Creation in action
Mary Helsaple featured in new America's Parks Exhibition
Sedona watercolor artist Mary Helsaple is featured in the new America's Parks traveling exhibition.
An exhibit of America’s Parks is scheduled to launch in December, 2015. It is the third edition of America’s Parks. Artworks in this exhibition are drawn principally from artists who participated in the first edition of America’s Parks, though some were added because they were award-winners in the second America’s Parks exhibition. Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, defines a park as “. . . an area of natural, semi-natural, or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats.” Artworks included in this encore exhibition depict scenes from all kinds of parks (national, state, county, city) by these exhibiting artists:
Carel P. Brest van Kempen (Holladay, UT), Cheryl Price (El Prado, NM), Anni Crouter (Flint, MI), Aaron Schuerr (Livingston, MT), Mary Garrish (Merritt Island, FL), Jeanne Rosier Smith (Sudbury, MA), Shawn Gould (Eureka, CA), Mark Susinno (Harrisburg, PA), Karen Hanken (Jacksonville, OR) Carol Swinney (Casper, WY), Tom Helfin (Rockford, IL), Fred Thomas (Shoreline, WA), Mary Helsaple (Sedona, AZ), Ezra Tucker (Monument, CO), Bailey Hill (St. Helens, OR), Alexandra Tyng (Narberth, PA), Evelyn McCorristin Peters (Myakka City, FL), Ronnie W. Williford (Bertram, TX), Rhonda Nass (Prairie du Sac, WI), James Wisnowski (Los Angeles, CA), Jennifer Oakley-DeLaPlante (Cedar, MI), Suze Woolf (Seattle, WA), Anne Peyton (Phoenix, AZ)
The history of park art in America is broad and deep, going all the way back to 1871 and the campaign to rescue Yellowstone by transforming it into the nation's first National Park. In 1871, Ferdinand V. Hayden, director of the Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, led an expedition to Wyoming to explore the then - unexplored Yellowstone region. Accompanying Hayden were landscape painter Thomas Moran and photographer William Henry Jackson. After the expedition, Moran’s watercolors and Jackson’s photographs were used to lobby Congress to pass a bill to protect and preserve Yellowstone as “a public park or pleasuring ground.” President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill creating the nation’s first National P ark on March 1, 1872. Th is exhibition is produced by David J. Wagner, L.L.C., and curated by David J. Wagner, Ph.D., who proposed and managed the first tour of the exhibition ARTS FOR THE PARKS many years ago , served as a Juror f or that exhibit, and as a member of the Advisory Board of the National Park Art Academy .
AMERICA'S PARKS is an entirely new initiative produced by David J. Wagner, L.L.C. TOUR ITINERARY (Subject to change. Check with venues for days and hours of display.)
December 4, 2015 - January 31, 2016, Dane G. Hansen Memorial Museum, 110 West Main Logan, KS, hansenmuseum.org
March 14 - May 14, 2016, Mari Sandoz High Plain Heritage Center, Chadron State College, 1000 Main Street, Chadron, NE, sandozcenter.com
June 8 - August 31, 2016, The Lightner Museum, 75 King Street, St. Augustine, FL, lightnermuseum.org
September 16 - October 30, 2016, George A. Spiva Center for the Arts, 222 W. 3rd Street, Joplin, MO, spivaarts.org
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