Special exhibit celebrates museum’s 85th anniversary
Kaname Takada’s clay pot with lid that is based on the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum’s Chinese Temple Bell is just one of 30 new works of art displayed in the museum’s Grafted to the Past exhibit. Josie Sellers | Beacon
COSHOCTON – The Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum is marking its 85th anniversary by celebrating the past and the present with its Grafted to the Past exhibit.
“We asked artist to be inspired by some piece at the museum and create a new one based on it,” said Patti Malenke, director of the museum. “We did this 10 years ago for our 75th and it was really fabulous.”
One of Malenke’s favorites is the clay pot with lid created by Kaname Takada of Columbus. He came and walked the museum with his wife and was inspired by the bronze Chinese Temple Bell from the 18th century.
Some of the artists even chose to create multiple pieces for the exhibit.
“Carolyn Mann, who is a quilter, did four pieces for us,” Malenke said.
One of her creations is a fabric wall hanging based on the Rothenstein Cache. The 330 blades were found mostly intact in Coshocton near the hospital. The artist statement with this piece explains that Native Americans would make a rough shape and the flint knapper prepared the flint into its final form.
“She (Mann) did her hanging on the feelings and colors of that exhibit,” Malenke said.
Two other artists featured in the exhibit are Patti’s husband Todd and her son Nate.
“Todd loves this Korean rice bowl that was mended with gold,” Patti said. “It seems like there was value to something that was old and it was more precious the older it got.”
He honored the piece by creating a new steel and bronze bowl that is on display next to the knives that Nate made for the exhibit.
“Nate had been coming here since he was a boy and always loved the samurai swords,” Patti said. “He used the same techniques that created them to make kitchen knives.”
Curt Derby, who made a piece based on advertising art, was once connected to the museum.
“His spouse was the director before me and he worked at Shaw Barton and JII,” Patti said. “He worked in printing for 60 years so he drew his inspiration from our printing press. We couldn’t bring that upstairs so we brought up advertising art pieces to display with it.”
There are 30 new works of art on display in the exhibit alongside the pieces that inspired them and Patti said the artists who made them were all connected to the museum in some way.
“Most of them we knew personally or they had shown here before and we know they knew our collection,” she said. “Some chose a piece to directly base their work on and some based it on a feeling the museum gave them.”
Artists with work on display in the exhibit are: Douglas Anderson, Lon Baker, Jennifer Bush, Nate Cotterman, Kristen Dennison, Curt Derby, Ernest Galajda, Rachel Jane Hall, Jill Jones, John Lefelhocz, Megan Lightell, Carolyn Mann, Ken McCollum, Nate Malenke, Todd Malenke, Helen Moody, Joan Staufer, Yan Sun, Kaname Takada, Sumiko Takada, Kristi Timmons, Esther Marie Versch, and Hong Yin. Holli Rainwater and Julie Warther contributed Haikus to the exhibit and there is a display of paperwork highlighting the museum’s history.
“There are newspaper articles, the Johnson brothers’ purchasing inventories and some attendance books and admission records,” Patti said. “It’s fun to see what was happening 70 to 80 years ago.”
Grafted to the Past will be displayed through July 31 at the museum located at 300 N. Whitewoman St. Museum hours are noon to 5 p.m. daily through October. For information, call the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum at 740-622-8710 or e-mail at jhmuseum@jhmuseum.org.
Category: Arts & Entertainment, Multimedia, Photo Galleries
