By Kaleb Fobair
Reporter
The Longwell Museum is displaying the vault exhibit, showcasing pieces from the Longwell’s art vault, such as woodblock prints and original lithographs from Thomas Hart Benton. The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Elsie Plaster Community Center on the Neosho Crowder College campus on Mondays through Fridays.
The vault show has many different themes, including an American regionalism section. Along with twenty, beautiful woodblock prints from Japan. There are also a few paintings and watercolors.
The main theme of the exhibit is to show the regional history of the area, like how Neosho is the birthplace of Thomas Hart Benton, a struggling artist that traveled around the country teaching art. While also showing his contribution to the regions and his influence on people.
Speaking on the theme of the show, “You know, great things can have humble beginnings and so I think, to show that to the student body and it’s like yeah you can, right now you’re part of history. Even at Crowder College, where some people might think, it’s just some place in the middle of southwestern Missouri. It’s like we can really contribute to things,” Novak summarizes the main theme of the exhibit as a whole.
Joshua Novak, the art director over the Longwell Museum, informs students about this year’s exhibit. The show opened Sept. 1 and ends on Oct. 20. “Kind of selected themes because that collection is amassed over 40 years.” Novak, speaking on the theme of the exhibit.
The Longwell museum, named after Dan and Marry Longwell was established in 1970. Originally named the Crowder College Museum of Arts and Science, this museum was opened to be a learning museum to educate students.
The name would later be changed to the Longwell museum after Dan and Marry would donate most of their art pieces from their private collection to Crowder College to be put in the museum. The Longwell’s worked for LIFE and Time magazine back in the 40s and 50s.
“Dan Longwell was actually the founder of Life magazine. It was the first magazine publication with colored photographs and the Longwell Museum is kind of notable for its collection of American regionalism which is primarily started by Thomas Hart Benton and a few other big-name artists.” Novak explains
Today the museum holds the whole LIFE Magazine collection, the Daisy Cook collection and several Thomas Hart Benton original lithographs. The museum has seventy seven pedestals to display artwork from regional and national artists throughout the year as well.
While this year’s exhibit doesn’t get into the context of the Longwells, “The vault show that we have right now is probably one of the best displays of that history you know.” Novak saids.
The vault show is free to the public and is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. The vault show is not a yearly exhibit, it will be shown every two years as they try to bring new art shows to the museum. The last day of the vault exhibit is on Oct. 20 and the Longwell museum is located in the Elsie Plaster Community Center on the Neosho Crowder College campus.
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