MFA Curator to Speak at NBSS

Darcy Kuronen, curator of musical instruments at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston will visit North Bennet Street School, a school that teaches instrument making, on February 20 at 6pm to talk about musical instrument making in Massachusetts at the Windgate Gallery, 150 North Street Boston. The event is free.

Musical instrument making has a long tradition in New England and instruments made by New England craftsman are among the greatest strengths of the musical instrument collection at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. In his talk at North Bennet Street School, Kuronen, presents a survey of early American instruments, with stories about the craftsmen who made them and how they were used during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Kuronen and a violinist will demonstrate two early violins, a guitar, a flageolet and a melodeon from the Museum’s collection.

Kuronen has worked since 1986 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where he is the Pappalardo Curator of Musical Instruments. In 2000, he organized the critically acclaimed exhibition, Dangerous Curves: Art of the Guitar, celebrating the diversity of guitar design over the past four centuries.

Kuronen also serves as volunteer curator to the collection of historical instruments owned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. A specialist in early American instruments, he has written several articles and lectured widely on the subject.

NBSS was founded in 1881 and is located in Boston’s North End. North Bennet Street School (NBSS) offers intensive, hands-on training in traditional trades and fine craftsmanship, helping students achieve meaningful lives and livelihoods. NBSS offers programs and workshops in bookbinding, cabinet and furniture making, carpentry, jewelry making and repair, locksmithing and security technology, piano technology, preservation carpentry and violin making and repair.

For more information about North Bennet Street School, visit nbss.edu or call 617-227-0155, ext. 180.