This exhibit runs from October 4th – January 2nd, 2010
Opening Reception ~ Sunday, October 4th , 3 – 5pm reception
Mark Naftalin, Chance Browne and Barry Urich will provide live music at the reception.
in our Little Gallery: Cartoons and Comic Strips
Bird for Vietnam - Pastel by James Daugherty
The Opening Reception for the Westport Historical Society’s Fall Exhibit, Treasures from the Westport Schools Permanent Art Collection (WSPAC) was held on Sunday, October 4 from 3PM to 5PM in the Betty & Ralph Sheffer Gallery at the Society’s headquarters, 25 Avery Place (opposite Westport Town Hall). 
At the same time, Cartoons and Comic Strips: The Best from the WSPAC Collection will open in the Society’s Little Gallery. The works shown record the ever-changing political and social scene. Using exaggeration and distortion cartoonists have portrayed the human condition – and dare us to laugh at ourselves.
“This year, the collection celebrates a significant 45th birthday,” said Ann Chernow, whose involvement has been key to the growth of the Collection. “It has grown from its first donation – Singing Policeman, a pencil sketch donated by the renowned artist Ben Shahn – to a collection now numbering over 1000 artworks.”
The exhibit, dedicated to the late Burt Chernow – who in 1964 began assembling the Collection while an art teacher at Green’s Farms School will showcase over 40 artworks by some of the art world’s modern giants including Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Jean Dubuffet, Victor Vasarely, Robert Motherwell, Christo and Jeanne Claude and Alex Katz, plus some of WSPAC’s newly acquired donations.
“The Westport Schools Permanent Art Collection (WSPAC) is a unique community resource” commented Carole Erger-Fass the WSPAC Committee’s co-chairman. “It hangs in the hallways and offices in all our schools as well as in our public buildings, so our school children walk by it every day and learn at an early age that art can be an integral part of their lives and that it is an important part of their town’s artistic heritage.”
The exhibit also will feature an exciting tie-in to the ongoing ArtSmart program in the elementary schools. ArtSmart chairmen Stacia Jacobs and Rebecca Kudwitt and Kathie Bennewitz have planned an October training session for participating parents and the artworks in the exhibit will be the subject for ArtSmart projects.
The community is invited to the opening reception for this little-known town treasure which, in 2004, received the Governor’s Art Award from the Connecticut Commission of Culture and Tourism. Refreshments will be served and the admission is free. The exhibits will be on view until January 2, 2010.
