How to go:
What: Miami University Art Museum fall exhibition featuring Creatures Great and Small
Where: 801 S. Patterson Ave.
When: Aug. 24 through Dec. 10, museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday though Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday. The museum is closed Sunday and Monday.
Cost: Free and parking is available at the museum
For more information on the exhibit and special programming throughout the fall semester, go online to arts.muohio.edu/art-museum
The public is invited to an opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 2.
OXFORD — People of all ages can discover something about animals — and humans — at the new Miami University Art Museum exhibitions on creatures great and small.
The exhibit, which opens Aug. 24 through Dec. 10, features animals in artwork from around the world.
“Part of the intention behind this exhibit is that of discovery,” said Director Bob Wicks. “And how practicing artists throughout history have placed animals in their art.”
Filling three of the five galleries at the museum, the exhibit starts with a display of about 40 children’s books that teach moral lessons through animals.
The books, many first editions from the special collections at King Library, are supplemented with artwork like Disney’s Jiminy Cricket. The original Alice in Wonderland film also will be playing.
In the two main galleries, a range of artwork from all of the world is displayed featuring creatures from frogs to dragons.
“It reflects the use of animals in art in all cultures,” said Wicks, who organized the display with Registrar Laura Henderson as they also searched for a new exhibition curator for the museum.
Visitors will first see small animals like insects and birds featured in everything from jewelry to an unusually large piece of pottery from Santa Fey.
Items that come from different cultures are unexpectedly paired together, like a colorful piece made in 2003 by Miami tribal artist Eugene Brown for the university’s bicentennial. On the back of a turtle bearing the Miami seal is a crane, said to have once sounded the alarm when the tribe was about to be attacked. Nearby in the room, a crane also is featured on a door from the Ivory Coast.
Among pieces in the large animal section is Andy Warhol’s bright pink cow on a yellow background. And surrounding it are drawings featuring cattle by an artist in Cincinnati.
“This exhibit is a wonderful tool for allowing people to see animals in a context they wouldn’t normally,” said Jason Shaiman, new curator of exhibitions.
“There’s something for everyone in this exhibit. Adults will have fun with it as well as children,” said Henderson.
Contact this reporter at (513) 523-4139 or mengle@coxohio.com.
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