Creating an exhibit is a little bit like baking a cake: What do you have? What can you borrow from a neighbor? What do you want it to taste - or in this case, look - like?
The “Art From the Earth” exhibit, on show through Feb.
22 at the Rogers Historical Museum, started with what Gaye Bland, the museum’s former director, and Terrilyn Wendling, now assistant director, wanted it to look like - “something art-based” to complement what visitors might see at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art but with the meat of history as the main dish.
“We could have done a whole exhibit on art pottery. It’s a huge deal,” Wendling says. “But that’s a little too art-based for a history museum. So we got more into how pottery has evolved from the earthenware of the Native Americans to stone ware, which was very prominent in late 19th century homes, to the art pottery, which people all over America collect.”
That was the recipe.
Then Wendling took a look at what was in the museum’s “pantry.”
“Because I’ve been here so long, I have quite an idea of what we have and don’t have,” says Wendling, a seven-year employee. “But it still surprises me sometimes. We have lots of little gems everywhere in storage.”
And finally, she borrowed some ingredients from neighbors - pieces from the Mississippian culture from the University Museum, Fiestaware from a private collector and other objects from the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History in Springdale.
The result starts with NativeAmerican pottery produced by the Mississippians and the Caddos.
“These simple but important pieces have been found all across the state of Arkansas,” Wendling says in a news release.
“Some had practical uses, others ceremonial significance.”
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, pottery was purelyfunctional for American families.
“Stoneware crocks, pitchers and jugs helped American families preserve food, cure meat and make sauerkraut in the 19th century,” Wendling says by way of example.
And then it became decorative.
“Broadly called art pottery, such pieces maintained their functional form, but the focus was on the design and glazes,” she says. “Many of these art pottery companies were based in Ohio, but several potteries started in Arkansas as well, with Camark and Niloak being the most well-known.”
“Niloak is very collectible because it’s unique,” she says.
“They dyed the actual clay;
it wasn’t a glaze they applied later.”
But Wendling doesn’t collect.
“It would be a conflict of interest to start collecting what the museum collects,” she says.
Then she chuckles.
Whats Up, Pages 12 on 11/29/2013