A People's House, National Arts and Humanities Month, Revisiting Center for Brooklyn History

October 2024

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the October 2024 issue of Side of Culture. It is an exciting month for the arts, and the White House has issued its yearly proclamation declaring October to be National Arts and Humanities Month.This year’s theme, "The Arts Within You,” aims to inspire active participation in fostering positive change. It emphasizes how the arts can help you cope with our ever-changing world and why participating in art builds resilience, encourages adaptability, and builds hope during difficult times.

In this issue, Barbara Noe Kennedy takes us to Washington D.C. where the newly opened museum: A People’s House, A White House Experience is located just 150 yards from the actual White House. This 33,000-square-foot, cutting-edge, permanent museum provides an immersive journey through some of the White House’s most iconic rooms.

Side of Culture had the opportunity to listen to Susan Magsamen, the co-author of Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us, and she told us about the extraordinary power that the arts have in healing our minds and bodies. Participating in the arts also creates social connections and community that are essential to our well-being. The book is a must-read for people interested in the power of the arts.

Then, we revisit Linda Cabasin’s October 2023 article on the Center for Brooklyn History as fall is a great time to be in New York, and the exhibition, Brooklyn Is… that was supposed to have ended this year is actually being extended until early 2025.

Also, Open House New York will be taking place this month and many of the cool places to visit are in Brooklyn.

Thank you for reading and please do share our website and newsletter with friends, family and colleagues who may be interested. We have a presence on Instagram and FaceBook. www.sideofculture.com

with best wishes,

Victoria Larson

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A Brand-new, Hands-on Presidential Experience Opens Near the White House

By Barbara Noe Kennedy

What if you could tour the White House and, instead of being refused the chance to see the Oval Office, which never is allowed on tours, you could sit at the president’s Resolute desk, spinning in the (p)leather chair and opening its drawers? Or you could join high-level officials at a Cabinet meeting, chiming in your two cents about a national crisis? Or settle into a plush armchair in the family’s private theater? Well, now you can, kind of—at the newly opened A People’s House: A White House Experience. Read on

October is National Arts and Humanities Month and Your Brain on Art Shows Just What the Arts Can Do

By Editors at Side of Culture

This year’s theme, “The Arts Within You,” aims to inspire active participation in fostering positive change and promote a vibrant, inclusive society through the arts. The Americans for the Arts points out how the arts can help you cope with our ever-changing world and participating in art builds resilience, encourages adaptability and builds hope during difficult times. Read on

Center for Brooklyn History: Sharing the Borough’s Stories

By Linda Cabasin

Reopened in September 2023 after a three-year renovation and reinvention, the Center for Brooklyn History (CBH) aims to serve Brooklynites and visitors as a community center and research library that’s welcoming to all. Its current special exhibition, “Brooklyn is . . . ” (through January 3, 2025), celebrates the borough’s varied neighborhoods and highlights a few of its 2.7 million residents, some famous and others less so. Read on