Cspan3 continues next with the presidency focusing on the legacy of john f. Kennedy. The Smithsonian American Art Museum hosted this 90 minute event. Good evening. Did you know that john f. Kennedy was the most photographed leader of his day . This may not surprise you since he used photography strategically to share his values and his vision for america. It was also the golden age of photography in america and that is why this subject is of interest to us at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and hopefully you. Here at the museum we focus on telling the stories of the American Experience from folk art to photography as well as painting and sculpture and crafts and media arts. Our exhibition, american visionary, john f. Kennedys life and times, which you can view on the second floor in the graphic arts gallery is a premier event among many organized by the kennedy president ial library in this centennial year. I am stephanie stevish, the director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum allowed me to be i guess what you would call a guest curator of this exhibit on jfk. See i was a photographer myself starting in the 50s and i photographed a lot of politicians. I started with Richard Nixon. Governor brown in california. And then of course john f. Kennedy. Many of the events he was present at and tragically i was in dallas when he was assassinated. Why this exhere in the American Art Museum at this time . Well, its centennial of his birth. 100 years ago, on may 29th, he was born. How do you put an exhibit like this together . Where do you start . Well, first you start with a few researchers. And we collected, actually, 34,000 photographs of jfk and his family. It took about six months. And it became the basis of a very important book that we published with harper collins. And from those 34,000 pictures and the 400 some odd pictures in the book, we were able to select 77 photographs that we felt told the story of jfk and his life and
Guest cure tor on this exhibit. I was a photographer myself and photographed a lot of politicians. Starting with nixon. Governor brown in california. And john f. Kennedy. Many of the events he was present at and tragically i was in dallas when he was assassinated. Why this exhibit here in the American Art Museum at this time . Well, its the centennial of his birth. A hundred years ago he was born. How do you put an exhibit like this together, where do you start . First you start with a few researchers. And we collected actually 34,000 photographs of jfk and his family. It took about six months. And it became the basis of a very important book. That we published with harper collins. And from those 35,000 pictures and the 400 some odd pictures in the book we were able to select 77 photographs that we felt told the story of his life and times. Jfk was a modern president. And john f. Kennedy was one that saw america place in the world. He was a man who understood history. He served in worl
Have everybody here tonight. Its a great crowd and i it feels like just kind of a festive light atmosphere and im glad. Weve got a great presentation for you tonight. My name is steve weberg, i work in the Public Affairs department here at the library and its going to be my honor here to introduce a guy ive gotten to know and really come to admire a lot here in the past few months working with him. Some of you may already have been through our new exhibit open just under two weeks ago on the second floor in the mountain gallery called cowboys and culture. If you havent, i would strongly urge you to. Its just a fascinating collection, and im talking about a large collection, of artifacts, art and other objects that illuminate the connection that i wasnt aware of down through history going back to the cattle days between city of kansas city and amarillo, texas. Its so big, in fact, part of it spilled out into kirk hall down in the first floor, you may have seen the big saddle there and t
Like a festive, light atmosphere and im glad. Weve got a great presentation for you tonight. My name is steve weberg. I work in the Public Affairs department of the library. Its my honor to introduce a guy ive gotten to know and really come to admire a lot here in the past few months working with him. Some of you may have already been through our new exhibit opened just under two months ago on the second floor in the mountain gallery, cattle cowboys and culture. If you havent, i would strongly urge you to. Its just a fascinating collection and im talking a large collection of artifacts. Art and other objects that illuminate it connection that i wasnt aware of down through history back through the cattle days in amarillo, texas. Its so big part of it spilled out if had to kirk hall on it first floor. You may see seen the big saddle and hall tree. I would be remisprobably at this point before getting to michael if i didnt introduce ann deucy in the very back, back there. He is our librar