East India Square161 Essex StreetSalem, MA 01970-3783 USAPhone: 978-745-9500, 866-745-1876

Have you ever considered a museum’s collection an invitation to investigate

your own relationship to creativity, or to interpret art and culture?

To engage the mind and spirit, the PEM col-lection offers outstanding works primarily from the 1700s to today: paintings, sculptures, photographs, drawings, textiles, architecture and decorative objects. Our African, American, Asian, maritime, Native American and Oceanic art emphasizes the lively conversation that oc-curs through creativity across time, place and culture.

1.8 million works — many of them the first to be collected in this country — offer experiences unique among American art museums. At PEM, our goal is not to hang art on the walls and then tell you what to think. Deep and far ranging, the collection opens windows onto how people live, work and celebrate. Here, you can explore art and the world in which it is made — revealing and comparing concepts of creativity, individu-ality, community, tradition, spirituality and even emotion. And the connections you make, be-cause of your own experiences, inspire a jour-ney as important as the artworks themselves.

Open Tuesday-Sunday, 10 am-5 pm.Closed Mondays (except holi-

days).

Museum Admission

Adults $15, Seniors $13, Students $11

Youth (16 and under) and Salem, Mass. residents admitted free*.

*Does not apply to youth in stu-dent/tour groups

Plan Your event here!

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Peabody Essex Museum

Paintings, furniture, folk art, needlework, toys and costumes represent over 300 years of New England culture. Each object reveals the values of the communities that shaped this region of the early United States and ultimately informs the design and beauty of the things with which we choose to surround ourselves today. From art we can connect the past to the present to understand the material world around us. Among more than 1,000 portraits is a likeness of Nathaniel Hawthorne that captures the author’s inner spirit with a quality and immediacy that practically invites you to engage in conversation. John Singleton Copley’s Portrait of Sarah Erving Waldo, in its original hand-carved frame, conveys the artist’s ability to convincingly render details, shimmering fabrics and polished fine woods char-acteristic of the mid 18th century.Period furniture - desks and bookcases that fea-ture superb craftsmanship, clean lines and elegant form - illuminates all aspects of society, from the elite to the working class. And PEM’s shoe collection, one of the largest in the world, reveals attitudes about clothing, sexuality and beauty.

Oceanic ArtThe Hawaiian concept of exquisite perfection is hana no’eau. Hana is activity, and no’eau means clever, skillful, wise and dexterous. The philoso-phy of creating every object to the highest mark, whether a tortoise shell fishhook or a carved ivory neck ornament, extends to the entire collection of Oceanic art.

Internationally recognized, the collection origi-nated with the first works donated to the museum in 1799. More than 20,000 objects (from more than 36 island groups in Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia) incorporate available resources, including porpoise teeth, bark, jade, obsidian, abalone, human hair and natural fiber. Works by contemporary artists employ glass and synthetic stone. As a whole, the collection reflects profound periods of change. Objects reveal diverse materi-als gained in trade, new ideas from non-Native cultural influences, and evolved technology that produced metal tools.

Made almost exclusively for and about Africans, the objects in the PEM collection reflect the artists’ powers of observation and abilities to render distinct human features. Works first acquired in the early 1800 by members of the East India Marine Society demonstrate the strengths of sub-Saharan and West African artists working with ivory, leather, wood, resin and other in-digenous materials.

Carvings and ceremonial masks with leopard fur and shells speak to African relationships with Europe-ans and other visitors interested in trade. Early and significant works

from coastal East and West Africa, an important body of Zulu arts

and storytelling devices illuminate cultural traditions. PEM also has

one of the world’s finest collections of Ethiopian Christian art - 16th- to 20th-century icons and metalwork with roots in the late Antique and

Byzantine traditions.

American Art African Art