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The MFA’s Dutch Masters: Artistic distinctions then and now

The MFA’s Dutch Masters: Artistic distinctions then and now

Diane Kilgore

One way to explain the vision of the Museum of Fine Arts' latest exhibit, Class Distinctions: Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer, is to point to the intellectual feat required to organize so complex a collection. Indeed, it is an impressive tribute to the artistic dexterity of the Dutch Masters. Another way to explain the collection is to emphasize its timeless message.

Matthew Teitelbaum, Director of Boston's MFA since Aug. 3, 2015, introduces Dr. Ronni Baer as the energetic visionary who inspired this collection by saying, "this exhibit is a real feather in her Curatorial cap." Dr. Baer, a specialist in 17th-centruy Dutch and Flemish art, joined the MFA as Senior Curator of paintings in the Art of Europe department in 2000. Five years ago, she began imagining an exhibit contrasting class distinctions. She admits to have surprised herself by how magnificently her efforts and those of her staff took shape in this landmark exhibition dedicated to the examination of social strata in Holland and The Netherlands of the 16th century.

Muslim surveillance lawsuit against NYPD reinstated by federal appeals court
police

Muslim surveillance lawsuit against NYPD reinstated by federal appeals court

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — A federal appeals court on Tuesday reinstated a lawsuit challenging the New York Police Department's surveillance of Muslim groups in New Jersey after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying any resulting harm came from the city's tactics, not the media's reporting of them.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, reversing a judge's decision last year to dismiss the case, found the Muslim plaintiffs raised sufficient allegations of religious-freedom and equal-protection violations and put the case on track for trial. The court compared the spying to other instances of heightened scrutiny of religious and ethnic groups, including Japanese-Americans during World War II.

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