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Professor to provide look into tsarist Russia through virtual talk

11/30/2020

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Transport to tsarist Russia, exploring the savage destruction of the First World War to the 1917 Revolutions and the establishment of the world’s first communist society—all from your home. Professor Nicholas B. Breyfogle, Ph.D., will present a virtual talk, called Historian Talk: Russia in War and Revolution that will soon be available virtually. 

This fascinating look at the end of tsarist Russia will delve into topics like the Civil War and the establishment of Bolshevik power.

“I’ll give a historical background to the remarkable artifacts and in particular focus on certain aspects of the history of the Soviet Union,” Breyfogle says. “We’ll look at Soviet history in the 20th century, at Russia and the Soviet Union in World War I, the socialist revolution and what life was like in the Soviet Union into World War II.”

Breyfogle, who contributed to the DACO exhibition, Russian Decorative Arts from the Tsars to the USSR, is an associate professor in the history department at The Ohio State University. He also serves as the director of the Goldberg Center for Excellence in Teaching at the university, has authored or edited nine books and is a magazine editor.

Despite his extensive research in Russian Soviet history and society, his love for this intriguing time in world history was a bit of an accident.

“My parents sent me on a school trip to the Soviet Union while it was still the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s, and that was one snowflake that created the avalanche,” he says. “I got so interested by what I saw there, that led to college and grad school. I got interested in how times began to change in the Soviet Union and then it collapsed. It was watching history unfold before one’s eyes. It remains a fascinating place to me.”

Helping to bring the exhibit curated by Michael Reese to DACO that focuses on this culture and time period brings many memories to life for Breyfogle.
“Michael’s collection is a pretty remarkable personal collection of items,” he says. “Eclectic and quite remarkable what he was able to pick up from the former Soviet world.”

During Breyfogle’s travels, he recalls spotting similar items.

“I remember these things being sold as people were trying to pay the bills, and to see it all together in an apartment in Victorian Village, it has been incredible to see and get to know him,” he says.  

Through Breyfogle’s virtual historian talk, he hopes to help bring this visual and cultural story to another audience.

​“It’s part of the work I do at the university in public history, bringing great stories from the past to as wide of an audience as I can,” he said.  

The Virtual Talk will be online at 2 p.m. Jan. 10. Tickets are $5. Register here.


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Campus Closure - See You Online

11/20/2020

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Dear Friends of DACO:

Like many of you, we’ve been watching the developments surrounding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and have seen the troubling news that the spread continues at an explosive rate, resulting in record numbers of cases. Taking that trend into account, and following the recent guidance of the Governor and state and local health officials, we have made the decision to cancel all previously scheduled public events and close the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio's buildings to the public beginning Friday, November 20 at 4 PM.


We will continue to monitor the situation closely and determine a reopening date when appropriate. While our staff has taken extensive precautions to make visits as safe as possible, these discouraging developments only signal that this temporary closure is best for everyone’s health and safety.

We are so excited to share with you the amazing exhibits that were scheduled to open this weekend, Russian Decorative Arts from the Tsars to the USSR and A Russian Christmas, this year’s version of our always popular holiday display. Please know that in the absence of in-person experiences, we will continue to provide to our membership and community a wide selection of virtual experiences, both via our website and social media. This will include curator tours, talks by experts, arts education programs, related materials on our blog, and other unique and exciting opportunities we are actively working to develop in response to the undeniable realities we all face.

The health, safety, and well-being of our guests, supporters, and community are our highest priority. We appreciate your patience, flexibility, and understanding during these challenging times.
We deeply appreciate your support, and we can’t wait to welcome you back to DACO, in-person, as soon as we are able.

Take care and best regards,
​
​Jason Crabill, Executive Director

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A Russian Christmas: History Through the Lens of Christmas

11/20/2020

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Visitors to the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio will travel to the other side of the world this holiday season as they explore Russian-made decorations and their symbolism from a conflicted time in the U.S.-USSR history.

A Russian Christmas, which runs from Nov. 21 to Jan. 8, complements the exhibition, Russian Decorative Arts from the Tsars to the USSR. This main exhibition, which also opens Nov. 21, explores Russian history through an incredible personal collection of Russian art acquired by curator Michael Reese.

Dr. George Johnson, who curated A Russian Christmas with his wife Jeanne, says DACO has worked to tie its annual Christmas display to that year’s exhibition in the main gallery upstairs.  “Having been successful with that, it’s a complete experience if you are coming over Christmastime,” he said.

This year’s theme, however, presented a few challenges for the curators.

“Christmas is primarily a religious holiday with secular overtones, and this time period in the Soviet Union discouraged religion,” Johnson said. “We have had some time to prepare, and we have come at it sideways.”

​For example, the silver forest of 1950s aluminum trees in the Double Parlors represents a closer look at an important time in history.

“It’s the space race, so we will look at USSR and U.S. relations in terms of these aluminum trees,” he said. “We are working in nostalgia that people will recognize from the 50s and 60s, and we are coming at it from the space race.”

In the back part of that same space, a Siberian forest adorned with snow and ice will represent a time period during which Russians began making ornaments for New Year’s trees as a symbol of patriotism, Johnson says.

Several countries that aligned with Soviet policies, however, continued to make Christmas ornaments that were sold to other countries like the United States. The income generated from these ornament sales were used by Soviet-controlled governments, Johnson said.

“We are going to put up a tree that has Soviet bloc-made Christmas decorations in the lower gallery, as well as a Russian-made aluminum tree,” he said.

Other components of the exhibition include a snow village, Russian folk story figures and a display of highly-collected Christopher Radko ornaments.

To share personal insights on his A Russian Christmas exhibition, Johnson will present a curator talk that will soon be available virtually. 

“We hope that folks get an appreciation of Christmas and link it to history,” Johnson said. “It’s not just pretty decorations. They are linked to a time period when we had a Cold War and conflict between the USSR and the U.S., and it gives a perspective.”

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Decorative Arts Center of Ohio
145 E. Main St.
Lancaster, Ohio 43130
Phone: 740-681-1423