After Pivoting to Virtual, ART AFTER HOURS AT THE ZIMMERLI Wraps Up 2020-21 Season on April 6

It has been almost a year since the last in-person Art After Hours was cancelled due to the initial COVID-19 closures during the spring of 2020. One of the most popular and longest running programs at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, Art After Hours welcomed the campus community and general public to experience art together while on a guided tour, listening to a band or guest speaker, and socializing in the lobby - often while standing closely with both friends and strangers.

In October of 2020, Art After Hours, like many cultural programs throughout the world, returned on Zoom as a collaboration between the Zimmerli and Rutgers Global. While museum staff missed seeing regular attendees and meeting new visitors in the galleries, they recognize how many more people have participated who may not have had the opportunity in the past.

"It's been exciting to see how Art After Hours has continued to draw audiences together for conversation and consideration of how art intersects with different facets of contemporary life," said curator of education Amanda Potter, whose department coordinates the programs at the museum. "We're glad that we could play a role in helping to keep people connected with and through the museum, especially the Rutgers community scattered near and far through our partnership with Rutgers Global."

The final Art After Hours of the 2020-21 academic year takes place on Zoom, on Tuesday, April 6, starting at 7:00 p.m. (ET). The program spotlights the online exhibition Musings by Moonlight: The Moon from Japanese Art to Japonism with the students and staff who created it, followed by a talk about the appearance of the moon in manga and an origami demonstration. The program is free and open to the public. Zoom registration is available at go.rutgers.edu/artafterhours. Activities are presented with the support of Rutgers Global, Rutgers Asian American Cultural Center, and the Rutgers Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, in conjunction with its Rutgers Meets Japan initiative marking 150 years of special friendship.

Musings by Moonlight is the first exhibition created exclusively in a digital format at the Zimmerli, but is the result of the museum's longstanding partnerships with academic programs across campus. During the fall 2020 semester, Nicole Simpson, the museum's assistant curator of prints & drawings, met on Zoom with students in the course "From Text to Image in Japanese Art," taught by Professor Haruko Wakabayashi in Rutgers' Department of Asian Languages and Cultures. They explored references to the moon throughout Japanese history as a symbol of love and longing, transience and ephemerality, and harvest and prosperity. They composed essays about 19 works from the late 19th and early 20th centuries that are housed in the Zimmerli's renowned collections of Japanese prints (known as ukiyo-e, or "pictures of the floating world") and Japonism (European and American artworks inspired by the art of Japan). Visitors to the site, which launched in December, are able to explore such topics as: Nature: Western Escape or Japanese Tradition?; Shadow and Silhouette; Moon in Contemplation and Revelation; Familial Relationships and the Moon; The Music of the Moon; and Action and Transience Underneath the Moon.

The evening also includes a talk with Kay Clopton, Ph.D., about the moon in manga: the comics and graphic novels that originated in Japan and have become a popular and influential art form across the globe. Clopton is the Mary P. Key Resident: Cultural Diversity Inquiry, Visiting Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University Libraries, working in Special Collections with the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum. She specializes in manga studies, cartoons, comics, and graphic novels. In addition, Jamie Orendain, a current museum intern and former student in Professor Wakabayashi's class, presents an origami demonstration to guide viewers in exploring their own creativity.

Simpson added, "During our closure, the Zimmerli has been innovating ways to bring the museum online to our audiences at home. One of the highlights was our collaboration with Professor Wakabayashi and her talented students to create Musings by Moonlight. We look forward to celebrating their work, and exploring the other aspects of Japanese culture, with our virtual community at Art After Hours."

The Zimmerli Art Museum remains closed to the public and in-person programs are suspended until further notice. In the meantime, Zimmerli at Home invites the public to experience an array of virtual programs - wherever you are, whenever you want. News regarding operations and information about contacting staff members are posted on the museum's home page. For Rutgers updates, please visit Universitywide COVID-19 Information.

The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum houses more than 60,000 works of art, ranging from ancient to contemporary art. The permanent collection features particularly rich holdings in 19th-century French art; Russian art from icons to the avant-garde; Soviet nonconformist art from the Dodge Collection; and American art with notable holdings of prints. In addition, small groups of antiquities, old master paintings, as well as art inspired by Japan and original illustrations for children's books, provide representative examples of the museum's research and teaching message at Rutgers. One of the largest and most distinguished university-based art museums in the nation, the Zimmerli is located on the New Brunswick campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Established in 1766, Rutgers is America's eighth oldest institution of higher learning and a premier public research university.