READING, PA .- The Reading Public Museum opened their new exhibition, Backstage Pass: Baron Wolman and the Early Years of Rolling Stone, allowing visitors to explore how photographers and editors of Rolling Stone guided the creation of the “rock star” persona, from concert, to cover, to icon. This exhibit runs from Saturday, January 24, through Sunday, May 10 in the Meinig Family Gallery, and is sponsored locally by Stevens & Lee/Griffin.

Immortalized by writers, filmmakers, and musicians from Stephen King to Dr. Hook, the cover of Rolling Stone magazine has embodied generations of popular culture. Backstage Pass: Baron Wolman and the Early Years of Rolling Stone, explores how the lens of one artist’s camera captured and helped define one of the most important eras in rock and roll history.

Contextualized in 35 framed photographs, contact sheets, and original covers, Backstage Pass presents an intimate view during a crucial period of cultural transformation in American history. Feeding the heightened political and cultural climate of the time, featured artists Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Frank Zappa came to represent generational ideas through music, words, and visual imagery.

Backstage Pass is curated by Ben Ahlvers, gallery director at the Lawrence Arts Center in Lawrence, Kansas and organized by ExhibitsUSA.