Zanesville Art Museum

When I was a teen, I was a bit of a romantic. I read Jane Austin and Emily Bronte, I listened to Mozart and I had Vincent Van Gogh's works hanging on my wall. I wanted to experience this wider world that I'd heard so much about and had seen so little of. I wanted to be sophisticated.

One of my favorite places to get away and feel fulfilled in my hometown was the Art Museum. For a small town, Zanesville has quite an impressive collection. The museum building is a glassy, open, modern building full of permanent exhibitions of pottery (both local and international), paintings and an Asian art collection.

While I was at home during the holidays, I had some visitors from out of town. I decided to show off the local culture and take them to the Art Museum. It really is a great place to spend a few hours. And a great asset to the community. There was a featured exhibit called: The Photographs of Jane Reece: Will and Energy. She was a Zanesville native born in the late 19th century and one of the first women to really break into the photography industry. Beautiful strong images.

Unfortunately, I also learned that the museum has lost 50% of its funding and is struggling to remain open. If it closes its doors then that would shut out so many people from experiencing art first hand. I see art as important to life because it isn't the creation of one person but a reflection of a people's collective experience. The pottery alone represents Zanesville's people, land, culture, history and world view.

If you are in the Zanesville area, I encourage you to get out and go support the museum. Go alone, take a friend, get your grandparents to go, take a child..... Go.

www.zanesvillemuseumofart.org