Ross Art Museum to Host ‘Full of Grace’ Panel Discussion, Reception Sept. 13
The “Full of Grace” photography exhibit, now on display at Ohio Wesleyan University’s Richard M. Ross Art Museum, includes “Labhuben, India,” by Fazal Sheikh. This 2007 image is a carbon pigment print on Hahnemuhle archival photo rag paper and is exhibited courtesy of The Cohen Family Collection.
DELAWARE, Ohio – Ray Merritt, author of the book “Full of Grace” and curator of the acclaimed photography exhibit of the same name, will moderator a panel discussion about the show and then attend an exhibit reception at Ohio Wesleyan University.
The “Full of Grace” exhibit, now on display at Ohio Wesleyan’s Richard M. Ross Art Museum, includes more than 150 photographs that capture the essence of childhood from the 1850s through today. Merritt will moderate a panel of five photography experts who each will discuss two memorable photographs in the show. The panelists will explain why they chose their respective images and provide some historical background about the artists who created them.
The panel discussion will begin at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 13 in Room 312 of the R.W. Corns Building, 78 S. Sandusky St., Delaware. It will be immediately followed by a reception in the Ross Art Museum, 60 S. Sandusky St., Delaware. Both events are free and open to the public.
Scheduled panelists include Joe Baio, a New York art patron who loaned several images to the “Full of Grace” exhibit; Catherine Evans, photography curator for the Columbus Museum of Art; and practicing photographers/photography educators Fredrik Marsh, John Fergus-Jean, and Jeff Nilan. Marsh is a 2008 Guggenheim Fellow who lecturers at The Ohio State University; Fergus-Jean teaches at Columbus College of Art & Design, and Nilan teaches at Ohio Wesleyan.
Panel moderator Merritt has authored and edited five books on photography, including” A Thousand Hounds,” “Shared Space,” and “Full of Grace.” Oprah Magazine has called the “Full of Grace” collection “dazzlingly elegant, elegiac, moving, and exhilarating. … This is childhood seen through the clear lens of curiosity, filtered with compassion and respect.”
Merritt also has served as a trustee of the photography committees of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the International Center of Photography, and the Whitney Museum of American Art (all in New York), as well as the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Fla. His philanthropic activities include work with the U.S. Fund for UNICEF and the Third Millennium Fund.
“Full of Grace” will be on display in Ohio Wesleyan’s Ross Art Museum through Oct. 7. During the academic year, 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. Learn more about the Ross Art Museum at https://www.owu.edu/about/offices-services/richard-m-ross-art-museum/.
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.