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Interactive exhibit will delight children, parents. Other events tied to Akron show are planned
By Dorothy Shinn
Beacon Journal art and architecture critic
Published on Sunday, Jan 27, 2008
The new Akron Art Museum has taken its bearings and laid a true course, set out when the building was first planned by Director Mitchell Kahan: to make the museum a friendly port for the community.
In the wake of its opening celebrations, the first exhibit, American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell (which ends Feb. 3, in case you haven't seen it) has drawn huge, enthusiastic crowds to the new John S. and James L. Knight Building.
Hard by were the spotlight exhibits: Close to Home: Watercolors by William Sommer and Raphael Gleitsmann, two popular Akron-area artists of historical importance; and Masumi Hayashi, Meditations: Two Pilgrimages, by an important Northeast Ohio artist who was murdered in August 2006.
Now comes Ticking Crocs and Fairy Dust: Youthful Visions and the Art of Peter Pan, on view through April 13, a children's exhibit in the museum's Corbin Family Foundation Gallery that is sure to delight parents and children of all ages.
Rigged into the exhibit, as gaily decorated and sprightly as spinnakers, are theatrical elements and original sketches taken from children's art.
The real hook with this show, however, is
that it's spliced into several other community events, also having to do with Peter Pan.
The Akron museum, the Cuyahoga Valley Youth Ballet and This City Reads! are collaborating to create imaginative interdisciplinary educational programs for Akron-area children and the community at large focusing on British author J.M. Barrie's classic tale.
By spotlighting Peter Pan, the three groups hope to promote literacy, as well as the performing and visual arts, tying in a variety of programs and events taking place throughout the school year.
In November, Akron schoolchildren submitted drawings based on Barrie's (not Disney's) Peter Pan for the chance to have their work displayed in the Ticking Crocs and Fairy Dust installation and exhibit.
Local artists Inda Blatch-Geib and Benjamin Hardin chose 20 to 30 of the illustrations as inspirations for the specially commissioned temporary art installation. The children's works became the basis for a series of set design concepts to be shown alongside their inspirations.
Outside the gallery, drawings by local children hang on the wall in a space that's meant to represent a Victorian parlor. Not so Victorian with the modern chairs, however. A complete realization would have incorporated a fainting couch or some such touch. Blatch-Geib has such a furniture item, she said, but sadly it's off being used in a theater production. Until then, one must make do with aluminum chairs and a surfeit of imagination, which is what the show is actually all about.
From this area, visitors enter through velvet curtains into the theatrical portion of the exhibit, where characters have been turned into three-dimensional wall panels and Captain Hook's ship rises out of the floor, surrounded by a ''pool of water'' made of fabric and cast glass starfish and bubbles, resin octopuses and turtles, along with a life-size mermaid sculpture. Scenes from the book are represented on the walls of the gallery.
There are Wendy's couch and her dressing table, where visitors can write notes to the museum or to their favorite characters, to be left for others to read. Blatch-Geib actually reads those notes, and has incorporated some of the suggestions into the show — ''It's a very evolving process, and I can't thank the museum enough for that,'' she said.
Visitors are encouraged to go through the show scavenger-hunt style, finding the various elements from the book that have been incorporated.
''It's all meant to be touched,'' Blatch-Geib said, ''in keeping with the theatricality of it.
''It's in essence a kid's show, but I've seen adults, when they think they are by themselves, down on the floor playing as much as the children do.''
Children whose illustrations were chosen for display were invited, along with their families, to a small reception Jan. 19 in the Corbin Gallery.
Peter Pan-related programs continue in February with the This City Reads! month of events, including the annual Day of Reading on Feb. 13. On that day, the art museum will hold an event for a preselected group of Akron public elementary schoolchildren, including reading scenes from Peter Pan in the Corbin Gallery, appearances by costumed Cuyahoga Valley Youth Ballet dancers and a hands-on art-making activity.
On Feb. 16, the museum will hold Peter Pan Family Drop-in Day, which includes activities, a performance and dance workshop by the ballet's Peter Pan cast, sounds by the Akron Youth Symphony and a viewing of a 1924 silent film version of the Peter Pan tale in the museum's auditorium. Among the activities will be set and costume design and makeup artistry with Blatch-Geib and Hardin.
All the Peter Pan-related activities will be free. Admission to the museum's collection and special exhibitions galleries is free for members and children 12 and younger.
On March 8, the museum will hold a Peter Pan and the Performing Arts Workshop for around 50 children from the Summit County branches of the Boys and Girls Club, focusing on connections between the visual and performing arts and explorations of arts careers directly related to these connections. Participating children will view works in the museum's collection with theatrical qualities as well as original costume designs by Viktor Schreckengost.
The children will also participate in activities in set and costume design and theatrical makeup artistry led by local artists and designers Blatch-Geib and Hardin. Lunch will be served at the museum before a complimentary matinee of ballet's Peter Pan at the Civic Theatre.
On March 9, the museum will hold a Peter Pan Costume Brunch, for which families are encouraged to come dressed as their favorite character and enjoy a variety of Neverland-themed buffet offerings (Walk-the-Plank French Toast Sticks, Cheesy Pirate Potatoes) before heading to Peter Pan at the Civic Theatre. Reservations will be taken for 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m., the last seating. Brunch will close at 2:15 p.m. Adults are $12; children ages 3 to 12 are $6. Children under 3 are free.
Dorothy Shinn writes about art and architecture for the Akron Beacon Journal. Send information to her at the Akron Beacon Journal, P.O. Box 640, Akron, OH 44309-0640 or dtgshinn@neo.rr.com.
The new Akron Art Museum has taken its bearings and laid a true course, set out when the building was first planned by Director Mitchell Kahan: to make the museum a friendly port for the community.
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