FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 8, 2023
Lyman Allyn Art Museum
Press Contact: Rebecca Dawson, Director of Communications
860.443.2545 ext. 2112 / dawson@lymanallyn.org
NEW LYMAN ALLYN PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION EXPLORES
HOW CHILDREN LIVE AROUND THE WORLD
NEW LONDON – Through beautiful and thought-provoking photographs, the Lyman Allyn Art Museum’s newest exhibition, Where Children Sleep: Photographs by James Mollison, documents the lives of children and their sleeping spaces all around the world. The show opens Saturday, Feb. 11 and is on view through Apr. 30, 2023.
Mollison’s studio-style portraits of children are accompanied by detailed studies of their “bedrooms,” ranging from large, decorated rooms to the barest spaces set aside for sleep. The photographs and stories examine childhood, family, cultural identity, hope, doubt, comfort, and inequity.
“We’re excited to share these images with our museum visitors,” said Eileen Donovan, Director of Learning & Engagement, who noted that a lecture in conjunction with the exhibition, scheduled for March 9, features Dr. Nancy Parent, an associate professor of behavioral and social sciences at Mitchell College in New London. “After the discussion, we hope visitors will be able to view the works through a new lens.”
Interested in human, social, and environmental subjects, Mollison has published five books of photography. Where Children Sleep, first published in 2010, has a new 2022 edition. Following his interest in the world of childhood, Mollison published Playground in 2015, which examines recess and considers the environments in which children learn and play. His other books are James and Other Apes, The Memory of Pablo Escobar, and The Disciples.
The show’s opening reception is Friday, Feb. 10 from 5 to 7 p.m. To learn more about the opening reception or the lecture, visit lymanallyn.org. To RSVP for either event, call 860.443.2545 or email info@lymanallyn.org.
For more information or to request images, please contact Rebecca Dawson by email at dawson@lymanallyn.org.
Where Children Sleep: Photographs by James Mollison is organized and circulated by Curatorial Assistance Traveling Exhibitions, Pasadena, California.
About the Artist
James Mollison was born in Kenya in 1973 and grew up in England. After studying art and design at Oxford Brookes, and later film and photography at Newport School of Art and Design, he moved to Italy to work at Benetton’s creative lab, Fabrica. His work has been widely published throughout the world in Colors, The New York Times Magazine, the Guardian magazine, The Paris Review, The New Yorker, Le Monde, and elsewhere. Mollison has lived in Venice, Italy since 2003.
About the Lyman Allyn Art Museum
The Lyman Allyn Art Museum welcomes visitors from New London, southeastern Connecticut and all over the world. Established in 1926 with a gift from Harriet Allyn in memory of her seafaring father, the Museum opened the doors of its beautiful neoclassical building surrounded by 12 acres of green space in 1932. Today it presents several changing exhibitions each year and houses a fascinating collection of over 17,000 objects from ancient times to the present, including art from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe, with particularly strong collections of American paintings, decorative arts and Victorian toys and doll houses.
The Museum is located at 625 Williams Street, New London, Connecticut, exit 83 off I-95. The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Sundays 1 – 5 p.m.; it is closed on Mondays and major holidays. For more information call 860.443.2545, ext. 2129 or visit www.lymanallyn.org.