( Reuters) – It is hard finding a bright side to the museum scene in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, where the Olympic Museum burned down during a 1992-95 siege by Serbian forces and the main national museum closed in 2012 for lack of funds.

But thanks to a grant from the Italian government and a plan by Italian coffeemaker illycaffe to sell designer coffee cups to support the project, there is hope for one man’s vision of creating a modern art museum for a city still suffering the aftershocks of the ethnic conflict of the 1990s.

“That night when the museum was burned down, a spontaneous idea emerged as a reaction to all those religious and ethnic divisions,” said Enver Hadziomerspahic, who directed the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics opening and closing ceremonies.

The idea was “to invite world artists to form a collection of their own future museum of contemporary art which would become a symbol of a new Europe and an expression of international collective will”, he told Reuters in an interview.

Hadziomerspahic lobbied European museums and galleries to take part in the project even while the war, pitting Muslim Bosniaks against Orthodox Christian Serbs and marked by the longest siege in modern history, still raged in Bosnia.

Museums in Milan, Prato, Venice – all in Italy – and Ljubljana and Vienna became partners of his ARS AEVI collection. That helped persuade world-renowned artists such as Michelangelo Pistoletto, Marina Abramovic, Joseph Beuys and Janis Kounelis to donate works for a collection estimated to be worth around 20 million euros ($27 million).

Twenty-two years on, the collection of around 150 works is still homeless because of political bickering in the Balkan country, where rival ethnic elites cannot agree on any nation-wide cultural project.

But a temporary ARS AEVI exhibition depot was opened in Sarajevo in February after the Italian government contributed $1 million through UNESCO.

LIMITED EDITION CUPS

Last Thursday, Trieste-based illycaffe launched a limited edition of its art cups designed for ARS AEVI by Sarajevo-born artist Dean Jokanovic Toumin. The unique lines of cups, designed by top contemporary artists, have been sold around the world.

“The idea is magical, we think we can be the catalyst to bring other people,” Giacomo Biviano, illycaffe’s deputy general manager, told Reuters. “Through this cup we can let other countries know there is this museum in Sarajevo.”

A quotation written on the cups from an 18th century writer, Avigdor Pawsner, could very well apply to artists and cultural institutions in modern-day Sarajevo: “If you are looking for hell, ask the artist where it is. If you don’t find the artist, then you are already in hell.”

The arrival of the first private partner has raised hopes that the collection can find a permanent home in a museum building already designed – but not yet built – by prize-winning Italian architect Renzo Piano.

“We hope and we are working to get more private partners,” said Ruggero Corrias, the Italian ambassador to Bosnia who lured the Italian roaster into the ARS AEVI museum project.

“Our final goal remains to have a sustainable ARS AEVI so we can land into the Renzo Piano museum,” Corrias told Reuters.

With museums in Sarajevo barely surviving, Hadziomerspahic knows he is lucky. The National Museum closed in 2012 because of lack of support from any government institutions. It had survived two world wars and the Bosnian war in the 1990s.

“I am happy and sad at the same time, happy that we are moving forward but sad that Italy, and not our own politicians, should be behind the drive for promoting the project,” Hadziomerspahic said.

($1 = 0.7345 Euros)

(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Zoran Radosavljevic, Michael Roddy and Gareth Jones)

source: http://www.reuters.com / Reuters.com / Home / by Dario Sito-Sucic / Sarajevo, Monday – June 09th, 2014

by Lucielle Salomon

Have you ever been interested on what goes into that morning cup coffee? You can find out tonight at the South Florida Museum in Bradenton.

Coffee has been at the center of our lives for centuries.The South Florida Museum presents “Coffee: The World In Your Cup,” revealing that there is much more in your cup of coffee than you think. Tiffany Birakis, the museum’s curator, shares how one of the world’s most traded products became the American national drink.

“Coffee has impacted the American culture since the Revoution,” she says. “The Boston Tea Party, after that happened, the tax on tea, Americans switched to coffee and we’ve really never looked back.”

She says coffee is often described as work of art. Whether you drink it for a morning energy boost, or simply like the flavor, Birakis says coffee will always be associated with sparking good conversation.

“And especially with coffee, there’s always that aspect of getting together, at a place like a coffee house,” she says. “That’s a social aspect with coffee that I think we’ll never lose.”

The reception starts tonight at 5:30 p.m.

South Florida Museum presents Coffee: The World in Your Cup, an exhibit that tells the story of one of the world’s most widely traded commodities and how it has affected cultures, economies, and environments across the globe. Learn about the impacts of caffeine, the world’s most commonly-used drug, on your body, discover coffee’s early controversial reputation as a “revolutionary drink,” and consider the culture that surrounds coffee in the twenty-first century.

source: http://www.wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu / Wusf News / Home> Culture / by Lucielle Salomon / Thursday – May 29th, 2014

Cat lovers in New York city will soon have the perfect place to grab their coffee, as pet food maker Purina is opening a pop-up cat cafe at 168 Bowery on Thursday, and billing it as America’s first feline coffee shop.

Cat cafes are big in Japan where feline fanatics often have barriers to pet ownership because of building rules or just the small space where they live.

So instead of owning a feline of their own, animal lovers often go to cat cafes to sip their favorite beverage while rubbing paws with cats.

Purina’s cat cafe is set to open on Thursday and run through Sunday, the New York Post reported.wandering freely around the store.

The store will be stocked with cats, all available for adoption through the North Shore Animal League.

The company said it’ll also staff the store with cat experts to answer questions about feline health needs.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Lifestyle? Pets-Environment / ANI / April 23rd, 2014

It used to be that museums were exclusively the purview of dinosaur bones and paintings of old rich dudes. Things have changed, however. Nowadays, there are museums for bad art, tap water and even dog collars. Well, you can add coffee machines to that list.

Introducing the Museum of Coffee Machines, located in Milan, Italy. The whole thing is run by Italian coffee machine manufacturer Gruppo Cimbali and features recreations of the kinds of coffee bars that existed through various decades of the 20th century. For caffeine junkies, this could really hit the spot.

So if you ever find yourself in Italy, forget all of those boring cathedrals and sumptuous meals. Go look at some espresso machines instead!

source: http://www.blog.cookingchanneltv.com / Cooking Chanel / Home> Devours the Blog / by Lawrence Bonk / March 29th, 2014

New exhibit displays artifacts and reproductions of a bygone era.

Although Freeman Store and Museum’s new exhibit, History of the Country Store, opened in early March, Historic Vienna Inc. chose a sunny and warm spring day for its opening reception on April 6. A steady stream of guests filtered through the store and museum examining the artifacts and reproductions on display in the store and upstairs in the museum and parlor. The Freeman Store is listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places.

Abram Lydecker himself, who lives as an HVI historian and reenactor in his alternate ego, greeted guests and shared recollections of the birth of his store just before the Civil War broke out, during the war, and post-war business.

Abram and Susan Lydecker moved from New Jersey with their nine children in 1859, founding the community’s first general store. The store was used as a secession vote polling place on May 23, 1861. Vienna was one of the few precincts in Virginia to vote against secession.

“We just moved here from New Jersey and the village is very small,” said “Lydecker, referring to 1859. ”We don’t have many people living here yet but a lot of new agricultural technology was introduced here in Fairfax County.

“It’s nice for me and my family to have store next to the railroad so we can get goods and ship to people.”

Fairfax County welcomed Northerners as long as they didn’t take Abolitionist stands publicly, Lydecker said.

Ken Liu and his 11-year-old son Jason visited the Freeman Store and Museum during the reception. Jason is earning his Boy Scout Citizenship in the Nation badge and the Vienna family recognized Freeman Store’s historic designation. “We’re losing a lot of the original concepts,” said Jason. “Modern technology can help us do things faster but we shouldn’t forget the original ideas.”

Ken Liu said he was particularly struck by “Lydecker’s” conversations, especially when learning that the federal government suspended the Constitution when they took over the store during the war.

The exhibit, History of the Country Store, runs through the year. Counted among the displays are artifacts from the mid-19th century to the turn of the 20th century and reproductions that replicate goods, from feed and food to dry goods. The checkbook and satchel used by Leon Freeman, whose father Andersen Freeman married Abram Lydecker’s daughter, is displayed. Leon Freeman was the first president of the Vienna Bucket Brigade, the precursor to the Vienna Volunteer Fire Department.

“It’s fun to share the Freeman House as an open house,” said HVI Board member, Dave Shelby, who commented that HVI was pleased with the turnout. “It’s nice to show people what the building originally served as and how the world here used to be.”

Freeman Store and Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 4p.m. There is no admission charge for exhibition. For information on the exhibit or to enquire about Historic Vienna, Inc., go to historicviennainc.org.

–Donna Manz

source: http://www.connectionnewspapers.com / The Connection / Home / Wednesday – April 09th, 2014