Italian American Museum

Italian American Museum Currently closed for major renovations
Expected opening Fall 2022

The Italian American Museum preserves, promotes, and celebrates the culture and history of Italian Americans, serving as living record of their contributions to America and a bridge between the remarkable past and the evolving future of the community.

Vanessa Racci will be performing live this Thursday, February 6, 6:00 - 8:30 pm at Intimissimi in New York City.Click he...
02/04/2025

Vanessa Racci will be performing live this Thursday, February 6, 6:00 - 8:30 pm at Intimissimi in New York City.

Click here for tickets:
https://givebutter.com/MxxA3p

Italian American Museum Founder and President, Dr. Joseph V. Scelsa and other invited guests attend Gov. Kathy Hochul's ...
01/25/2025

Italian American Museum Founder and President, Dr. Joseph V. Scelsa and other invited guests attend Gov. Kathy Hochul's State of the State Address in Albany, NY on January 14, 2025.

Photo 1: Gov. Kathy Hochul delivers 2025 State of the State Address

Photo 2 (left to right): Dr. Joseph V. Scelsa, Founder and President, Italian American Museum; Francesca Galelli, Director of Italian American Affairs, Office of Gov. Kathy Hochul; Thomas Scarangelo, Associate Director of Legislative Affairs, Office of Gov. Kathy Hochul, Amb. Robert G. Fonti, President, Lt. Det. Joseph Petrosino Association in America

Click here for transcript of Gov. Hochul's 2025 State of the State Address:

https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/remarks-prepared-governor-hochul-delivers-2025-state-state-address

Click here to view photos:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/govkathyhochul/albums/72177720323173682/with/54266745883

New York State Attorney General Letitia James visits the Italian American MuseumPictured (left to right): Brian Gonzalez...
01/25/2025

New York State Attorney General Letitia James visits the Italian American Museum

Pictured (left to right): Brian Gonzalez, Digital Media Coordinator, Italian American Museum; Christian Vega, Assistant Archivist, Italian American Museum, Dr. Joseph V. Scela, Founder and President, Italian American Museum; Letitia James, Attorney General of the State of New York; Marie Palladino, Head of Education, Italian American Museum

Museum’s Marionettes Exhibit Brings to Life Renaissance TalesBy Bill Miller / TheTablet.orgLittle Italy - Ascending to a...
01/25/2025

Museum’s Marionettes Exhibit Brings to Life Renaissance Tales

By Bill Miller / TheTablet.org

Little Italy - Ascending to an upper floor of the Italian American Museum’s new building on Mulberry Street brings one face-to-face with the heroes and villains of epic poetry from the Great Renaissance.

Lining the walls are dozens of brightly painted life-size wooden figures - marionettes - most notably Orlando, the chief paladin (or knight) of King Charlemagne. The characters include the treacherous Count Gano, the demonic Nucalone in head-to-toe red, pagan captains, giants, clowns, the fetching Fulbia, and Charlemagne himself.

These marionettes, crafted 100 years ago, dazzled audiences in Little Italy under the direction of master puppeteer Agrippino Manteo from 1923 until 1939.

Now, thanks to his family, “Papa Manteo’s Marionettes” have a new home in the Italian American Museum (IAM) at 151 Mulberry Street - a short walk from its longtime venue at 109 Mulberry.

“This is a tribute to a Sicilian family, the Manteo family, who came here in the early part of the 20th century,” said Joseph Scelsa, IAM’s founder and president. “They had a puppet theater, and they would perform stories, like ‘Orlando Furioso.’”

Scelsa said the acquisition dates back to the 1980s when he befriended Agrippino’s son, Michael, a second-generation puppeteer, who struggled to find suitable storage for the retired marionettes.

“He was looking for one spot,” Scelsa said. “I said, ‘Well, you know, I’m going to build a museum.’ So, he gave me all the puppets that they had left in their collection. I made the promise that I would bring them back to Mulberry Street.

“And that’s why they’re here today.”

Agrippino was born in 1884 in Grammichele, Sicily. Orphaned as a boy, he went to live on his grandmother’s farm but often ran away to escape harsh child labor. Around that time, he discovered “Opera dei Pupi” (opera of the puppets) — an art form that proliferated since the early 1800s in Sicily.

It was “love at first sight,” said Jo Ann Cavallo, author of “The Sicilian Puppet Theater of Agrippino Manteo: The Paladins of France in America.”

Cavallo, who is chair of the Italian Department at Columbia University, described how Agrippino was fascinated by the workings of the ornate, life-size puppets and went backstage to learn more. By age 17, he was an apprentice to his mentor, the renowned puppeteer Giuseppe Crimi.

“The cultural scene at the time was one in which puppet theater was alive, creative, and on par with dramatic theater,” Cavallo told The Tablet. “Agrippino was in the midst of that.”

Opera dei Pupi gained new audiences in Manhattan’s Little Italy, where immigrants worked long hours for low wages to pay rent in dingy tenements. For pennies, they swapped their homesickness for the familiar performances of stories based on Giusto Lodico’s “La Storia de Paladini di Francia” (The History of the Paladins of France).

Agrippino came to New York with his wife and children in 1919, but the puppeteer delayed his New York theater launch until he had built his marionettes and wrote scripts for the performances.

His first venue was at 76 Catherine St., but by 1928, the theater was thriving on Mulberry Street.

Cavallo said the productions were illuminated by thrilling scripts based on Lodico’s “The History of the Paladins of France.” This work was first published in 1858-1860 and updated 1895-1896 by Giuseppe Leggio.

Lodico based his stories on many Renaissance poems, most notably Matteo Maria Boiardo’s “Orlando Innamorato” (1483) and Ludovico Ariosto’s “Orlando Furioso” (1516). The verses relate how the paladin Orlando becomes insane after falling in love with Angelica, the princess of Cathay, but she marries someone else.

Orlando and fellow paladins repel the invasion of Saracen armies ruled by Agramante, king of Biserta in North Africa. Legendary stories about Charlemagne and his paladins were experienced as part of a shared history in France and Italy, Cavallo said.

“After all,” she noted, “as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Charlemagne had presided over an extensive Christian realm to which the various Italian states had belonged.”

Cavallo said some of these stories uniquely appealed to Catholic audiences. “When a hero died,” she explained, “an angel would descend to transport his soul to heaven.”

She also described an episode from “Orlando Innamorato” in which Orlando compassionately assists the 11th-hour conversion of a vanquished foe, the Tartar khan Agricane. The hero baptizes his former enemy, and the dying khan feels “reborn.”

“What a sweet sound I hear, mixed with a celestial melody,” Agricane says. “God, I thank you. My vision is blurred … I’m losing my energy … My strength is failing … God, welcome my soul.” And he dies.

“Agrippino Manteo stages the scene in a way that invites the audience to participate in a liturgical ritual,” Cavallo said. “Without the scripts, there would be beautifully constructed puppets, but no drama.”

Agrippino’s great-grandson, Michael J. Manteo, presided over the transfer of the puppets to the museum. He never met Papa Manteo, but he marveled at his work ethic.

“It was theater by night,” he told The Tablet. “But by day, he had to make money, so he was an electrician. This is why I think, ‘Wow, how were you able to create the stories?’

After an estimated 6,000 daily performances, Agrippino closed the theater in 1939 after the death of his youngest son, Johnny, 18, from tuberculosis. The puppeteer died in 1947.

But the stories hold up, Michael Manteo said, just like the tales of modern “Star Wars” characters or comic book superheroes. “The concept is the same, right? It’s the typical story of good and evil.”

FIERI Scholarship Fund to award scholarships to six deserving Italian American college or university students. Scholarsh...
01/25/2025

FIERI Scholarship Fund to award scholarships to six deserving Italian American college or university students.

Scholarships range from $2,500 to $10,000

Applications must be received by Friday, April 4, 2025

The Fund was established in 1985 to enable and encourage gifted students of Italian American origin to pursue their educational goals and has already provided more than $100,000 to a number of talented young men and women. Our goal is to encourage students and young professionals to continue to promote and preserve the Italian and Italian American heritage and culture through education and networking. Each year, we award students who promote the Italian American heritage while supporting academic excellence. Our annual scholarship ceremony is held at the Bronx Zoo, where we also honor Italian American professionals. Past honorees have included notable leaders such as Justice Antonin Scalia and Honorable Geraldine Ferraro.

Click here for Scholarship application:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSei585FOr1MEARxDSBLskuAYU51NG4tEZ-TJhI4yuFv-Tme3A/viewform?pli=1

Felice Anno Nuovo! The Italian American Museum wishes you and your family a happy and healthy New Year 2025!
01/01/2025

Felice Anno Nuovo! The Italian American Museum wishes you and your family a happy and healthy New Year 2025!

History and Culture Collide at the New Italian American Museum in ManhattanBy Dante A. Ciampaglia / architecturalrecord....
01/01/2025

History and Culture Collide at the New Italian American Museum in Manhattan

By Dante A. Ciampaglia / architecturalrecord.com

Walking down Mulberry Street in New York’s Little Italy can often feel like a contact sport. Locals elbow past tourists, pedestrians duck and dodge al fresco dining tables, gift shops all but assault you with racks of kitschy souvenirs. Heaven help you during the annual San Gennaro Festival.

When you reach the intersection of Mulberry and Grand Streets, however, you encounter the Grand Mulberry, a seven-story residential building designed by Morris Adjmi Architects with its distinctive facade of custom-formed dome bricks. On the Mulberry side of the building, set back from the sidewalk, is a triangle of refuge from the neighborhood hubbub that serves as the threshold of the new Italian American Museum.

In October, the 24-year-old institution opened its op.Architecture + Landscape (op.AL)–designed space inside the Grand Mulberry. With its 6,500 square feet and four levels, two of them subterranean, it’s unlike anything else in Little Italy and an undeniable upgrade from the museum’s previous digs. From 2006–2017, the museum was a Little Italy mainstay, but its improvisational nature gave it a scrappy, somewhat transient feel. It occupied a former bank and barber shop on the ground floors of two adjoining buildings on the site of what is now the Grand Mulberry. When they were torn down for that redevelopment, leadership had an opportunity to build a more spacious, permanent home.

“We approached the project from the perspective of bringing the museum to a space of modernity,” says Jonathan A. Scelsa, founding partner of Brooklyn-based op.AL. “We were interested in giving them a very clean and contemporary backdrop where the art and historic artifacts could speak for themselves.”

The two basement levels will host permanent exhibitions dedicated to Italian American history from the 19th to 21st centuries, with a flexible 48-seat auditorium on the second subfloor. (These galleries won’t be fully installed and accessible to the public until June 2025.) The museum’s ground-level serves as the reception area and atrium, with a long wall that can be used as display space and an open stair leading to the special exhibits gallery above that is currently open to the public. Connecting these spaces is a conical light well that accentuates the verticality of the museum while bringing natural and artificial light into the below-ground galleries.

But the show starts on the sidewalk. The first encounter with the museum is a double-height storefront clad in perforated steel that’s tilted inward from the street and offers a sleek contrast to Adjmi’s equally distinct red-brick facade. A large arched window to the left of the entrance is oriented toward the intersection of Mulberry and Grand, giving visitors and passersby a way to connect with and consider the historic heart of Little Italy before and after entering the museum. This approach, present in the earliest stages of design, was all about creating a sense of arrival, and, Scelsa says, it was one enthusiastically embraced by Adjmi and the institution.

“The museum team wanted to make a statement and were excited about maintaining its adjacency to the district while ensuring the project gave them a presence, both on the exterior in terms of how to grab attention but also in a way that it celebrated the spatial experience as much as the artwork,” Scelsa says. “I think it’s also a stewardship, where the museum is somewhat giving space back to the public.”

While programming won’t be fully online until the spring, its new space has already achieved some of what museum leadership - and architect - hoped. People hustling down Mulberry slow down and gawk, taking a step or two off the sidewalk into the triangle created by the facade to consider the unexpected gray steel popping out of the larger building’s nubby brickwork; the plaster statue of a seated seamstress holding an invisible thread in the arched window; the white atrium wall and red reception area just beyond the front doors. Some enter to ask what this place is and resolve to return when everything is installed; a few stay to see the small army of historic, four-foot-tall Sicilian marionettes created by the Manteo family on view in the upstairs gallery.

Or they may just stop under the museum’s entry canopy, catch their breath, and let the experience of Little Italy wash over them - enjoying a moment of respite among the neighborhood’s lively carnival atmosphere.

Credits:

Design and executive architect: op.Architecture Landscape PLLC (Jonathan A. Scelsa, Jennifer Birkeland, Andy Kim, Massi Surrat,Evan Craker, Liz Bobyr, Yarzar Hlaing, Ilya Chistiakov)

Client: Italian American Museum of New York

M/E/P/S engineer: ABS Engineering (Alex Schwartz, Brian Barkowitz, Jason Driggs)

Construction documentation consultant: Jason Little Architect (Jason Little)

Lighting consultant: Focus Lighting (Ryan Fischer, Christine Hope)

Code and zoning consultants: JMZoning (Howard Ackerman, Julian Wilson)

IA branding + Logo Design: karlssonwilker, inc (Hjalti Karlsson, Jan Wilker)

Photography: ESTO Group (Sahar Coston-Hardy, Michael Vahrenwald)

Buon Natale! The Italian American Museum wishes you and your family a Merry Christmas.
12/24/2024

Buon Natale! The Italian American Museum wishes you and your family a Merry Christmas.

You are cordially invited you to attend "Italian Emigration Between the 19th and 20th Centuries: The Carovilli Case", a ...
12/21/2024

You are cordially invited you to attend "Italian Emigration Between the 19th and 20th Centuries: The Carovilli Case", a power point presentation by Italian Historian Pina Mafodda on Thursday, December 26th, 6:00 pm at the the Italian American Museum.

Italian historian Pina Mafodda has done extensive research on Italian emigration to America between the end of the 19th century and the middle of the 20th century. Her book is a collection of several interviews conducted with third and fourth generation descendants who have preserved documents and letters from their ancestors. The descendants have also preserved the memory of their stories passed down orally from parents to children.

Her power point presentation will combine reliable data with intimate family stories to provide a unique analysis of the Italian emigration to America between the 19th and 20th Centuries. A question and answer session will follow the presentation.

Thursday, December 26th, 6:00 pm

Suggested donation of $15 per person

Italian American Museum
151 Mulberry Street
New York, NY 10013

Click here for tickets:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/italian-emigration-between-the-19th-and-20th-centuries-tickets-1119469727089?aff=oddtdtcreator

The opening presentation of the Presepe Napoletano (Neapolitan Style Nativity Scene) takes place on Sunday, December 15,...
12/12/2024

The opening presentation of the Presepe Napoletano (Neapolitan Style Nativity Scene) takes place on Sunday, December 15, 2024, 12:00 pm at The Basilica of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral in Little Italy, NY. The Mass will be in Italian and after Mass, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York will bless the Presepe (Nativity Scene) and the Bambinelli (statues of the Baby Jesus). The Presepe comes from The Basilica di Santa Maria (Church of the Artists) in Rome, Italy.

Join Award-winning Singer/PBS-TV host for Andrea Bocelli, Cristina Fontanelli, in Greenwich Village NYC on Sunday, Decem...
12/12/2024

Join Award-winning Singer/PBS-TV host for Andrea Bocelli, Cristina Fontanelli, in Greenwich Village NYC on Sunday, December 15th for this beloved annual (21 years!) charitable concert event. Cristina will be joined on stage by a wonderful guest tenor, children/youth choir, dancers, mandolins, guitar, accordion, piano and organ. Bring "tutta la famiglia" and create happy family Christmastime memories while enjoying the most loved songs of Italy and the greatest songs of Christmas taking place in the historic oldest Italian Parish in the United States of America, St. Anthony of Padua church.

Songs include Torna a Surriento, O Sole Mio, Mamma, the traditional Italian Christmas carol "Tu scendi dalle stelle", White Christmas and many more that will bring a smile to your face and warmth in your heart.

10% of your ticket will go directly to children's causes. Produced by the 501 c-3 charitable organization, The Cristina Fontanelli Foundation.

Wheelchair accessible - elevator on West Houston side of St. Anthony Church.

Click here for tickets:

General Seating - First-come, first served guaranteed in the first 5 rows. You will love this concert/event that has been running 21 years!  And we will love having you with us!  Please spread the word to your friends and family members.  Perhaps consider purchasing tickets for Christmas presents...

CAPODANNO IN ALLEGRIA - a fund raising concert for I Giullari di PiazzaJoin us on SATURDAY DECEMBER 28th at 3:00pm EST a...
12/10/2024

CAPODANNO IN ALLEGRIA - a fund raising concert for I Giullari di Piazza

Join us on SATURDAY DECEMBER 28th at 3:00pm EST at the Italian American Museum for a Special Holiday & New Year Celebration Italian Style! With " CAPODANNO IN ALLEGRIA " a fund raising concert featuring JOYOUS TARANTELLA & ITALIAN CHRISTMAS MUSIC from the show LA CANTATA DEI PASTORI.

Join us on SATURDAY DECEMBER 28th at 3:00pm EST at the Italian American Museum for a Special Holiday & New Year Celebration...

The Italian American Museum wishes you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving!
11/28/2024

The Italian American Museum wishes you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving!

You are cordially invited to attend a Book Presentation and Talk byDr. Jo Ann Cavallo on Thursday, December 5th, 6:00 pm...
11/27/2024

You are cordially invited to attend a Book Presentation and Talk by
Dr. Jo Ann Cavallo on Thursday, December 5th, 6:00 pm at the Italian American Museum. Dr. Cavallo will discuss her book, "The Sicilian Puppet Theater of Agrippino Manteo (1884-1947): The Paladins of France in America". For reservations please send an email to [email protected]

Jo Ann Cavallo’s book reconstructs the history of the Manteo Family's Sicilian Marionette Theater across three generations and brings to light for the first time the contents of Agrippino Manteo’s extensive puppet theater scripts. In addition to 270 translated synopses of plays from the famous Paladins of France cycle, the volume provides translations of 8 complete plays with comparative analyses that uncover the creative process of adaptation from Italian Renaissance masterpieces of chivalric poetry (Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato and Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso), to Giusto Lodico’s nineteenth-century Storia dei paladini di Francia, to Agrippino’s Opera dei Pupi scripts. Professor Cavallo’s talk will present highlights from the family’s trajectory as puppeteers and examples of Agrippino Manteo’s craft as a playwright.

Jo Ann Cavallo, Professor of Italian and Chair of the Italian Department at Columbia University, specializes in Italian Renaissance epics and their adaptation in popular performance traditions.

Thursday, December 5th, 6:00 pm

Suggested donation of $15 per person

Italian American Museum

151 Mulberry Street

New York, NY 10013

For reservations, please send an email to [email protected]

Birdland and the Tin Pan Alley American Popular Music Project present Vanessa Racci and Robert Lamont in HARRY WARREN: F...
11/27/2024

Birdland and the Tin Pan Alley American Popular Music Project present Vanessa Racci and Robert Lamont in HARRY WARREN: FROM TIN PAN ALLEY TO HOLLYWOOD, a celebration of the songs of Harry Warren on Tuesday, December 3 at 5:30 PM.

Born in Brooklyn as Salvatore Antonio Guaragna, Harry Warren (1893-1981) is one of the greatest composers to emerge from Tin Pan Alley, his compositions forming a core of the American Songbook. He is also the most important Italian-American composer of popular song in the 20th century.

Jazz singer Vanessa Racci and music educator and performer, Robert Lamont will perform a compilation of Harry Warren songs paired with "edutaining" anecdotes and classic movie footage. The musical highlights from Harry Warren’s illustrious career, include his work on Tin Pan Alley and moving through Warren’s movie hits at four major Hollywood studios.

Click here for tickets:
https://www.ticketweb.com/event/vanessa-racci-robert-lamont-birdland-theater-tickets/13634344?REFID=clientsitewp

The Premio Mondi Lucani award was presented to Dr. Joseph V. Scelsa as part of the promotional event “Basilicata: a wond...
11/05/2024

The Premio Mondi Lucani award was presented to Dr. Joseph V. Scelsa as part of the promotional event “Basilicata: a wonderful land,” organized by Mondi Lucani in collaboration with the American foundation. On October 18th, 2024.

Con la seconda edizione di “Basilicata: a wonderful land”, l’Associazione Mondi Lucani ha portato le bellezze della Basilicata nella Columbus Citizens Founda...

A Proclamation on Columbus Day, 2024 from The White House.
10/29/2024

A Proclamation on Columbus Day, 2024 from The White House.

     Today, we celebrate the proud heritage of Italian Americans in our Nation, whose contributions and character have shaped our country's

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151 Mulberry Street
New York, NY
10013

Opening Hours

Thursday 12pm - 5pm
Friday 12pm - 5pm
Saturday 12pm - 5pm

Telephone

+1 212-965-9000

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The Italian American Museum is undergoing major reconstruction. The new building is expected to be complete by Spring 2021. Please visit our page and website (www.ItalianAmericanMuseum.org) for updates and upcoming events.