Paterson’s Poets: Voices from the Silk City April 1

The Paterson Museum’s next special exhibit will be "Paterson’s Poets: Voices from the Silk City"

(April 1, 2023 - June 24, 2023). 

This exhibition celebrates the work and lives of several poets who lived, worked, and played in Paterson and acknowledges the ongoing role that poetry plays in the culture of the city. 

Maria Mazziotti Gillan will be one of the poets included in this exhibit.

The opening reception for the exhibit is on April 1, 2023, from 1pm-3pm. 

"The Power of Words: Paterson Poetry Past and Present" poetry reading and open mic event will be at 5pm.

The physical exhibit will last three months, but it will continue to have a presence in the Past Exhibitions section of the museum’s website, where all materials will be shared in a digital format.

The Paterson Museum in the Thomas Rogers Building, 2 Market Street, Paterson, is owned and maintained by the City of Paterson. The Museum was organized in 1925. Its first exhibit, displayed in the assembly room of the Danforth Public Library, consisted of natural history objects donated by local residents.

Two years later, the growing collection was moved to the adjacent carriage house of former Mayor Nathan Barnert, and within a few years, its mineral collection was one of the largest in New Jersey. The museum was relocated to the restored Thomas Rogers Locomotive Erecting Shop in 1982, giving visitors the opportunity of viewing a variety of artifacts and exhibits that help tell the industrial history of Paterson.

From its inception, the Paterson Museum has stressed the educational aspects of its interpretive exhibits. A major strength of the museum lies in its varied collections, including local archaeology, history, and mineralogy. Paterson has been a birthplace and springboard to many innovators and inventors. The museum relates to the history of Paterson by showing its evolution as a machinery and textile center, the “Silk City,” locomotive manufacturing, Colt arms, and the unique Holland submarines.

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Maria Mazziotti Gillan's newest poetry collection is When the Stars Were Still Visible (2021). Other recent publications are the poetry and photography collection, Paterson Light and Shadow, and the poetry collections What Blooms in Winter and The Girls in the Chartreuse Jackets, a pairing of her poems with her paintings.
Maria's artist website is MariaMazziottiGillan.com and her poetry website is MariaGillan.com.