(pictured left to right)Michael O’Connell, Margaret Ryan and Evelyn Battinelli, ~Photo by Bobbie Toner The Somerville Museum

By Cathleen Twardzik

Do you enjoy exploring museums? If so, try looking around the Somerville Museum, where "The Art of Mosaic," is being shown until the end of the month. "Mosaic Voices" will grace the museum from November 5 to December 13.

Evelyn Battinelli, executive director of the museum, has called the exhibit "the most attended and most exciting that we've ever done."

"I think people had never seen an all-mosaic exhibit," Guest Curator Margaret Ryan said. "The museum is the best place to exhibit mosaics because of the large two story front gallery with all kinds of natural light. This particular art soars in there."

Despite the exhibit's popularity, Battinelli said many don't know the museum exists.

"(Some) refer to it as the historical society," she said, noting they're partially correct: the nearly hundred-year-old historical society reorganized as a museum in 1986.

Michael O'Connell has served as director of exhibitions since the museum's founding, with help from volunteers Tom Lane and Tom Battinelli, Evelyn's husband.

"Initially the Museum's stated goal was to serve as a mirror reflecting Somerville's rich historical past and diverse cultural present," according to the museum's mission statement. After having reopened, that concept expanded, and arts and cultural programs were incorporated.

The historical section of the museum truly shone, "When we did the "Lost Theatres of Somerville," said Battinelli, the basic theme of an "urban community building" blossomed, where cabarets, plays and poetry readings have all been staged.

Upcoming events include an art and craft fair the first weekend in December. During the first weekend of May, the museum will host a preview for Somerville Open Studios, which they have hosted for 10 years.

For more information on the museum's schedule, go to www.somervillemuseum.org.