Classic Holiday Shopping Bags On Display In Avon

Avon Historical Society

AVON, CT — With holiday shopping about to dominate our lives (if it hasn't already), an exhibit at the Avon Free Public Library will drive that point home.

That's because the topic at hand — shopping bags — isn't just something to stuff our Christmas present purchases in.

They are, literally, a work of art

The public is invited to view the Avon Historical Society's colorful and fun vintage shopping bag exhibit in the History Corner of the Marian Hunter History Room at the library, 281 Country Club Road, Avon, through December.

Colorful and fun, these classic tools of the season aim to bring back memories of visiting large department stores to shop for family and friends.

These bags are not something to be thrown away.

They're celebrated as a work of art, saluting the role of graphic design in everyday life.

In the late 1970s, the Copper-Hewitt Museum, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Design, acknowledged the importance of shopping bag art with an exhibit of "Bandboxes and Shopping Bags," which included 125 shopping bags.

A catalog accompanying the show designated eleven categories of bags, including eight with a Christmas motif.

In the introduction, the museum curator described the bags as "a form of portable graphic art."

The bags on display in Avon for this holiday season are from the Jim and Joyce Baldwin collection.