 |
|||||||
|
|||||||
 |
|||||||
Faces of Rural America
On display June 11 - October 9, 2011
Faces of Rural America website (coming June 11): To view the full permanent collection of Henry Clay Fleming and Belle Johnson photographs and to view behind-the-scenes materials, please visit the Faces of Rural America website. The Faces of Rural America exhibition will open at the Massillon Museum on Saturday, June 11, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. The event will be free and open to everyone with no reservations necessary. Faces of Rural America encompasses century-old images by Belle Johnson of Monroe City, Missouri (located near Hannibal, Missouri), and Henry Clay Fleming of Ravenswood, West Virginia (along the Ohio River), where they served for decades as their small towns’ lone professional photographic portrait artists. Both are significantly represented in the permanent collection of the Massillon Museum. “The Massillon Museum had the unique opportunity to work with the residents of Ravenswood and Monroe City to help preserve the historical narratives of the cities and their residents as well as the legacies of Henry Clay Fleming and Belle Johnson,” said Massillon Museum Executive Director Alexandra Nicholis, who is curating the exhibition. “Making these images and their stories accessible is a high priority.” Belle Johnson (1864–1945) began her lifelong career and passion for photography as a photographer’s assistant in 1890. After just three weeks, she took over the studio, which she operated for more than a half century. She artistically depicted the babies, graduates, brides, families, teams, hoboes, soldiers, and the general population of Monroe City and surrounding farms. Additionally, Johnson actively participated in regional, national, and international photography competitions, earning medals and recognition. She was frequently invited to exhibit her work in salons and was the only woman invited to participate in a 1906 exhibition organized by the Photographic Association of America. The following year, she was awarded an honorary membership in that organization. Johnson’s most noted photograph, “Three Women with Long Hair,” has been seen around the world in exhibitions and documentaries, on postcards and posters, and as book illustrations. During the course of this two-year long project, the women in this photograph were identified. No doubt through photography competitions, she became acquainted with William L. Bennett of Navarre, Ohio (near Massillon), an avid amateur photographer. The two corresponded, sending photographic prints to each other. The prints she sent to Bennett came to the Massillon Museum along with his photographs and negatives at the end of his life. The fifty matted Johnson images, which will be displayed in the second-floor gallery, are primarily original prints from the Massillon Museum’s permanent collection. Others are on loan from individuals in Monroe City. Henry Clay Fleming (1845–1942) started his photographic career as a daguerreotype artist by 1870, but, like Johnson, he soon began recording images on glass plate negatives. He, however, continued to use that medium until the end of his career, despite more modern methods that were available. He is thought to have been Ravenswood’s sole photographer from the 1910s through the 1930s, recording the faces of the town’s residents as well as those who lived in the surrounding hills. Fleming concentrated strictly on the people who sat for his portraits. Consequently, it’s their faces, their relationship to each other, and their attire that appeal to the viewer. Props and careful composition were less important to Fleming’s style. In the six decades since the glass plates were packed away, they have acquired intriguing deterioration around the edges from changes in temperature and humidity, framing the faces accidentally in an artistic manner. After Fleming’s death, his negatives, after being auctioned, made their way to Athens, Ohio, where Ohio University art instructor Kent Vanderplas recognized their value and eventually donated them to the Massillon Museum by way of a former student, John Klassen, who was then the Museum’s director. Twice before, in 1995 and 2002, the Massillon Museum exhibited prints made from selections of the nearly 2,000 negatives in the Fleming collection. The fifty Fleming images, which will be exhibited in the main gallery on the Museum’s first floor, will be primarily contemporary archival pigment prints made from the original glass plate negatives. Each of the two exhibit areas will be introduced by a short video about the photographer and the respective communities. Research teams from the Museum visited Monroe City and Ravenswood to learn about the photographers and the towns; to gather from the residents’ identifications for as many unnamed images as possible; to scan photographs by the two photographers from the private collections of the residents; and to digitally film people relating stories of the photographers, the town, and their own lives. Alexandra Nicholis, Christine Fowler Shearer, Mandy Altimus Pond, and Margy Vogt visited Monroe City in February 2010. Nicholis, Pond, Vogt, Andrew Preston, Emily Vigil, and Cristina Savu researched in Ravenswood in August 2010. Videographer Brian Donovan joined the group in each location to document the process of the project. Team members Jody Hawk and Hilary Brentin did extensive work on the project while remaining in Massillon. In addition to the exhibition, this two-year project will culminate in two catalogs (one concentrating on each photographer) and a website. The catalogs—which will be available in the Museum shop, OhRegionalities, and online at massillonmuseum.org or facesofruralamerica.org—will be 8.75 inches by 11.5 inches, 80 pages, printed in full color to bring out the subtleties of the toned black and white images, on archival quality paper. The Fleming catalog was made possible by a gift from Herb and Sandy Marting in memory of Hubert A. Hensel, M.D. (1911–2002). The website, facesofruralamerica.org, will feature all the images from the exhibition and additional Fleming and Johnson images that are preserved in the Museum’s collection. It will include information about Henry Clay Fleming; Ravenswood, West Virginia; Belle Johnson; and Monroe City, Missouri. It will also contain a “Project Toolkit” to serve other institutions, organizations, and individuals as a template for future projects of its type—a video of the process, methods for garnering community participation, interviewing techniques, identification methods, and scanning requirements, along with forms and samples. The project is funded by the national (omit “national”) Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS) with local support from Massillon Cable TV; Massillon Eagles #190; Shearer’s Foods, Inc.; Bonnie’s Engravers Gallery and Signs; Connect USA, Inc.; Aqua Ohio; Sol—Harris/Day Architects; The Eye Clinic, Inc.; The Health Plan; Memory Productions; Keller’s Office Furniture; and Robert Garner—State Farm. The Faces of Rural America exhibition will continue through October 9, 2011. A free children’s gallery guide will help families enjoy the exhibition. Programming related to Faces of Rural America will include:
June 7
June 11
June 17
June 19
June 21
June 25
July 9
July 23
July 26
August 20
September 3
September 11
September 17 The Massillon Museum is located at 121 Lincoln Way East in Massillon, Ohio. Regular hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Sunday 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. A visit to the Massillon Museum is always free. Free parking is available on adjacent streets and in nearby city lots. For more information, call the Museum at 330.833.4061 or visit massillonmuseum.org or facesofruralamerica.org.
|
|||||||
|
Stark County Artists Exhibition October 22 – December 31, 2011 |
|||||||
