AREA NEWSThe Northern Westchester Examiner

‘Time to Celebrate’ at the Yorktown Museum

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Carole and Neal Pruzan created vignette displays out of old clocks, which are the cornerstone of the “Time to Celebrate” exhibit now open at the Yorktown Museum.
Carole and Neal Pruzan created vignette displays out of old clocks, which are the cornerstone of the “Time to Celebrate” exhibit now open at the Yorktown Museum.

The Yorktown Museum is a treasure to the community and its newest exhibit “Time to Celebrate” is a potpourri of many wishes and dreams that all fit in old clock cases.

A series of vignettes enclosed in old clock cases, created by Carole and Neal Pruzan, that represent venues and holiday memories, are on display in the main hallway. Additional shadowbox vignettes created by the Pruzana are showcased in the Marjorie Johnson Room of miniatures.

“I was a middle school art teacher for many years and several times a year I would bring in doll houses and I would be amazed how the students would love to play with the stuff inside,” Carole Pruzan said. “When I retired I needed an avenue for my creativity and this was perfect. You have to cut. You have to paste. You have to paint. You have to plan and design which are really the most important things.”

To Pruzan each clock is a muse and it inspires her as to what she will put inside it.

Nancy Augustowski, archivist at Yorktown Museum, then used the clock vignettes as the centerpiece of each display in the “Time to Celebrate” exhibit.

“I tried to make it so that the other objects in the display would relate to the scene in the clock,” Augustowski said. “We have a display that is all about music and another one that is just about cookies.”

The pieces that she uses have been donated to the museum, mostly by residents, through the years. To bring out the festive spirit of the holidays, Augustowski also placed classic Christmas storybooks throughout the exhibit.

“Time to Celebrate” is on display until the end of February.

In addition to the exhibit, visitors can view the permanent museum showcases. In the Woodlands Room you can learn about Westchester’s first inhabitants, the Mohegan Indians. Then in the Arthur C. Lee Room discover the farming tools that were once used in the region while one can see what a two room home of the 1750s-1850s would look like in the Sylia Thorne Rooms.

A HO scale model train layout of the Yorktown Depot area circa 1950 in the Bob McKeand Room is a favorite of railroad enthusiasts young and old.

The library also provides resource material for delving into genealogy, local area history and antiques. The map collections as well as old records and documents are available in the Doris and Cortland Auser Research Room for study and research.

The museum is located on the third floor of Yorktown Community and Cultural Center, located at 1974 Commerce Street, Yorktown Heights.

It is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Saturdays from 1 to 4 p.m.

For more information, call 914-962-2970 or email museum@yorktownny.org.

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