a diverse schedule of internationally acclaimed and award-winning temporary exhibitions as well as dynamic and engaging programs for families, adults, and school groups. The Museum was established in 1904, when Judge Mayer Sulzberger donated 26 ceremonial art objects to The Jewish Theological Seminary of America as the core of a museum collection. Today, the Museum maintains a collection of 25,000 objects - paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, archaeological artifacts, ritual objects, and broadcast media.

The Jewish Museum is located at 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, New York City. Museum hours are Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, 11am to 5:45pm; Thursday, 11am to 8pm; and Friday, 11am to 4pm. Jewish Museum admission is $15.00 for adults, $12.00 for senior citizens, $7.50 for students, free for visitors 18 and under and Jewish Museum members. Admission is Pay What You Wish on Thursdays from 5pm to 8pm and free on Saturdays. For information on The Jewish Museum, the public may call 212.423.3200 or visit the website at TheJewishMuseum.org.