For decades the movie theater and drive‐in has played an important
role in the fabric of American life. Sensing years ago that these pieces of American social history wouldbe lost forever; photographer Stefanie Klavens began her quest to capture them permanently on film.
“Celluloid Dreams: America’s Vanishing Movie Palaces & Drive‐In Theaters” is a photographic journey of palaces that have survived and thrived as well as those that have faded into oblivion.
Klavens began her artistic obsession for old movie theaters on the boardwalk in Ocean City, New Jersey in 1987, when the Strand Theater, with its neon lights shining at night caught her attention. Then a student at the Museum School in Boston, she captured the image as part of a student project – a photographic exploration into Americana. “I was glad I got that shot,” says Klavens. “The Strand still
stands, but has lost its former glory.”
Her fascination for the subject matter never left and this one‐woman show features, among others, the Somerville (MA) theater, the last of the city’s original 14 movie houses, the Bruin Theater in Los Angeles
nd drive‐in theaters across the country, both those still in operation and those that have been closed and abandoned, their screens now blank and parking lots empty.
Klavens work has been exhibited at the Photographic Resource Center, the Boston Center for the Arts, the Judi Rotenberg Gallery, the Danforth Museum and will be featured at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, Massachusetts this fall.
Klavens holds a BFA and Post‐Baccalaureate Certificate from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, has received numerous grants and awards. She has taught at The New England Institute of Art.
“Celluloid Dreams” will be on display at The Gallery on the Plaza at The New England Institute of Art, 10Brookline Place West in Brookline Village from June 2 – July 20, with an artist reception on Thursday, June 11 from 6 – 8 PM.
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