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Weathervane Newsletter Winter 2001
Current Exhibits:From Asylum to Sanctuary: The Origins and Remains of the Northampton State Hospital
From Asylum to Sanctuary, an exhibit focusing on the Northampton State Hospital, opened at Historic Northampton on November 17th. From the palatial architecture of 18th century England's Bethlem Hospital, with its Corinthian entablature and classical ornamentation, to the stately and austere (though no less imposing) structure of 19th century Northampton Massachusetts State Hospital for the Insane--institutions for the mentally ill were often built with a monumentality that was as much about inspiring public confidence as its purpose in housing attendant numbers.
New York based artist and printmaker Christopher Clarke takes his cues from 18th century painter, architect and engraver Giambattista Piranesi in his explorations of the architectural ruins of Northampton State Hospital. His etchings relate these remains to the Piranesian imagery of Roman monuments of antiquity and he engenders in his work a similar archeological, antiquarian and topographical value.
University Without Walls UMass student David Parnell's interdisciplinary studies in history, psychology and Photography culminated in his Honors Project. The interior and exterior remains of NSH are explored in photograph and related to the history of institutional psychiatry from the medieval "hospitality" of monastic medicine to the Anglo-American formulation of the state lunatic hospital and its location and beginning decades of operation in Western Massachusetts.
All is centered on Northampton State Hospital as archeological remnant, though the institutional form remains a prospering agent in contemporary psychological medicine.
The exhibit will run through January 31, 2001.
Contents Historic Northampton.