Culture
“Athens Paints” Opens at Dairy Barn Arts Center
< < Back to athens-paints-opens-dairy-barn-arts-centerThe Dairy Barn Arts Center has announced the opening of Athens Paints, an exhibition that celebrates painters who lived, worked or studied in the Athens area in the past or present.
The Athens Paints exhibit opens Friday, Feb. 28 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and runs through March 28. It features more than 40 painters curated by Lyntha Scott Eiler and Gary Kirksey.
“As a board member and curator of the exhibition, it was very difficult to narrow down the number of painters and paintings due to the tremendous talent that we have in our region,” said Kirksey, board member and associate professor at the Ohio University School of Visual Communication.
Lyntha Eiler, former board member and professional photographer stressed that, “we began this journey over 18 months ago to select the painters and paintings and we believe that we have selected some of the finest painters and paintings that our region has to offer. We expect that the community will learn that we have many talented painters in our community of Athens.”
The exhibition will feature both well-known local painters–Donald Roberts, Gary Pettigrew and Ronald Kroutel–as well as artists who lived in Athens many years ago, such as Dairy Barn founder Harriet Anderson, to current students at Ohio University and members of the community.
In commemoration of the barn’s 100th anniversary, the Dairy Barn Arts Center will be distributing 100 canvases to be painted by patrons during the month of March. The paintings will be returned and displayed in the Dairy Barn throughout the duration of the exhibition.
The barn was built in 1914 as part of the Athens Asylum, with the goal to provide one glass of milk to each patient and staff person at the asylum. It produced over one million pounds of milk by 1953 and 17,000 pounds of butter, but was closed in 1970.
In 1978, after months of work, the Save the Barn committee petitioned the Governor to save the barn, which was then given to the community and the Dairy Barn Arts Center was founded.
Today, the Dairy Barn Arts Center is one of Southeast Ohio’s premiere art galleries, drawing nearly 15,000 visitors to the region every year with exhibitions, events and educational programs.
Below is a list of exhibiting Athens Paints artists:
Harriet Anderson
Georgia Hall Bush
June Carver Roberts
Rachel Clark
Julie Dummermuth
Aethelred Eldridge
Donald Borchard
David Callahan
Mary Chamberlain
Mary Gates Dewey
Chris Eaton
Erik Forrest
Terry Fortkamp
Steve Gray
John Kortlander
Ron Kroutel
Lynn Last
Wendy Minor Viny
Dwight Mutchler
Gary Pettigrew
Jeff Risner
John Sabraw
Ellen Smith
Lisa Villamil
Edna Way
Patricia Westfall
Patrice Wolf
Mateo Galvano
David Hostetler
William Kortlander
David LaPalombara
Dana Loomis
Pappy Mitchell
Robert E. Peppers
Pandy Reiser
Donald Roberts
Barbara Sheriff Kostohryz
Murray Stern
Sue Wall
Jim Weaver
Keith Wilde