Dime Stories

What impact do the arts have on our communities? Why is it so important to foster artistic creation, diversity, and recognition?

There are questions I’ll be diving into today as we prepare for the annual US Bank Celebration of the Arts. Held every year at the Kentucky Museum, this show brings together works from amateur and professional artists within 65 miles of Bowling Green in order to celebrate and recognize the diverse talent of our region. Each year, one work is selected for the Purchase Award, receiving a coveted place in our permanent collection. In the next few episodes, we’ll be talking with past purchase award winners Leslie Nichols and Yvonne Petkus to discuss their work and the impact of winning the Purchase Award.

But that award isn’t the only reason that the arts are important. Rather, the arts have immense social and economic impacts on our community. As President and CEO of Americans for the Arts, Robert L. Lynch, stated in 2019, “Whether it is health, education, economy, or faith, the arts improve our communities and our lives, and they lend themselves to practical, solution-oriented philosophies to bind us socially and improve the world in which we live.”

But in a world driven by data, such statements often get lost. So, where’s the data?

In our Decorative Arts Gallery sits a miniature portrait of a young woman. She reclines on a chair, dressed in a simple white cotton frock, with her dark hair held in place by a large pin. She smiles demurely, staring at you. Do you recognize the woman in the painting?

This is Jeanne Françoise Julie Adélaïde Récamier – more commonly called Juliette – at the age of 28. She was a European celebrity in the early 19th century, known across Paris for her salon where leading literary and political circles gathered. Her story was commemorated in the 1920/1928 films, Madame Récamier, but, as with many women, truth is stranger than fiction.

When we think of women in the eighteenth century, we don’t often think of professional success and freedom. Yet between 1780 and 1810, many French women defied the domestic stereotype, reaching artistic success despite being denied admittance to classes on life drawing or the artistic academies. Some of them achieved admittance to and exhibited their works at the prestigious Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, including Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun.

Today, two copies of Élisabeth’s works, in miniature, are held by the Kentucky Museum. The first is a copy of French actress Madam Molé-Reymond’s portrait from 1786. The second is a miniature copy of Marie-Antoinette à la Rose painted by Élisabeth in 1783.

In our Snell-Franklin Decorative Arts Gallery, a circa 1765 Chippendale tea table sits near the beginning of the exhibit. Made in the Philadelphia style, it features a scalloped (or “pie crust”) edge and a bird cage movement that allows the top to rotate and tilt. Key features of the table – which help us identify its style – include “a ring and fluted columnar-turned pedestal with foliate compressed ball above a foliate-carved collar over a tripartite base on cabriole legs, and acanthus leaf carvings on the knees of the legs which terminate in ball and claw feet.”

…Sounds a bit boring unless you’re a decorative arts scholar. So what’s the deal? Why is this Chippendale table so prized, and what is a Chippendale anyway?

This triptych is a curious piece. In an ivory-like frame, it features a center panel flanked by two fold-out panels. Together, these panels are one painting – the sides showcasing onlookers to the center, which features King Henry IV of France and his wife, Marie, as Henry designates his wife to be Regent of France during his absence.

Collected by WKU alum Commodere Perry Snell, the triptych sits in our Decorative Arts gallery. Behind the grand presentation, a figure of Prudence waits patiently by the queen’s side, and the king – Henry IV of France – gracefully grants his wife, Marie, the regency of France as their son (also pictured) was quite young. Yet this painting hides a tale of murder.

Walking through our Decorative Arts Gallery, you might just get blinded: by a giant orb of lightbulbs and metal. This is the Sputnik chandelier, made in the 1950s or 1960s as part of a huge interior design trend…inspired by space!

What makes a story good…or even great? Could that story be about an artifact in a museum?

This season, we’re exploring object stories. These are brief glimpses into how objects – or artifacts – can tell us about art, history, and culture, but more importantly, about people.

In this episode, Tiffany introduces the concept of object stories and how she came to learn about them.

Eleanor Davidson shares her story on becoming involved with the Kentucky Forge Council, gives insights into their meetings, and discusses the increasing diversity of the metalworking field.

Today, we are talking with Eleanor Davidson about her journey from student to artist in metalworking and sculpture. Eleanor shares her insights into being an arts student at WKU and studying sculpture.

We talk with Jack Hubbard, a member of the Kentucky Forge Council who has spent the last thirty years as a knifemaker and folk artist.