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Thursday May 15th, 2025 at 7 PM ET

Virtual Event | Free

Join us this evening to learn about Brooke Belisle’s recent book Depth Effects: Dimensionality from Camera to Computation (UC Press, 2024). During an era where emergent, AI-driven techniques of computational visual culture seem to unsettle or break from long standing frameworks of photographic representation, Belisle explores how an alternative history of photography can reframe current practices of computational imaging seen in object recognition, depth mapping, and photogrammetry. Her talk will show how early experiments in photographic aesthetics offer unexpected resources for navigating current transformations in visual culture, thinking about ways we use images to capture the three-dimensional shapes of things, that portray the contours of embodied identity, and map the terrain of geographical space. Moving between historical and contemporary case studies, she will touch on recent artworks that explore problems and potentials of dimensionality in visual mediation.

Brooke Belisle is Associate Professor of Art History and Criticism in the Department of Art at Stony Brook University, where she is also affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Computational Science and the Alda Center for Communicating Science. Her first book, Depth Effects: Dimensionality from Camera to Computation (UC Press, 2024), connects emerging forms of computational imaging to aesthetic experiments in very early photography. Her current book project, Seeing Stars: Astronomical Media, traces changing techniques of visual mediation in the history of astronomy and astrophysics. Belisle studied 19th century visual culture as a fellow at the Library Company of Philadelphia, and has also held fellowships from ACLS and the Getty. Her work can be found in recent or forthcoming issues of Critical Inquiry, LA+, and Photography and Culture.

Hosted by the Visual Culture Program

Library Company History & Exhibitions Tour

Friday, June 6th at 11:00 AM

In-Person Event

Join us for a guided tour of the Library Company’s first-floor exhibition galleries. Learn more about the history of the de facto first Library of Congress and oldest colonial cultural institution in the United States. Guests will also learn more about art and artifacts on display in the Logan Room, and as well as hear about the collection materials showcased in our rotating exhibition space.

Space is limited, so please sign up for only one tour time per person. Tickets are available for all First Fridays in May through October.

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Beyond Glass Cases Focus Group

Saturday June 14th, 2025 | 2:00 PM

In-Person Event | Free

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In 2025, cultural and historical organizations in America are facing unprecedented public and governmental scrutiny. From what institutions collect to how that material is displayed and interpreted, organizations are wrestling with how best to tell the complex stories that make up our history. In 2022, the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage awarded a three-year grant to the Library Company of Philadelphia for the Beyond Glass Cases project that facilitated collaborations with community partners who brought fresh perspectives to our curatorial practices through the creation of new art work, an exhibition gallery installation, and the premiere of a musical composition. Beyond Glass Cases raised provocative questions such as: Whose stories do we tell in our exhibitions and from whose perspective are they told? Should libraries and museums collect and display difficult items and if they do, how do they address the possible harm these items might cause?

As Beyond Glass Cases draws to a close, we are reflecting on what we have learned, why it matters at this particular point in time, and how these lessons can inform the future path of institutions like the Library Company.

Please join us on Saturday, June 14, 2:00-3:30 for a discussion of these important issues moderated by Eric Marsh, Sr., a Community Engagement specialist and non-profit leader in Philadelphia. You will have the opportunity to view the final Beyond Glass Cases exhibition, Reflections, to listen to some of the feedback we have already received through our telephone hotline, and to share your opinions. Light refreshments will be served.

If you are not able to attend this in-person event, please consider calling our anonymous hotline at (267) 715-1584 and responding to the pre-recorded questions.

Space is limited to 50 so please book accordingly

Beyond Glass Cases is supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

Juneteenth: Celebrating Black Brilliance

Wednesday, June 25th | 5:30 PM

In-Person at the Library Company of Philadelphia

Juneteenth: Celebrating Black Brilliance will be a conversation between 2024 MacArthur Fellowship winners: Ruha Benjamin (Princeton University), Jennifer L. Morgan (New York University), and Dorothy Roberts (University of Pennsylvania).

This roundtable discussion aims to highlight the work and achievements of these three scholars and to hear their perspectives about the road ahead as we approach the 250th anniversary of the Nation. Jim Downs, Director of the Program in African American History, will moderate this conversation.

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Library Company History & Exhibitions Tour

Friday, July 11th at 11:00 AM

In-Person Event

Join us for a guided tour of the Library Company’s first-floor exhibition galleries. Learn more about the history of the de facto first Library of Congress and oldest colonial cultural institution in the United States. Guests will also learn more about art and artifacts on display in the Logan Room, and as well as hear about the collection materials showcased in our rotating exhibition space.

Space is limited, so please sign up for only one tour time per person. Tickets are available for all First Fridays in May through October.

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Library Company History & Exhibitions Tour

Friday, August 1st at 11:00 AM

In-Person Event

Join us for a guided tour of the Library Company’s first-floor exhibition galleries. Learn more about the history of the de facto first Library of Congress and oldest colonial cultural institution in the United States. Guests will also learn more about art and artifacts on display in the Logan Room, and as well as hear about the collection materials showcased in our rotating exhibition space.

Space is limited, so please sign up for only one tour time per person. Tickets are available for all First Fridays in May through October.

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Library Company History & Exhibitions Tour

Friday, September 5th at 11:00 AM

In-Person Event

Join us for a guided tour of the Library Company’s first-floor exhibition galleries. Learn more about the history of the de facto first Library of Congress and oldest colonial cultural institution in the United States. Guests will also learn more about art and artifacts on display in the Logan Room, and as well as hear about the collection materials showcased in our rotating exhibition space.

Space is limited, so please sign up for only one tour time per person. Tickets are available for all First Fridays in May through October.

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Library Company History & Exhibitions Tour

Friday, October 3rd at 11:00 AM

In-Person Event

Join us for a guided tour of the Library Company’s first-floor exhibition galleries. Learn more about the history of the de facto first Library of Congress and oldest colonial cultural institution in the United States. Guests will also learn more about art and artifacts on display in the Logan Room, and as well as hear about the collection materials showcased in our rotating exhibition space.

Space is limited, so please sign up for only one tour time per person. Tickets are available for all First Fridays in May through October.

REGISTER