Arts & Entertainment
Historical Museum Displays Village's Artistic Past
The Wilmette Historical Museum's exhibit on local artists opened Thursday night to rave public reviews.
On Thursday night local history and art buffs gathered at the Wilmette Historical Society to view the opening of “Local Color,” the museums newest exhibit. The display showcases village artists from the first half of the 20th Century. “Local Color” is an eclectic mix of art, including murals, sculptures and paintings, as well as newspaper cartoons by Chester Gould, the creator of “Dick Tracy,"and Carey Off, lithographs by Marian Witt, and wood-carvings by Christian Carsten.
Wilmette Historical Museum Director Kathy Hussey-Arntson said it took six months to prepare the art exhibit, and the pieces in the exhibit came from resident donations or through the museums own collection. “It's an art collection but we're not an art museum – this is something we don't do often," Arntson said.
Resident Donna Fritz enjoyed the exhibit, and told Patch that it “gives us an idea of the people who settled into Wilmette over the years.” Fritz's favorite pieces were the "Dick Tracy" cartoons, since she always read the comics when she was younger.
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Meanwhile Laurie Garvey marveled at the collection on display, wondering how all the work was recovered. Garvey's favorite, like Fritz, were the "Dick Tracy" cartoons, in which she found the strip on bank failures particularly pertinent to today.
Other residents, like Bill Bostrom, were struck by Marion Witt's work, especially the colored lithograph featuring a yellow house, since the house in the piece is “just down the street from where we live now.” Bostrom said the exhibit highlights “the beauty of the surrounding area.”
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When asked about the large painting in the entrance way, museum curator Patrick Leary said the 1909 painting of Native Americans provides a “great anchor for the exhibit." Leary told Patch that the museum received a matching grant to clean the painting in 2008, as the painting had tears and was dark from a century of grime, smoke and dust. Mattie Emily Akeley, a student of the School of the Art Institute Chicago, painted the work when she was 22-years-old.
Flip through the gallery to see who attended the event and what works are on display.
