Blog Posts - Decorative Arts Center of Ohio -- Reese-Peters House

Ohio Arts Council sees DACO as a 'gem'

8/28/2020

An investment in the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio is an investment in Lancaster, the people who live there and work there. That’s why Donna Collins, Ohio Arts Council Executive Director, is an ardent supporter of DACO, which she says provides a crucial historical perspective of the arts.

“The Decorative Arts Center of Ohio is important to everyone in Ohio for what you bring to us,” she says. “When I come to the exhibitions, I get to see things I have never seen before, things that may not be available to me any other way.”

Collins advocates for state funding for arts organizations like DACO so that residents of all ages can benefit from educational programming. “It’s an important story to tell policymakers that we have such a renowned institution in Lancaster that has such historical relevance,” she says. “The beauty and grandeur of the physical building is fantastic.”

Arts education is a significant portion of the Ohio Arts Council annual budget.

“We spend about $3 million of a $17 million budget on arts education and we are hoping that the programs that we fund are the programs you are doing,” she said of DACO. That’s important for children especially who may not have access to the arts in their communities.

“For our K-12 kids, arts happening at DACO supplements what happens in the school,” Collins says. “In some communities, there is limited access for children, but with organizations like DACO, it’s seen by the entire community as a partnership that is important and changes lives.”

The mission of the Ohio Arts Council closely aligns with that of DACO, and focuses on providing quality arts experiences and strengthening Ohio culturally. “It’s all about the engagement of our communities through the arts,” Collins says. “Our four pillars of our strategic plan are to invest, lead, innovate and engage.”

With the support of the Ohio Arts Council through ongoing collaboration and critical funding, DACO will continue to engage the community with innovative exhibitions, offer imaginative arts education curriculum and showcase historic collections central to our mission.

“I think that the Reese-Peters House is a gem and a place of prominence in our state, and it’s something we can all be proud of,” Collins says. “The arts council is proud to invest public dollars to help fund your success.”

Get to Know New DACO Executive Director Jason Crabill

8/3/2020

We are thrilled to announce Jason Crabill as our new Executive Director! The history buff and seasoned museum professional is committed to our mission and our community. We sat down with him a week into his new role and learned about his passion for telling untold stories and his excitement as he looks toward planning the future of the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio.

Tell us about your background. What did you do prior to joining the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio?
I worked at the Ohio History Connection for 14 years. My last role was manager of Curatorial Services, and I managed the curatorial staff for 10 years. We had the responsibility for caring for the state’s historical material culture and worked to tell the stories of all Ohioans, including people whose voices previously have not been heard. We worked with American Indian tribes with historic connections to the land we now call Ohio and we developed initiatives like the Gay Ohio History Initiative (GOHI), in an effort to collect, tell and preserve the stories of those communities. We collected stories and objects from communities all over the state, and it was a great opportunity to preserve history and give voice to those people and places, too.
My degrees are in library science and anthropology, but I have worked professionally primarily in museums. I was even a volunteer at COSI in middle and high school! I worked for COSI on Wheels when I graduated college. I got my master’s degree in library science and wanted to work in the confluence of history, art, and archives. My new job at DACO is a perfect fit.

What are you looking forward to in your new role at DACO?
What I am excited about at DACO is the ability to really engage deeply in the history of the place, helping with the exhibitions that we will be able to share with the community and the opportunity to further develop the education program for everyone’s benefit. This year is the 20th anniversary of DACO, so I’d like the opportunity to envision the next 20 years. We are getting ready to undertake a new strategic plan, and I am looking forward to that.

What are your impressions of DACO so far?
The grounds are beautiful and I am excited that there is a whole lot of work that will be happening there. Having three historic buildings on the property is a great opportunity. I think the Wendel Center for Art Education is incredible. It’s a really important space and I was pleasantly surprised to learn about all of the resources of the organization.

I come into a very impressive organization that has been doing incredible high-caliber work for years. There are so many opportunities to take that good work and grow it. I’m excited to reach into new areas of the community and I think there is real opportunity to do so. The mission and vision of the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio allow us the opportunity to take arts in a lot of different directions, while keeping true to their fundamental intent. There is a whole lot of opportunity to leverage the incredible work that has already been done here.

To you, what is exceptional about the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio?
One thing that is very powerful about the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio is that it's founded in local history. It’s a historic place and doesn't shy away from that. It is that combination of art and history that really makes the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio so special. It is not just an historic home. It’s the combination of the rich local history with the ability to do arts programming, bring alive fresh new exhibitions and mix old with the new that is really unique.

What are your impressions of Lancaster?
Lancaster is a special place because it’s rich with history and a proud culture. However, there are clear demarcations between folks. There are parts of the community that are in desperate need of support, and I think there are ways DACO can reach those communities and provide support in ways that I am excited to explore. I think the fact that DACO is free is really powerful and I’m excited to explore Lancaster and connect with the community in as many ways as possible. I’m also looking forward to connecting with the various communities within Lancaster.

What are your aspirations for DACO during your tenure as executive director?
I want people in Lancaster to feel like the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio is their museum and their place. It’s a historical home, and the time it represents is fairly stable. That’s the anchor, but there's so much more to be done. I've done a lot of reading about the powerful lawyers and the business the canal brought in. There were many different people who lived in and supported the town, from the super wealthy to the day-laborers and servants, and that’s probably an untapped narrative. To help tell the stories of the African American community in Lancaster, to talk about “the other Lancaster”— those stories that sometimes get overlooked — that would be phenomenal. Those are areas of opportunity to explore that may push some people a bit, but have the potential to enrich the narrative of what this place is.

What do you do when you are not at DACO?
I live in Bexley with my wife and 12-year-old. I enjoy reading and traveling (when there’s not a pandemic)!

DACOatHome: View Our New Exhibition

8/1/2020

Although we are implementing thorough cleaning and sanitizing practices and masks are required for admission, we know that not everyone is comfortable coming to visit yet. However, we don’t want that to be a barrier to anyone viewing and learning about our fantastic new exhibition, 2 + 3 x 18: Diptychs and Triptychs from 18 Contemporary Artists.

Learn about some of the artists in the exhibition—their philosophies, their processes and their inspirations here: Emily Sullivan Smith, Greg Martin and Melissa Vogley Woods.
See a brief tour of the exhibition here.
Couldn’t make the Curator Talk? Watch it here.

Stay safe and stay creative!

Etching in the Age of Instagram

8/1/2020

Far from being obsolete, printmaking is enjoying a resurgence, and as more look to disconnect from a digital world, this artistic process is finding a whole new generation of fans.

Yet for Ohio University Art Professor Art Werger, printmaking has been a rewarding form of expression for years, ever since he was a young student at the Rhode Island School of Design. “I enjoy the challenges that continue to present themselves with each new piece,” he says. “Having worked in etching and mezzotint for 45 years, I still find renewed interest in the pursuit each day I enter the studio.”

Now Werger is hoping to share his love for printmaking with others through his upcoming Artist Talk, Etching in the Age of Instagram. The lecture is scheduled for 2 p.m. Aug. 9, and will take place at First United Methodist Church, 163 E. Wheeling St., to accommodate appropriate social distancing.

At the lecture, Werger will provide information on resources in the region for anyone who is interested in pursuing any of the printmaking media that he will discuss, including lithography, mezzotint, etching and letterpress.

“The resurgence of interest in printmaking appears to be a counterbalance to the creative directions that digital media have opened up in recent years,” Werger said. He says this artistic process allows for a great range of personal expression through techniques that have been refined and evolved over hundreds of years.

“Printmaking provides physicality that connects the artist to his or her process,” he said. “While digital media provide ease and immediacy, printmaking is based in problem-solving and delayed gratification.”

Cost for the lecture is $8 for the public and $5 for members with prepaid registration, or $10 at the door. Register for this Artist Talk here.

Support for the exhibition has been provided by the George and Dollie L. Zimpfer Memorial Fund of the Fairfield County Foundation, The Fox Foundation, Ohio Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Federal CARES Act of 2020.

Featured Artist: Melissa Vogley Woods

8/1/2020

We recently sat down with Melissa Vogley Woods, a multimedia artist based in Columbus, whose work appears in our new exhibition, 2 + 3 x 18: Diptychs and Triptychs by 18 Contemporary Ohio Artists, to learn about her philosophy, life and art.

How did you become an artist? Tell me about your journey.
My mom was an artist, and still is—a portrait artist. I grew up seeing her work. From a very young age, I wanted to be an artist. I went to art school in Kansas City and was at Fort Hayes in the 80s, in their art program. After college, I spent a few years working freelance. I had two stores in the Short North when I was 25 and ran a mural business for 15 years. After that, in my 40s, I decided to go to grad school for printmaking. I have always been very multi-disciplined! I spent the last nine years teaching at different universities in the area, like CCAD, OSU, Denison and Kenyon, and I decided to take this year off. I had planned it ahead of the pandemic. I chose well and got lucky with that!

How has the pandemic impacted your work?
I am in a bunch of shows right now! Somehow everything came to a head. Everything got moved back because of Covid, and (the shows) got stacked up on each other. At the beginning of social distancing, I did a piece, now called Always CMA, that the Columbus Museum of Art purchased and had installed. The piece itself is about looking back into history. In a hundred years if something like this (pandemic) happened again, they could recreate it.

How did you get involved with the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio?
I had a relationship with curator Dr. Christine Fowler Shearer before her diptychs and triptychs show at the Riffe Center, and I had these pieces that really went along with her theme. That’s how it came to be. She wanted to travel the exhibition and I was all in.

I have always wanted to have art at the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio. My work has often dealt with houses, so it seems full circle. I created Rooms to Let Temporary Art Space and hold exhibitions and bring artists together in a house. The last project was in my house. I have always had this relationship with the house structure, and it’s so cool that the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio is in a house. I am excited to keep this thread running through my work. It’s also a nod to my work with exterior and interior themes.

You have a talk coming up at DACO about “the lost art” of scagliola. What is scagliola and what is your relationship with it?
You’re saying it wrong; it’s actually pronounced “sky-ola.” That’s how they say it in Italy. When I was there, they told me I wasn’t saying it right either! I thought I was saying it exactly how they were, but I guess not!

It is a traditional process used in Italy and in Germany, that region. In northern Italy is where it was created. It stems back to the 1700s. Nobody knows where it was invented, but it’s a process to make a faux marble look and it has developed on its own into a very complex art form involving inlay and image making. It has many different realms it can go into.

In my work, I always like to showcase some kind of historical making process. But I like to manipulate it so it speaks the way I want to speak. I like to create a cloud of information to search around within to grasp at some familiarity with the image or form. It’s like looking back at history; we interpret it the way we can. Everything is muddled by what is recorded. I like to do that in my work by muddling it up so you can kind of get a glimpse of what it is.

With scagliola, I like its tradition; I like that it looks like stratification of rock. It looks like it goes back in time. There are layers of information and I like the fact that I can manipulate it and speak to its historic roots. It’s really fun; I love it.

What do you want people to think about when they view your work?
The three inlays are pulled from the exact same image. So if people want to try to look and see if they can find the forms on each image, they are the same, just manipulated, on each of them. Also think about black and white versus color. It’s something I use in my work.

It’s kind of a bodily experience you have when you look at the work. Think about how you look at it, and why we look at ruins. There’s a sadness or nostalgia to a ruin that I think is interesting. Think about what is in ruin now, and how we can currently fix it. There’s always a way to correct things later.

See Melissa Vogley Woods' work in our current exhibition, 2 + 3 x 18: Diptychs and Triptychs by 18 Contemporary Ohio Artists. Register for her artist talk, The Almost Lost Art of Scagliola, held at 2 p.m. on Sept. 20.
Support for the exhibition has been provided by the George and Dollie L. Zimpfer Memorial Fund of the Fairfield County Foundation, The Fox Foundation, Ohio Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Federal CARES Act of 2020.

New Exhibition Preview

6/30/2020

Curated by Dr. Christine Fowler Shearer, 2 + 3 x 18: Diptychs and Triptychs by 18 Contemporary Ohio Artists displays art works created in a wide range of two- and three-dimensional mediums – including photography, paintings, glass, ceramics, mixed media and paper – and bearing stories with messages of topical relevance in today’s world.

Historically, diptychs and triptychs were largely devoted to paintings portraying religious subjects or political victories. The works in 2 + 3 x 18: Diptychs and Triptychs by 18 Contemporary Ohio Artists update these ancient genres with stories of contemporary experience.

“In the past, most diptychs and triptychs were done for religious purposes, but the artists in this exhibition have pushed beyond that initial idea and tradition to create unique and complex connections,” Shearer said. “The idea of the diptych and triptych was to tell a story—whether it be a secular or religious narrative, and this idea is definitely evident in the works in the current exhibition.”

Stories among the exhibitions works range from narratives about the sometimes challenging relational between women to surviving cancer and questions about motherhood and hope for the future.

The exhibition will include The Circle, a linocut (linoleum relief cut) print diptych by University of Dayton art professor Erin Holscher Almazan, who will serve as the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio’s Artist-in-Residence Aug. 3-7 in conjunction with this exhibition. This work explores “the complexities and dualities that exist within our female identities,” said Almazan. “Sexual undertones, gendered rituals, memories of girlhood and the desire for approval are embedded within the work.”

By way of interactive videos created by Classic Interactions, guests also will have a chance to watch short videos of the artists working in their studios and to hear the artists explain how they create their work.

This exhibition is made possible by the Ohio Arts Council, the George and Dollie L. Zimpfer Memorial Fund of the Fairfield County Foundation, The Fox Foundation, Ohio Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Federal CARES Act of 2020.

The exhibition opens on Saturday, July 18 and runs through Sunday, October 25.

DACO Re-Opening Plan

6/29/2020

We are re-opening on July 18 with our new exhibition, 2 x 3 x 18: Diptychs and Triptychs by 18 Contemporary Ohio Artists. Please see our Re-Opening Plan below, so you know what you can expect before you visit.

Open to the public on Saturday, July 18, 2020
Temporary Hours: Wednesday – Friday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday & Sunday 1 to 4 p.m.
Senior Hours: Wednesday - Friday 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Requirements for Entry:
• If you are experiencing signs of illness, cough, difficulty breathing, fever etc., or have had contact with a person with Covid-19, please do not enter the Museum at this time.
• Face masks are required during your visit to the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio. Single-use masks are available for free inside the lobby. Thank you for helping protect our visitors, volunteers, and staff!
• If there are guests in the lobby, please wait before entering.
• Number of guests inside the Museum, at any one time, is limited. You may be asked to wait before entering the lobby.
• We ask that you observe social distancing (six feet apart) while in the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio.

Lobby Precautions:
• There is a 30” tall plexi-guard on the Greeter Desk.
• Every guest will be asked to fill out a Visitor Information Card. Visitor information will be for our records, as well as any potential contact tracing by the Health Department.
• Signage will direct guests to keep the card with them until the end of their visit.
• Limited elevator usage to one person/party at a time.

Visitor Traffic Flow:
• Guests will enter though Lobby doors as usual.
• Greeter will instruct guests briefly about procedures.
• Guests will proceed to the main floor to view the Parlors and Rising Room as normal while maintaining Social Distancing.
• Social Distancing signs will be on stands inside both Parlors and the Rising Room.
• Guests will not be allowed to sit on any of the furniture in in the Parlors, Hall or Rising Room.
• Plastic folding chairs will be available for anyone who needs to sit. We will
designate a place for 'used' chairs so we can clean them.
• Guests can proceed to the gallery level via the main staircase as normal.
• Normal flow of Gallery 1, 2, 3, 4.
• Guests will NOT be going back down the main staircase after viewing the exhibition.
• Guests will exit Gallery 4 via the back hall to the elevator.
• Guests will take the elevator to the Ground Level.
• There will be at least 2 Survey Kiosks located in the Lower Level.
• Stylus pens will be available for guests to use for a no-touch experience. The stylus will be theirs to keep.
• Signage will remind guests to indicate their time out on the Visitor Information
Cards and there will be a place to deposit them.

Museum Shop Precautions:
• Limited number of guests allowed.
• Hand sanitizer will be available near the Shop door.
• Plexi-barrier is in place at the checkout.

Watercolor Weaving with DACOatHome

5/31/2020

We've all made some artwork that doesn't come out quite as expected. Next time that happens, don't toss it - turn it into a "keeper" with this Watercolor Weaving lesson! Check it out here.

Paper Apple Project with DACOatHome

5/28/2020

Apples are delicious. They are also super fun for little ones to learn about and create! Check out our latest DACOatHome Virtual Art Lesson by clicking here.

Pop Art Project with DACOatHome

5/28/2020

Are you a Warhol fan? Take a few minutes to view his work online and get inspired before you create your very own Pop Art! Check out the art lesson by Teaching Artist Barbara Ery by clicking here. Have fun and share your creations with us on social media!