Brauer Museum of Art

In the Brauer Museum of Art’s Education Room:

Potters of Antiquity: Bronze Age Pottery from the Dead Sea Plain

Curated by Jonathan Eaton (VU 2009)

April 1 – May 17, 2009

Opening Reception: Wednesday, April 8, 7 pm

More than five thousand years ago, some of the earliest settlements in ancient Palestine were established in an area south of the Dead Sea known as the Dead Sea Plain. Thirty-four years ago, Valparaiso University Professor Walter E. Rast set out as co-director of the Expedition to the Dead Sea Plain to unearth the secrets of the ancient civilizations of the Levant. A gift of the government of Jordan allowed some of the pottery and other artifacts excavated by Professor Rast and his team to make their way to VU, specifically to the museum’s permanent collection. Now, for the first time, fifteen of these pieces are on display at the Brauer Museum of Art.

Exhibition curator Jonathan Eaton first discovered these ancient treasures while interning at the Brauer last spring. At that point, he had just returned from a semester abroad in England, a trip that had given him ample opportunity to tour classical archaeological sites in Italy and Greece. With Greek and Latin language classes fully underway, Eaton’s interest in ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern art and culture was awakened. As a history major with a particular appreciation for material culture, he leapt at the chance to work closely with these artifacts in a meaningful way and within a museum setting.

We at the Brauer Museum of Art are pleased to have two fine judges

for this year’s Secondary School Showcase exhibition.  This

exhibition will run from April 1st through April 19th, with an

opening reception and award ceremony in the museum on Wednesday,

April 1st at 6 pm.  The exhibition, opening reception, and award

ceremony are free and open to the public, and the judges will be

present to give awards and comment on their selections.

Here are biographies of our two judges, Carole Stodder and Tom Brand.

Carole Stodder was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  She came to the

Chicago area to attend Lake Forest College where she graduated with

honors in art.  She continued her art studies with New York artist/

teacher Will Barnet in advanced painting at the University of

Minnesota, Duluth.  This experience continues to inform her approach

to art to this day.  In Chicago she taught art at the University of

Chicago Laboratory School and earned her Master of Fine Arts degree

at the Midway Studios at the University of Chicago.

As an arts activist in the 70s, she was a founding member of the

Chicago Artists’ Coalition and served as chairperson of its board.

She wrote for the New Art Examiner and was editor of the Chicago

Artists’ News.  During these years, she continued to paint and

exhibit and established a studio on Chicago’s west side.

In more recent years, she worked as assistant administrator of the

Illinois Artisans Program, a state program for artists.  In 1996 she

moved to Indiana.  She has been active at the Lubeznik Center for the

Arts and in the Area Artists Association.  Currently she maintains a

studio at her residence in the town of Pines.  Carole Stodder is an

award-winning artist who has exhibited widely.  Her work is in both

private and public collections.

Tom Brand has been a part of the arts community for more than

thirty years.  Born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, Brand came

to Chicago (after service in the U.S. Navy) to study art and painting

at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

In the years following, he married and provided for his family by

working as a journeyman printer, a trade he had first learned in his

father’s business in Indianapolis.  As president of his own printing

company in Chicago, he produced posters and comic books for the

“Hairy Who” as well as catalogues for other Chicago artists.  He

curated exhibits for the Beacon Street Hull House Art Center in

Chicago and showed in community exhibits.  As an arts activist in

Chicago, he is one of the founding members of the Chicago Artists’

Coalition in 1974, an organization that still exists today.

Brand moved to Northern Indiana in 1996.  He became active in what

is now known as the Lubeznik Center for the Arts in Michigan City,

Indiana.  He was chairman of the Area Artists Association.  He was

also the secretary to the board and also the chairman of the

Collections Committee.  Brand, as a prolific painter, exhibits often,

and his works have won awards and are in many private collections.

The Christopher Railroad China Collection: The Art of Dining on Rails, December 13, 2008 – March 22, 2009

Coffee Hour with Railroad China Collector Jay Christopher

Tuesday, February 17, 2009, 7 pm, Duesenberg Recital Hall, Valparaiso Center for the Arts

Mr. Christopher will talk at this program about the assembling of his collection and his fond memories of dining on rails. He will be accompanied by exhibition and collection curator Erika Lusthoff who will talk about her experiences in seeing the collection grow and working on a large scale public exhibition of this work.

Lecture with Railroad China Expert Richard Luckin

Wednesday, February 18, 2009, 7 pm, Duesenberg Recital Hall, Valparaiso University Center for the Arts

Historian, documentarian, and railroad china expert Richard Luckin, author of the important reference work Dining on Rails: An Encyclopedia of Railroad China, will give an overview of dining car history and the fine china used on board the railroads. Referring to his vast experience of studying these topics, Luckin will give insight into the elegant dining experiences once enjoyed on American passenger trains.

Family Day with Performers Peter and Bonnie Hansen

Saturday, February 21, 2009, 2 pm, Duesenberg Recital Hall, Valparaiso University Center for the Arts

From 12 pm to 5 pm on the 21st, parents and children can work on fun activities available at the museum attendant desk, with tables and chairs in the lobby outside the museum for children to use to work on these activities. Snacks will be available for visitors to enjoy. At 2 pm, families can go across the lobby to see a program by performers and railroad historians Peter and Bonnie Hansen, who will present a program with costumes and visuals that chronicles the history and fascinating story of Fred Harvey and the Harvey Girls, individuals who brought style and luxury to dining on rails through the American West.

All events and activities are free and open to the public. No reservations are required.

On Wednesday, January 28 at 7 pm in the museum, the Brauer Museum of Art presents a free public Gallery Talk by Charles G. Kratz, Jr. Kratz is the author of American Railroad China: Image and Experience, the book accompanying the Christopher railroad china exhibition. A former railroad museum director, Kratz now works as a statistical consultant and a lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the school’s visual communications department.  For his Gallery Talk, Kratz will focus on five designers who designed corporate materials, including china patterns, for major American railroads. The designers George Pullman, Mary Elizabeth Colter, Olive W. Dennis, Raymond Loewy, and Henry Dreyfuss are all respected figures whose individual stories figure into the overall history of dining on rails. Through his discussion of their careers and contributions, Kratz will offer even more context for the elegant experience of dining in style on board classic dining cars.

We at the Brauer Museum of Art hope you will be able to attend this program with a noted authority on the history of dining car china design.

This free program is open to the public. For more information about his exhibition and other events, please visit the website www.valpo.edu/artmuseum or call (219) 464-5048.

The Christopher Railroad China Collection grew from Christopher’s personal passion for riding on trains as a child with his family. The collection began in 1990, when he received as a gift a plate that was used in a railroad dining car. Mr. Christopher will speak about his fond memories of riding the rails and dining in the elegant dining cars. Come early to the Coffee Hour so you may walk through the exhibition and see a variety of china designs and patterns that represent the various railroads and their characteristics. While viewing the exhibition you will also see railroad menus, tickets, linens, photos, prints, and videos.

This free program is open to the public. For more information about this exhibition and other events related to it, please visit the website www.valpo.edu/artmuseum or call (219) 464-5048.

The Brauer Museum of Art is fast into its 2008-2009 exhibition season.  The Opening Reception on September 5 was well attended as featured artist Joel Sheesley greeted guests as they viewed his exhibition entitled Domestic Vision: Twenty-Five Years of the Art of Joel Sheesley.  In this exhibition, nearly life sized paintings grace the walls of the Brauer Museum’s West Gallery, Wehling Gallery, and Mc Gill Gallery, while the artist’s latest paintings of puddles can be found in Gallery 1212.

Coming up on Wednesday, September 24 at 7 pm, visitors to the museum can enjoy a free Gallery Talk with Joel Sheesley, where the artist talks about his methods and sources of inspiration for his paintings.

On Wednesday, November 5 at 7 pm, Joel Sheesley will be our guest for a free Student Coffee Hour, a program designed for VU students but also open to the public to attend.

In the Brauer’s Education Room and Gallery 1214 is an exhibition entitled Encounters/Encuentros: Tradition and Innovation in the Art of Spain and Latin America.  I think you will find this hand picked selection of pieces from the museum’s permanent collection to be quite enlightening.  One of my favorite pieces in this exhibition is the Mexican retablo.  On Wednesday, October 1 at 7 pm, you are invited to the free Student Coffee Hour with VU Foreign Language Professors Stay Hoult-Saros and Carlos Miguel-Pueyo.  The two of them will give historical and cultural background for the pieces on display.

Don’t forget: If you are a teacher or an education student, we are hosting a free Teacher Workshop on Wednesday, October 7, from 9 to 11am.  Teachers are already calling to make their reservations, so if you are interested please call 464-5048 as soon as possible to make a reservation.

We hope your year is off to a great start, and please watch for more information as the year goes on.

La Donna Trapp, Preparator and Adminstrator Assitant

You are invited to attend the VU Art Student Exhibition Opening Reception Wednesday, April 24 at 7 pm in the Brauer Museum of Art.

Various selected works from VU art students are now on display. The media include video art, graphic design, painting, drawing, photography, and sculpture.

Kimberly Sienkiewicz and Brian Morfitt will exhibit their final works as Bachelor of Science in Fine Arts students.  You are invited to attend the opening reception for this  exhibition on Thursday, April 24, at 7 pm.

Both exhibitions will be on display through May 11, 2008.

Here are brief biographies for our judges for this year’s Secondary School Showcase. We at the Brauer Museum are pleased to work with such accomplished artists.

Predominantly a landscape painter for more than twenty years, Ron Wennekes has gathered material for his work from every place that he has had the privilege to experience or imagine. The discipline of working from life for years has facilitated his working from within the realm of imagination and memory.

Searching for the abstract in nature, Ron works intuitively even when working on location. “I look at my work as abstractions sublimated by imagery, just as there is an abstract energetic or spiritual anatomy underlying everything we see in our world.”

Based in Beverly Shores, Wennekes has exhibited his art in the broader Chicago area since 1980. His work has been juried into national and international exhibitions and won numerous awards.

Ron studied painting at the American Academy of Art in Chicago and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Oxbow school in Saugutuck, Michigan. He studied sculpture at the NaGuib School of Sculpture in Beverly Shores, Indiana, formerly an affiliate of Louis University. He has worked as a commercial sculptor in the Chicago area and is an accomplished illustrator as well.

Living and working in a community nestled in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore some fifty miles outside of Chicago lends Valerie Taglieri the opportunity to observe cycles in nature interfaced with the presence of man. Valerie takes these observations and translates them into images that hover between the abstract and the representational. Whether it is in her paintings or installations, her imagery reveals this dual space of the real and non-real, the tangible and intangible.

“My work is of sacred moments where time stands still and the exterior becomes interior; a frozen moment in time where space for beauty exists.”

Valerie considers herself a colorist using painting techniques of broken color and glazing. Glazing is an old master’s technique where many layers of thin oil paint are applied to a surface creating an effect of color as light.

As an artist, Valerie has exhibited her work for more than twenty years. She has had solo exhibitions in Chicago, New York City and Minneapolis. Her work is in numerous corporate and private collections.

She received a BFA in painting and drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she also received an Art Teaching Certification for grades K-12. Valerie received her MFA from Columbia College, Chicago.

A statement from this year’s Secondary School Showcase judges:

“We would like to congratulate every student that submitted work for the 2008 Secondary School Showcase. It was an honor and our privilege to view the many fine pieces of art. It was a difficult task editing down to a manageable and displayable number. We edited as much as we could and ended up with 82 works of art.

Our objective was to not be critics in our choices but to create an exhibition showing the diversity of ideas and craftsmanship from a very talented body of students. Without exception, we saw the merit in every entry.

When it came down to choosing the work, we had to look at the strengths of every piece and determine which ones spoke the loudest to us. Others were not selected because their images were not clear enough for us to ascertain the works’ finer details.

Because of the high quality of every entry, we emphatically encourage all entrants to continue making their art.

Our best,

Ron Wennekes and Valerie Taglieri”

Coffee Hour with Artist and VU Art Professor Sarah Jantzi

Please join us for a Brauer Museum of Art Coffee Hour on Wednesday, February 6 at 7 pm as Sarah Jantzi talks about her solo exhibition entitled WEEDS, in the Brauer Museum’s Gallery 1212. Jantzi’s creative eye urges viewers to take a closer look at a simple object in nature, a common weed. While most of us struggle to eliminate weeds in our gardens and lawns, Jantzi through her work demonstrates that a close look at these plants can reveal real beauty. She uses various media such as ink on panel, charcoal on paper, and oil on canvas. Using a palette limited to black, white, and gray in this exhibition, the artist captures a wonderful sense of growth and renewal in these expressive works. You are invited to attend this free Coffee Hour program to hear Jantzi describe her inspirations and working methods.

To see an image of Sarah’s work or hear comments about her work by Gregg Hertzlieb, Director of the Brauer Museum of Art,  please view previous posts.