McIntosh Gallery in the Winter

   A couple of days ago, I did a post about "Stratford in the Winter" and I am lazingly using the title again for this one. It is still winter after all and I am again recommending something local which you should have a look at and, in this case, also listen to. McIntosh is closer than Stratford since it is on the campus up at Western and it too welcomes the general public and is open all year.

The Sound of Music in the Mountains
  The exhibition, "Glacial Resonance" opened on Friday, Jan. 19, with an "artist-led exhibition tour," which we missed, but the exhibition will be around until March 16.
I learned of it, too late, from Western News and it is to that publication you should turn since Ms. Ferguson's description in it is a good one and I would start with it, rather than the formal exhibition notice that follows. Be sure to listen to the audio.

“Melting Glaciers Main Muse for McIntosh Installation by Paul Walde: Works by Former London Artist and Western Grad Explore Impact of Global Warming," Keri Ferguson, Western News, Jan. 16, 2024.

   The description of the exhibition offered by McIntosh is here: "Paul Walde: Glacial Resonance." Mr. Walde is a northern Ontario boy who went to Western and is now at the University of Victoria. Here is part of the description:

Raising environmental awareness through art

"Glacial Resonance" brings together Paul Walde’s iconic 2013 project Requiem for a Glacier with his newest video and sound installation Glacial. Both address concerns about land use and the impacts of the climate crisis, 10 years apart, with glaciers as the primary focus and an urgent sign of the Earth’s tipping point to an irrevocably changed climate....

Glacial is a meditative durational experience, sharing distant vistas and extreme details of the Coleman Glacier at Mount Baker (Kulshan), in Washington State, along with the sounds of the glacier melting, modified through musical instruments used as speakers. Over the course of five hours violin, viola, cello, double bass, bass drum, and a cymbal fitted with sonic transducers transform field recordings into tones which form the basis of the composition and act as conduits for the glacier to communicate resonant frequencies."

A New Director at the McIntosh Gallery

  I also learned from Ms. Ferguson, who seems to write a lot for Western News, that Lisa Daniels becomes the new director on March 4th. 

   I was talking with another Western retiree the other day and he mentioned missing the old printed Western News, where such items are found. The link to the current issues is provided and if you click on "All News" you will find over 860 of them dating back to 2008. Additional backfiles of the publication and the University of Western Ontario News and the Western Times are found on The Western News Archive.  (While I am at it, here is The Gazette.)

Post Script:

   On the website of the McIntosh Gallery you will also find a list of the publications produced and of the past exhibitions. A couple of years ago, I commented about one of them - "Lepidoptera in London." As a ""Bonus" I offered for us oldsters a guide related to gender terminology and lavatories. 

   Back in 2018 I wrote about a controversy involving The McIntosh in the early 1980s. See this post: Jasper Cropsey. Skip the long part about "The Chagall Conundrum" and go directly to "The Cropsey Controversy" where you will learn that the sale of this painting caused quite a ruckus. Let us hope that Western doesn't have to sell Brescia.

If you want to see the "Backwoods of America,"  you now have to go all the way to the backwoods of America in Arkansas and visit Crystal Bridges. I did, a few years back, see: "Amazing Accomplishments."

A Black Sculpture

    

   The Black sculpture pictured above was created by the Black sculptor, Hank Willis Thomas. It has travelled across the continent and been displayed in various museums and galleries. Here is another image from a different exhibition from a different perspective. 

The sculpture was purchased recently and now rests privately in the back garden of a home in Vancouver, British Columbia.

   Mr. Thomas is a very interesting multimedia artist who often deals with Black conceptual subjects. That makes sense since he spent a fair amount of time in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, where his mother, Deborah Willis,  was employed as an art and photo historian. She is also interesting and a winner of a MacArthur Grant. She has her own Wikipedia entry, as does Mr. Thomas. They are both so interesting, I will leave for you at the bottom, some resources where their talents and interests are better described by others. 

   What I find interesting is the fact the source for the inspiration for the sculpture, now on the West Coast, is found on the East Coast. In fact, in a town very near the one in which I was raised on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. 

   That town is Cambridge and the events that are now memorialized in that Black sculpture occurred in May of 1964. At that time, the Eastern Shore was still a segregated region and race relations were strained.  Alabama Gov. George Wallace was a presidential candidate and when he attempted to address a whites-only audience, things did not go well, as this headline indicates: "Racial Hotbed: Cambridge, MD: Wallace Visit Unleashes Race Riots in Cambridge:" Here is a partial account of what transpired. "Eleven integrationists were under arrest and two others hospitalized in the aftermath of a wild brick-throwing Negro street demonstration quelled by National Guard tear gas..." Guardsmen under the command of Col. Maurice Tawes, a distant cousin of Maryland Gov. J. Millard Tawes, at first tried to break up the demonstration by pulling some of the leaders from the group. But, that started a free-for-all among the Negroes and the soldiers. As a last measure, Tawes ordered tear gas bombs fired." 

   That report is from the Chicago Daily Defender, May 13, 1964. There had been other protests and riots and 'militia law' (a form of limited martial law) had been in place since the summer before. Two weeks later, this article appeared in the New York Times:"New Riot Erupts in Cambridge, MD: Four Guardsmen Hurt, One by Gunfire, as Negroes Are Dispensed With Gas," (May 26, 1964.)

   Above, I highlighted "pulled some leaders from the group." One of them was Clifford Vaughs, a black activist. 

Sources:
   There are many, starting with the Wikipedia entries for Mr. Thomas and Ms. Willis. His own website, has photos, illustrations and a lengthy CV and bibliography. His mother's is found here: Deb Willis. 
   Many articles about his exhibitions are easily found. See, for example, the one at Art Basel in Miami, and at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.  He was even exhibited at the AGO -"Art in the Spotlight: Hank Willis Thomas," and the Globe and Mail published an article about him when he won the $50,000 Aimia/AGO Photography Prize for 2017. (by Brad Wheeler, Dec. 4, 2017.)
   For his early career see: "Artist Hank Willis Thomas and Gallerist Jack Shainman Share Their Story: The two friends look back on 15 years of collaborating," Hilarie M. Sheets, Galerie, April 6, 2020. 

   For another post about race and the Eastern Shore, see my account of the Last Lynching in Maryland. 

The Bonus: 
   A few years ago, we visited Crystal Bridges, deep in the Arkansas woods and you should go if you get a chance. I discussed the visit in Amazing Accomplishments and I also wrote about the fine library at Crystal Bridges in this post about Unexpected Libraries. 

Unexpected Libraries

 

 When travelling, I find that libraries can be useful and attractive sanctuaries. They are usually quiet and comfortable places. More importantly, they have restrooms. Although Starbucks may have adopted an open access policy, I generally find that commercial establishments are not likely to welcome you and smile when you ask to use the facilities.

    Here are three libraries you don’t really need to visit since they are located in surroundings that are already peaceful and beautiful and fully equipped with plumbing. Given that you won’t need them and that they are not immediately obvious you are likely to overlook them. You shouldn’t. 

 VanDusen Botanical Garden

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Located in Vancouver, B.C. you will find this beautiful spot occupying over 50 acres. For more details visit this link. If it is raining heavily, seek refuge in the Library which is just past the gift shop.

1. Yosef Wosk Library and Resource Centre

"Founded in 1976, and relocated to the new Visitor Centre in 2011, the Yosef Wosk Library and Resource Centre is the largest public access botanical and horticultural library in western Canada.The library’s collection focuses on gardening in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest, and covers a wide range of topics including gardening techniques, selecting and growing ornamental plants, native floras from around the world, vegetable and herb gardening, pruning and training, North American ethnobotany, butterfly gardening, native plant gardening, flower arrangement, plant hunters, garden history, pests and diseases, garden design, gardens to visit, horticulture in urban environments, botany and plant ecology, plant conservation, literature in the garden, garden art, organic gardening, environmental science and much more."

The library also displays art work and there are often guest speakers. As you know, I am a fan of periodicals and you will find in this library: The Fiddlehead Forum, Bulletin of the Fern Society and the Conifer Quarterly. Here is the link.

If you are really interested in such libraries and want to know if there is one in a city you are planning to visit see: The Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries.

     The answer to the question, "Who is Yosef Wosk?" is not easily found on the site. But, one does find the answer elsewhere in Vancouver, over at Simon Fraser University. Dr. Wosk deserves a picture which is provided below:

    "Every great library has a circle of friends and supporters who help it grow and flourish.

Dr. Yosef Wosk exemplifies what it means to be a very good friend. He has supported hundreds of libraries—fledgling and established; urban and rural; public, private and academic—in British Columbia and around the world. Yosef, who is the director of Interdisciplinary Programs in Continuing Studies at SFU, was awarded the Keith Sacre Library Champion Award from the British Columbia Library Association in 2006 in recognition of his work with Libraries Across Borders.

     SFU Library has benefited greatly from Dr. Wosk’s philanthropy. In the 1990s, Yosef and his father helped bring a significant collection of Aldine books to SFU’s Special Collections and Rare Books.The Wosk-McDonald Aldine Collection consists of over one hundred rare 16th century tomes published under the imprint of Aldus Manutius. These books, which also feature beautiful bindings from the 16th to the 20th centuries, have added tremendous depth, quality, and tradition to SFU’s holdings."

                                           

 Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

2. The Library at Crystal Bridges

This museum is located in Arkansas! It's still worth the trip. For a complete description see this link and also have a look at their blog. The library is a substantial one: "The Crystal Bridges Library features more than 50,000 volumes pertaining to American art and art history, plus archives containing personal papers and other artist ephemera, and access to several online resources. The Library provides the highest quality of access to resources and services, as well as commitment to the highest ethical standards for privacy, copyright, intellectual freedom, and preservation of information. The Library is located on the Museum’s third floor and is open during all Museum public hours."

    When I visited a while back, one of the exhibitions was: Fish Stories: Early Images of American Game Fish. Apart from the displays this book was found in the collection:

"Game Fishes of the United States, one of the largest and most spectacular of American sporting books, was printed in 1879 -1880 at the zenith of late 19th-century American chromolithography. The work, which is included in the Crystal Bridges Library collection, features 20 color plates based on the original watercolor paintings by well-known sporting artist Samuel Kilbourne, with text written by ichthyologist George Brown Goode, head of the fish research programs of the US Fish Commission and the Smithsonian.

“The collection in Fish Stories ranks among the most admired 19th-century color lithography and helps tell the story of American printmaking.” said Catherine Petersen, Crystal Bridges Library Director. “The exhibition provides a unique opportunity for art lovers, anglers, and families to explore distinctly American fish in their natural surroundings, many of which can be found in nearby rivers and lakes.”

     For my earlier post on the visit to Bentonville and Crystal Bridges see: Amazing Accomplishment(s)

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Located in Ithaca, New York, you have probably visited the virtual Macaulay Library if you are at all interested in birds.

"The Lab’s Macaulay Library is the world’s largest online archive of natural sound audio and video recordings. The Macaulay Library is the world’s premier scientific archive of natural history audio, video, and photographs. Although the Macaulay Library’s history is rooted in birds, the collection includes amphibians, fishes, and mammals, and the collection preserves recordings of each species’ behavior and natural history. Our mission is to facilitate the ability of others to collect and preserve such recordings and to actively promote the use of these recordings for diverse purposes spanning scientific research, education, conservation, and the arts."

3. The Adelson Library

This real library is worth visiting, particularly if the Lab is full of school children or if it is raining in Sapsucker Woods.

"The mission of the Adelson Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is to provide outstanding and innovative support for the Cornell Lab, and scholarly communities worldwide, by curating and disseminating contemporary and historical resources. It also serves casual visitors to the Lab's Visitors' Center, which is part of the Imogene Powers Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity at the Sapsucker Woods Sanctuary in Ithaca, New York. Prior to establishing the Adelson Library, the Lab of Ornithology had built a small reference collection containing approximately 200 volumes. Today the library houses more than 14,000 volumes and continues to expand in terms of both contemporary and historical literature, as well as other resources."

Amazing Accomplishment(s)

A couple of years ago I promised my wife that we were going to visit a very special place during our long road trip back to Ontario from Arizona. It was to be a birthday present for her and a way for me to stall a while longer in the spring. When it was time to make the rather significant detour I had to announce the destination and when the announcement of “Bentonville, Arkansas” failed to elicit much in the way of a positive response I threw in the additional enticing facts that it was the birthplace of both Sam Walton and Walmart and added for safety that it was also near Fayetteville, “Home of the Hogs”. We are still together. My real purpose was for us to visit the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which we both thoroughly enjoyed and, by the way, Fayetteville is a lovely university town.

By now you probably know about Crystal Bridges which is a MAJOR museum nestled in the woods among springs in a structure designed by Moshe Safdie and which is full of American art (among other things). There are deer in the woods among the tulip trees. Apart from the architecture of the museum there is also the Frank Lloyd Wright ‘Bachman-Wilson House’ which was disassembled in New Jersey and put back together in this splendid setting. Go to the website and have a look and then go - or shop online at the very nice store. I would put pictures here, but I am rather a novice at blogging as you know. Keep in mind also that some of the exhibits change. When we visited, one of them consisted of the illustrations of Samuel Kilbourne from Game Fishes of the United States. When I went up to the library (yes, it has a very nice one) a blazered gentlemen pulled a copy from the shelves and left me alone to examine it

And, by the way, much of this is the result of the vision (and of the expenditure of considerable sums) of one woman - Alice Walton. There is a great anecdote about her found in a great story about the whole project. Apparently a committee had decided that a good name for the place would be “The Benton Wood Museum” (which makes sense since it is the name of a senator and the setting is bucolic), but Ms Walton had decided upon the present name. When one of the members suggested that “Crystal Bridges” sounded a trifle “kitschy”, like the name of a “second-rate country singer” her response was “Well, I like it.” For the good story see: Rebecca Mead, “Alice’s Wonderland: A Walmart Heiress Builds a Museum in the Ozarks,” the New Yorker, June 27, 2011.

So, what was the purpose of recounting this tale which, even if better told, happened a while back? Well, apart from letting you know about the place, I wanted you to know that I just learned that a) this is not the first time a wealthy woman has established a museum in the boondocks, nor is it b) the first occasion when some enterprising person has taken apart a Wright house, transported it hundreds of miles and re-built it. Both those things happened. In 1959, Mary Marchand Woods opened the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in the woods of southwestern Pennsylvania. Nearby, one will also find a Frank Lloyd Wright house that was dismantled and moved from a Chicago suburb. In fact, there are a couple of Wright houses as well as his Fallingwater. You can even stay in one of them. For all the details you need to plan your detour see: “In Frank Lloyd Wright Country, Architecture and Apple Pie,” Stephen Heyman, the New York Times, July 27, 2016.