This highly anticipated retrospective traces Dylan's personal and artistic development from his teenage years in Hibbing, Minnesota, to his debut on the national stage of the Greenwich Village folk scene, to his massive fame as one of the first true rock stars and the man who "electrified"Â contemporary songwriting.
The exhibit showcases a blend of more than 150 historic artifacts including handwritten lyrics and letters, instruments, rare memorabilia, and photographs. In addition, the exhibit features four mini-films and a collage of rare, early television and concert film footage. It also includes interviews with Dylan reflecting on this intensely creative period in his early career for the first time on film.
Few musicians in the history of popular music have shaped the face of American music and culture the way that Dylan has. The Weisman showing of Bob Dylan's American Journey, 1956-1966 includes key additions to the exhibit from the musician's home town of Hibbing, Minnesota, and from Dinkytown, the small business district near the University of Minnesota where Robert Zimmerman transformed from a shop keeper's son into "Bob Dylan,"Â folk singer and American icon.
Drawn from the Bob Dylan Archives, EMP's permanent collection, the Smithsonian Museum of American History, The Civil Rights Museum and private collectors, this collection encompasses the release of some of Dylan's seminal albums, including The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Bringing it all Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde. Also available are excerpts from the Dylan documentary Don't Look Back and the unreleased film Eat The Document. Dylan and other key artists sharing stores and insights about folk music and the Sixties. Educational material for teachers is also available.
Weisman Presentation of Exhibition
Additional materials on Dylan's life in Hibbing and Dinkytown will be added to the exhibition at the Weisman.
Among the additional items are:
- A street sign that marked the corner where the Zimmerman family lived in Hibbing
- A movie marqee from the Lybba Theater in Hibbing, owned by Dylan's great-uncle and named after his great-grandmother
- A large snapshot of a 17-year-old Dylan, taken by his mother, proudly posing with his guitar in his Hibbing living room
- The desk on which his high school English teacher B.J. Rolfzen graded thousands of students papers, (one of Robert Zimmerman's term papers on John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, is featured in the EMP show)
- Photograph of the teenage Bobby Zimmerman in his first rock and roll band
- Audio recordings of the young Dylan singing in his Hibbing living room and a segment of a 1960 recording of the singer in a Dinkytown apartment
Exhibition Dates
February 3-April 29, 2007
Preview Party featuring A Night of Music from the North Country
Friday, February 2, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. Celebrating Bob Dylan and Minnesota musicians
- Emcee and finale performer, Paul Metsa, "the pitbull of folk"Â and Iron Range boy
- "Spider"Â John Koerner and Tony "Little Sun"Â Glover, Minneapolis legends of folk and blues
- The Big Ticket, a hip-hop group from Hibbing, Minnesota
- Haley Bonar, sweet sounds of alternative country
- Jessy Greene, violinist extraordinaire with rock and roll attitude $25/$20 WAM members, seniors, and students
This event is open to the public, to reserve tickets call the Weisman's events line at 612-626-4747.
Exhibition Support
Major support for the presentation of Bob Dylan's American Journey, 1956-1966 at the Weisman Art Museum is provided by Target and Ameriprise Financial. Additional program support provided by the University of Minnesota McKnight Fund for the Arts and Humanities Endowment and the Student Activities Office Coca-Cola Community Initiative at the University of Minnesota. Inkind support provided by Tunheim Partners. -- www.weisman.umn.edu
Posted January 19th, 2007 by ruzik_tuzik
