It’s called “Illustrators of Light.” One of the current exhibitions at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, it’s a collection of advertisements created by Rockwell, and several of his notable peers in the world of 1920s illustration, for Edison Mazda Lamps, a division of General Electric. “These amazing, large-scale paintings were done as advertisements, and now they’re being put on view to the public for the first time,” said Stephanie Plunkett, the museum’s chief curator, adding that “we constantly change our collections to highlight...

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) was in his mid-20s when he was commissioned to produce a series of paintings for an advertising campaign promoting Edison Mazda Lamps (a division of General Electric). Many of the other illustrators were a decade or even a generation older than he.

Stockbridge — The Norman Rockwell Museum will debut its new exhibition “All for Laughs: The Artists of the Famous Cartoonist Course,” on Saturday, March 1. The course was correspondence based and part of the Famous Artists School, founded in 1948 in Westport, Conn. “The school was started by artist Albert Dorn, who at the time was the president of the Society of Illustrators,” museum Chief Curator Stephanie Plunkett told The Berkshire Edge. “He was able to recruit 11 famous illustrators, including Rockwell, to create the curriculum for this correspondence course.”

STOCKBRIDGE — Readings at Rockwell, a new literary series highlighting the power of the written word through dramatic readings, will feature the works of three iconic American authors: Shirley Jackson, Toni Morrison, and Edith Wharton. The literary series, a new partnership between the Norman Rockwell Museum and The Mount, will take place the first Wednesday of each month from March through May, in the museum's galleries. The series, curated by The Mount’s Director of Public Programming Sarah Margolis-Pineo, aligns with Anita Kunz's "Original Sisters: Portraits of Tenacity and Courage."

Today “Original Sisters’’ feels urgent. It’s a heartening tether between untold histories and a threatening future. As a woman standing in Kunz’s hall of sisters, I felt a knot inside me loosen. Look who we are, I thought. Look what we can do...

When the Norman Rockwell Museum sent its “Imagining Freedom” exhibition on its international tour in 2018, something unusual accompanied artist Norman Rockwell’s famous Civil Rights images: a virtual reality experience. By sliding on headsets, 50,000 adventurous — and mostly younger — visitors connected “with almost every object in the exhibition through virtual reality,” said Rich Bradway, the museum’s digital innovation officer, and they interacted with how the art “connected to the culture and society.”

Electric light is something we take for granted. But just over 100 years ago, half of all homes in the U.S. were still dependent on gas lights and candles. In the 1920s, as the fledgling technology was introduced to more homes, Edison Mazda Lamps, a division of General Electric, began a marketing campaign exalting the warmth and impact of the incandescent light bulb.

From Tiny Tim to The Big Man and his bride, locals created quite a festive scene as NBC’s “Today Show” hosted by Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager broadcast from the front of The Red Lion Inn, courtesy of affiliate NBC 10 Boston’s evening anchor Priscilla Casper. The production was the first in a series from the network’s long-running news show highlighting America’s most festive Main Streets during the holiday season.

BTW Berkshires:
Original Sisters unite in Anita Kunz’ paintings

by Kate Abbott
December 5, 2024

It’s November 1936, and Amrita Sher-Gil is winning recognition throughout India as an artist. She was drawing crowds in Mumbai for her paintings, a woman sleeping on her back, three girls sitting together with sun washing over a cheek, a shoulder and bringing out the nap of cloth with a vivid […]

With Christmas now just weeks away, the TODAY Show is bringing back their beloved holiday series, “Merriest Main Street,” where they highlight towns and cities across the country full of holiday cheer and merriment, that attract crowds near and far. They are kicking off their third season of the series, with the town that is pictured in one of Norman Rockwell’s most famous holiday paintings “Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas.

Stockbridge, MA – October 28, 2024 – Norman Rockwell Museum served as a fitting backdrop for a naturalization ceremony held in the Museum’s galleries. In a standing-room-only event, 28 individuals from 20 different countries, including Bhutan, Brazil, El Salvador, Haiti, Iraq, Liberia, Russia, Ukraine, and other nations, took the solemn Oath of Allegiance, officially becoming citizens of the United States.

STOCKBRIDGE — As the 2024 election season enters its final moments, you can inspire friends, family, neighbors and strangers to cast a ballot with one of six digital get-the-vote-out campaign posters courtesy of The Unity Project 2024.

Toronto-based Anita Kunz has employed a distinct contemporary classical style of painting to create some caustic caricature and satire of the late 20th and 21st centuries (though to see her, you wouldn’t know she’s been working as long as she has). Her assignments as an editorial illustrator, however, like many of her generation, have not been consistent. So, she’s turned inward and outward to find inspiration for current projects.

Stockbridge, MA – October 10, 2024 – Norman Rockwell Museum (NRM) is pleased to announce several key appointments to its staff and Board of Directors, enhancing the Museum’s commitment to illuminating the power of American illustration art. "We are thrilled to welcome these talented and arts-forward individuals to our Board and team," said Director/CEO Laurie Norton Moffatt. "Their diverse backgrounds and their innate passion for bringing together art narratives and creative equity will advance and enhance our mission." Board Members Katherine Bergeron and Randy Grimmett, and staff members Russell Lord, Cody Baffuto, and Riley Andersen join a vibrant community dedicated to preserving the original art of America’s best-loved artist and serve as caretakers of a unique cultural legacy.

Nestled the rolling hills of rural Massachusetts, swathed by manicured grounds, sits the Norman Rockwell Museum. And there, side-by-side with the wholesome works of America's most beloved illustrator, is the world's dumbest cover boy: Alfred E. Neuman. "It's sacrilegious! It's an outrage!" laughed political cartoonist Steve Brodner. "But I do think if Norman Rockwell were here, he'd laugh his head off. He'd think this was fantastic." These hallowed halls are now home to the world's largest exhibit of artwork from Mad Magazine, co-curated by Brodner. "I was formed by Mad," he said. "My idea of comedy, humor, irreverent drawing comes from this."

“Every country used poster art historically to motivate engagement in one way or another,” says Laurie Norton-Moffat, CEO/executive director of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. As get-out-the-vote activity is reaching fever pitch, the Norman Rockwell Museum has launched the Unity Project 2024, a digital campaign using the power of illustration to foster civic engagement and participation through art.

STOCKBRIDGE, MA – September 17 – In March 1976, a great American portrait debuted to an adoring public. It was a bicentennial appreciation of George Washington … of a sort. Inspired by The Athenaeum Portrait, Gilbert Stuart’s 1796 painting featured on the one-dollar bill, this rendering of the first president featured one distinction. The original showed Washington with swollen, tightly closed lips due to a new set of ill- fitting dentures, while the 1976 version had a gap-toothed smirk instantly recognizable to America’s middle school reprobates. Equally recognizable was the blank stare that those same kids knew evoked the iconic question: “What, Me Worry?”

STOCKBRIDGE, MA — September 5, 2024– Norman Rockwell has a cherished place in the American imagination. So does MAD magazine. That Rockwell and MAD are as different as a Windsor chair and a whoopee cushion makes their unexpected interaction all the more fun. That interaction takes the form of “What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine,” which runs at the Norman Rockwell Museum through Oct. 27. Five ebulliently overstuffed galleries offer MAD layouts, drawings, toys, videos, back issues, board games, copies of foreign editions. It’s a horn of plenty of laughs. “What Me, Worry” is the (very) rare museum show in which visitors’ laughter is audible.

Stockbridge, MA – June 25, 2024– MAD Magazine Finally Gets the Curtain Call it Deserves. Growing up, the Usual Gang of Idiots were the demigods in my comedic Pantheon; The show at the Norman Rockwell Museum is a perfectly curated collection of seven decades of their misdeeds.

Stockbridge– June 20, 2024– It’s an election year, so perennial presidential candidate and MAD magazine cover boy, Alfred E. Neuman, has once again thrown his hat in the proverbial ring. The imp-faced redhead has been a “write-in candidate” every presidential election since 1956, when he  rst graced the satirical magazine’s cover with his trademark slogan, “What, Me Worry?” His headquarters of choice this election season? You’ll find him amongst some 250 original illustrations and cartoons, alongside magazine covers and ephemera that make up the exhibition, “What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine,” on view at the Norman Rockwell Museum through Oct. 27.