Ohio Wesleyan University to Host Acclaimed ‘Full of Grace’ Art Exhibition
Richard M. Ross Art Museum
DELAWARE, OHIO – Oprah Magazine has called the “Full of Grace” collection of children in photography “dazzlingly elegant, elegiac, moving, and exhilarating. … This is childhood seen through the clear lens of curiosity, filtered with compassion and respect.”
A selection of nearly 150 photographs culled from the 2007 book created by author and editor Ray Merritt will be on display from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. July 20 for a one-time summer reception at Ohio Wesleyan University’s Richard M. Ross Art Museum, 60 S. Sandusky St., Delaware. The community is invited to attend the free event, which will feature live music and light refreshments.
“This is a very special exhibit,” said museum director Justin Kronewetter, M.F.A. “It offers a fascinating and often provocative view of society’s understandable obsession with the construct of childhood from the 1850s through contemporary times.
“Nearly every kind of photographic printing technique created during that timeframe will be represented in the show,” Kronewetter continued. “Some of the images are as easy to look at as those in a family photo album. Other images are more challenging, such as a 1945 photograph of a young boy walking past corpses outside a prison camp after World War II.”
Photographers featured in the Ohio Wesleyan exhibition include a veritable who’s who in photography, including Dorthea Lange, Gordon Park, August Sander, and Ralph Gibson. The exhibit also will feature a hand-colored photograph of Alice Liddell by “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” author Lewis Carroll.
Following the July 20 community reception, the museum will close for the summer and reopen in August for Ohio Wesleyan’s fall semester. The “Full of Grace” exhibit then will be on display from Aug. 23 through Oct. 7. When classes are in session, the museum is open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The museum is fully handicap-accessible and admission is always free.
Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier small, private universities, with more than 90 undergraduate majors, sequences, and courses of study, and 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Located in Delaware, Ohio, just minutes north of Ohio’s capital and largest city, Columbus, the university combines a globally focused curriculum with off-campus learning and leadership opportunities that translate classroom theory into real-world practice. OWU’s close-knit community of 1,850 students represents 47 states and 57 countries. Ohio Wesleyan was named to the 2012 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with distinction, is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” and is included on the “best colleges” lists of U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review. Learn more at www.owu.edu.