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Culture
A Town With Big H'Art
Commitment to art shows in support of offerings and organizations
The Optimist by Don Gummer is part of a public art project sponsored by the Ohio Valley Art League.What do Henderson’s thriving arts scene and Academy-Award winner Meryl Streep have in common?
The Ohio Valley Art League, which for the past 15 years has promoted the visual arts in Henderson and the tri-state area, commissioned the city’s first public sculpture, in 2001, at the outside entrance to the Henderson Fine Arts Center. The piece of work titled The Optimist was sculpted by Don Gummer – Meryl Streep’s husband.
The public art project is just one of many ways the Ohio Valley Art League and other organizations work to bring big-city arts and cultural amenities to Henderson.
“We offer so much in Henderson,” says Jule McClellan, executive director/curator of the Ohio Valley Art League. “I think our arts programs can match that of towns with a far greater population than ours, including some of Kentucky’s larger metropolitan areas.”
For instance, the OVAL sponsored the only national wildlife art show in the entire Midwest. The 2006 Kentucky National Wildlife Art Exhibit opened in September, and ends in November 2006, at the Henderson Fine Arts Center. The exhibit features 79 pieces of art, of all media, chosen by Adam Harris, curator of the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyo. With art ranging in value from $350 to $60,000, it is considered to be one of the top 10 wildlife exhibits in the United States and ties in with the community’s claim to John James Audubon, who spent a decade in Henderson painting and studying for the Birds of America series.
The OVAL also sponsors a Native American In-School Program, the first of its kind in Kentucky, which began as an educational program in 1993 to create awareness for the history and culture of American Indians. Fifth-grade students meet in small groups with American Indians brought in for the program.
“We want them to have an eyeball-to-eyeball experience with the Native American presenter, with a limited group for each presentation,” McClellan says.
One reason such programs have been able to flourish in Henderson is because of the overwhelming support of the arts by the community, which turn out in large numbers, for example, to support performances sponsored by the Henderson Area Arts Alliance (formerly the Henderson Arts Council).
The Alliance oversees a full season of performing arts at the Henderson Fine Arts Center, which includes a 981-seat performance hall and two art galleries. The Alliance also raises funds for grants to smaller arts organizations in the Henderson community and supports the W.C. Handy Blues and Barbecue Festival, held each June, and the Bluegrass in the Park Folklife Festival, held in August.
Alaina Schuster, executive director of the Alliance, says that although the list of performances is impressive – the 2006 season included the Russian National Ballet and the Five Browns, a family of classical pianists – one of the most important missions of the Alliance is to instill a love of the arts in the community’s youth.
The Alliance hosted an additional performance of the Five Browns for Henderson school children, and they were allowed to go backstage and visit with the five brothers and sisters afterward.
“I’m very passionate about arts education,” Schuster says. “It was so exciting to see kindergarten students excited about classical piano. We try hard to get something for everybody, for all ages.”
Story by Nancy Humphrey
Photo by Antony Boshier
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