June Art Exhibit is open

By Hope Wallace

You don’t have to travel to a large city to see great art or hear great music. Our 59^th Annual June Art Exhibit opened this Saturday, June 13 with a free, public opening reception and enjoyed a very large turnout. Regional art shows such as this are a great way to purchase quality art for your home without the high cost associated more with more urban locations and to support those artists who live in your community. Most works are for sale. Awards were presented to the following artists.

Robert Minto  Mt. Cory, Van Wert County Foundation Grand Award

Isaac Smith, Bowling Green, Charles F. Wassenberg Award

Ed Corle, Findlay, Vera Woodruff Wassenberg Award

Laura Barnhardt Corle, Findlay, Douglas Edward Koch Memorial Award

Gregg Coffey  Fort Wayne, Ind., David Humphreys Miller Memorial Award

Erin Palmer Szavuly, Perrysberg, Marilla Connors Memorial Award

Janet Hines, Van Wert, Marguerite Fryer Memorial  Award

Randy Bennett, Rudolph, Robin Carol Cartwright Memorial Award

Leslie Rohr Scherer, Tiffin, Wassenberg Art Center Award

Diane Bendele, Delphos, Wassenberg Art Center Award

Lanna Pendleton Hall, Montpelier, Wassenberg Art Center Award

Allen Hutton, Toledo, Gertrude Sluterbeck Memorial Award

Kailee Ross, Celina, Pat Pancake Memorial Award

Honorable Mentions:

Mike Bendele, Delphos

T.R. Steiner, Bluffton

Thomas Sorrell, Sylvania

Gary Gerardot, Leo, Ind.

John Leatherman, Oakwood

Pamela Pfrang, Fort Wayne, Ind.

Jenny King, Archbold

The Dan Smyth Band of Fort Wayne played and were encouraged to experiment which resulted in a fabulous and unique performance. Thank you to our sponsor Van Wert Federal Savings Bank, the Van Wert County Foundation and Rocky Top Frozen Treats for making this event a resounding success!

Summer Camp II! Our July summer camp will be scheduled this year from July 21–23 for ages 6–15. We will be exploring perspective with chalk and photography, Native American art through by examining our Faces of Little Bighorn Collection and making artifacts. We’ll be making crazy illustrations by melting crayons and study children’s author and illustrator, Shel Silverstein. Ages 6-10 10–noon, ages 11–15 1–3 p.m. Sign up soon this goes fast! Costs are $30 for art center members, $35 regular. Needs-based scholarships can be made available if a young person wishes to participate in our camp. Please contact the director.

Next on our rollercoaster; Eats on the Street/Art from the Fort! Want a chance to win $1000, $400, $100 or some fabulous prizes? The First Town Creek Duck Derpy is scheduled during Eats on the Streets/Art from the Fort on July 11. The Wassenberg Art Center has paired up with Main Street Van Wert and we are planning a dual-bash extraordinaire, which will take place on July 11! Not only will we feature works by neighbor artists from Fort Wayne, we’ll be shutting down Central Avenue and taking over the entire block. Art from the Fort, which begins at 2 p.m. will showcase work from five prominent Fort Wayne artists Gregg Coffey, Mindy Pennycoff, Terry Ratliff, Joel Fremion and Gary Travis. Proceeds from the Duck Race benefit the art center, Main Street and the Van Wert Robotics Team. To purchase a duck(s) please contact the Wassenberg at 419.238. 6837, Main Street, Open Minded, Chet Straley, Straley Realty, or a Robotics Team member. You may also purchase online: http://www.wassenbergartcenter.org/announcements/duckderpy. This event is powered by Greve Chrysler Jeep, Dodge, Inc. If you would like your company’s name highlighted during this inaugural event, give us a call!

Beginning at 4 p.m. five gourmet food trucks from Fort Wayne, will set up shop on Central Avenue with tasty delights ranging from Mexican, brick oven pizza, Cajun and cool desserts. Music inside and out provided by Dan Dickerson and the Harp Condition, Van Wert’s d.j. Real Human Robot, and later on in the evening, The One-eyed Show. A large beer/wine garden will be set up in back of the art center. Art activities for young and young at heart and we’ll have various kinds of performers from music to magic on every corner. Eats on the Streets & Art from the Fort; experienced new forms of food, fun and art. Open to the public and ZERO entry fee.

The One-eyed Show is based in St. Marys and is known as a rock-and-roll band with diverse musical influences that range from the Allman Brothers Band and the Black Crowes to the Eagles and Johnny Cash, The One-Eyed Show’s sound spans many genres. Within a single performance, the group often runs the gamut of rock, bluegrass, funk and the blues — all the while maintaining an improvisational styling.

Our ongoing watercolor class continues on Tuesday mornings from at 10 a.m.–noon and the instructor is Pat Rayman. People are encouraged to jump in anytime and the class is sold in monthly increments. The cost is $35 for members and $40 for non-members.

We will be hosting an intensive watercolor workshop by watercolor artist Allen Hutton of Toledo, here at the Wassenberg Art Center, Sept. 8-10 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Hutton graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art with A BFA in Industrial Design. He is a regularly accepted artist in the Ohio Watercolor Society Exhibits, and has shown his work in group and solo shows across the country since 2002. He continues to be awarded in most of the exhibits he enters and will provide instruction on his unique style. Hutton strives to render the fleeting patterns of light and shadow with the simple purpose of preserving the reality of a landscape or still life in a particular moment in time and season. Costs will be $100 per day with a two-day minimum sign-up. Materials list will be provided. Please give us a call soon for this unique opportunity to paint the world in a different light.

For more information on exhibits or to sign for classes and events visit wassenbergartcenter.org. The Wassenberg Art Center is located at 214 S. Washington St. (former Van Wert Armory). We can also be reached by telephone at: 419.238.6837, email: info@wassenbergartcenter.org and our website is: wassenbergartcenter.org.