The Originals

Charles City Arts Center Celebrates 55th Anniversary

The Charles City Arts Center 55th Anniversary Reception, 5-7 p.m.

Admission is free to the public

By Kate Hayden | khayden@charlescitypress.com

At the Charles City Arts Center’s 55th anniversary reception tonight, seven of the 38 founding charter members will be gathered back together.

Tracy Sweet, Norma Breitbach, Jean Semelhack, Marge Roberts, Nina Gower and Rhoda McCartney will be honored as the center celebrates the years of classes, open houses and a growing permanent collection, 35 pieces of which will be on display this evening. The show will be on display for three weeks to honor the founders and the art displayed over the center’s history.

“We wanted a range from that timeframe, and for people to see how art has changed,” Arts Center director Jacqueline Davidson said. “People don’t realize that rural areas want to support the arts…Rural people, farmers, small towns love art too. They want to see it and be part of it.”

For longtime patrons, the center is asking for help –– there are a few mysteries on display that the center hasn’t yet identified, Davidson said.

A little girl and her dog sit on display over the fireplace in the south gallery. The oil painting was likely done in the 1850s, making it the oldest painting on display.

“There’s no restoration needs on it whatsoever,” Davidson said. “We’re very proud of it. When we found that, we were ooh’ing and ahh’ing.”

“We’re going to ask people: ‘do you know who donated it?’, because unfortunately records were not kept,” she added. “We have some general information on a lot of the pieces painted locally, but some of them were family heirlooms that were donated to the Arts Center as love.”

The timeframe ranges all the way to 2016, with the newest piece painted in 2016 by Eric Gordon, a longtime volunteer and patron.

“Eric has been coming to the Arts Center since he was a young child to take classes,” Davidson said.

Her personal favorite is a Greek-style tapestry on wool that shows soldiers on chariots.

“It’s a total mystery. We know nothing about it,” Davidson said. “We don’t know where it came from, how it came to us…We all just marveled.”

The center’s records have strengthened and waned over the years, and there’s about five pieces like that with no attached backstory, Davidson said.

Pieces of the permanent collection have been on display before, but these pieces in particular where chosen to show the variety and styles preferred through the years, she said. Twelve pieces on display are from the founding members of the center.

“This one is a little more special,” Davidson said. “We wanted all the original ones. But we wanted to show how they’ve changed throughout sixty, seventy years. Not just the art itself, but people’s vision of art should be in the last seventy years. I think we’ve done that.”

Open Studio 

The Charles City Arts Center will be hosting Open Studio Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., inviting local artists to use the studio space to it’s potential.

For now, artists are asked to bring their own paint or drawing supplies, but the center will consider supplying for artists as it grows. The pottery studio will be open for use as well.

“We would like every Saturday to be an open Saturday for people to come in and talk, have a cup of tea, paint or draw something,” Davidson said.

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