Join us at ARAS for a very special screening of HIDDEN TREASURES: Stories from a Great Museum.

The film will be followed by a question and answer session with the director of the film, Alexandra Isles and some of the films participants and a wine and cheese reception.

This is all in support of a great cause! All proceeds will benefit Pioneer Teens, a program for high-school students that focuses on deepening the relationship to art and image. To see more about the program you will help fund click here.

This program is dedicated to the memory of Jungian analyst, Armin Wanner (1938-2011) Diplomate of the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich and long-time faculty of the New York Jung Institute and the Jung Foundation.

The art and symbols that capture our attention and draw us in are what psychologist C.G. Jung might call the mysterium fascinosum (seductive mystery). We each have our favorite images, whether it be St. George slaying a dragon, Mickey Mouse brandishing a top hat, or a winged Nike. These images each call out to us differently and illuminate our lives with their archetypal energy. You are invited to support the educational outreach of ARAS (Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism) a unique archive of over 18,000 images and archetypal commentaries spanning human eras and cultures.

Film Synopsis:

Every year millions of people visit the Metropolitan Museum, but how many are able to find the secrets and powers hidden in the works of art? Museum staff, who spend their days, and sometimes their nights, restoring, guarding, moving, cleaning and teaching about the art, reveal some of the magic they have discovered. Their stories include a wish-granting statue, a sword with a secret compartment, a time traveling melody, a portrait that has become a trusted mentor, a famous landscape with an unexpected population, and rooms and objects that brought joy to a dying woman. View the trailer here.

The Filmmaker:

Alexandra Moltke Isles grew up in New York where her father was a permanent member of the Danish Mission to the United Nations and her mother was an editor at Vogue magazine. As a child she hated school but always had her nose in a book. Growing up as a U.N. brat honed her sensitivity to injustice and a theme running through all her work is social justice and dignity for the outsider. Her historical documentaries are as notable for the memorable personalities interviewed as they are for the richness of the archival material. Isles’ passion for research was developed during her years as a Researcher and then Assistant Curator at New York’s Museum of Radio & Television, now the Paley Center of Media. Her previous films are The Power of Conscience: The Danish Resistance and Rescue of the Jews (1995); Scandalize My Name (1999) about the black listing of African-American performers during the Red Scare; Porraimos: Europe's Gypsies in the Holocaust (2002); The Healing Gardens of New York (2007); and Hidden Treasures: Stories from a Great Museum (2011). Isles has also been an interviewer for Stephen Spielberg’s Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Project and an ESL tutor at the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture. Since the making of this film her passion has led her to become a docent at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.