Leonard Bernstein

Project Components

Exhibition curation, from concept through opening
Content development for interactive media and films
Grant writing
Object and image research
Public speaking, including media interviews, public programs, and docent training

Curated by Ivy Weingram, the National Museum of American Jewish History (NMAJH) organized the special exhibition, Leonard Bernstein: The Power of Music, which opened on March 16, 2018 in conjunction with Bernstein’s centennial. This exhibition, which premiered in Philadelphia and continues now on a national tour, explores how one of the greatest composers of the 20th century wrote and conducted new music for stage, screen, and orchestra, and how his original works, coupled with his social activism, expressed the restlessness, anxiety, fear, and hope of a generation of Americans living through World War II and the Holocaust, the war in Vietnam, and turbulent social change. It does so by framing Bernstein’s life and work through the lens of his “search for a solution to the 20th-century crisis of faith.” Bernstein considered this the unifying, and perhaps most significant, theme to his body of work. Moreover, Weingram explored how Bernstein’s Jewish heritage, so deeply ingrained in him by his parents and so intricately woven through his life and work, informed his distinctive compositional style and his social justice activism.

Leonard Bernstein: The Power of Music is a 2,400 square-foot exhibition featuring original artifacts, immersive film, listening stations, and interactive technology that, together, emphasize the depth and complexity of Leonard Bernstein the man, the composer, the conductor, and the humanitarian. Based on recent academic scholarship and featuring approximately 100 artifacts that Weingram sourced from public and private collections, it is the first large-scale museum exhibition to illustrate Bernstein’s Jewish heritage and the choices he made as a social activist and path-breaking leader in the arts.

A virtual tour of Leonard Bernstein: The Power of Music can be found here.