GOOD NEWS ON THE ONTARIO BEACH CAROUSEL PANEL

Posted by [email protected] | Feb 16, 2016 | Social Issues | 0 |

[Rochester Museum and Science Center from Living the Native American way of being at Haudenosaunee Days at the RMSC]

After writing about the Ontario Beach carousel panel, we learned some good news.

A city attorney told us the Rochester Museum & Science Center is stepping forward with a solution to the issue that is just great.

It turns out that the City of Rochester is working with RMSC on a detailed proposal to remove the so-called Pickaninny Panel, to replace it with a new panel that will be designed and painted to match the historic carousel, and to preserve and display the Pickaninny Panel in the RMSC in a way that explains its historical and cultural context.

Fortunately, RMSC has on its staff Lois Shaffer, the Museum’s Deputy Director, Design/ Exhibit Services, to work on this endeavor. Back in 1980, she researched and prepared the application to get the Carousel designated as a City Landmark. Prior to coming to the Museum, she devoted several years of her career to restoring historic carousels at Seabreeze Park, Roseland Park and other venues elsewhere in the U.S. A couple of years ago, she repainted and restored the horses and other animal figures on the Ontario Beach Carousel.

This is good news. Thanks, RMSC for coming through!

The City’s proposal will be reviewed at the next meeting of the City’s Preservation Board, in the City Council Chambers at City Hall at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 2. The public is welcome to review and submit written comments on the proposal prior to the meeting and/or to speak out on the proposal during the hearing itself.

About The Author

[email protected]

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones. So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.