March 5, 2008

Step into a World of Artistic Beauty at OWU’s Ross Art Museum

Enjoying the art and ambiance at the Ross Art Museum’s current exhibition.

Until April 7, 2008, guests walking into the museum step into a small apartment in a time very different from our own. The Space of Freedom: Apartment Exhibition in Leningrad 1964-1986, features the works of various artists who were forbidden by the Russian government from exhibiting their works.

“It’s a three-dimensional installation,” says Kronewetter. “The theatre department at the University of Richmond built the apartment to simulate what a run-down Soviet-era apartment would look like.” It was in apartments like these that Russian artists, fighting back against restrictions of artistic expression, exhibited their art in secret.

The ideas for museum exhibits come from different sources, including faculty and staff members. When Kronewetter is traveling, he occasionally sees exhibitions that would look great in the museum, and some of them eventually do come to Ohio Wesleyan.

Kronewetter has been the director of the Museum since its opening in 2002. Since then, he and his staff have been working hard to bring artists and their work to campus.

“I have a whole box of exhibition ideas … far more ideas than can be mounted in any three years,” says Kronewetter. When there is an opportunity for an exhibit to come to the museum, Kronewetter first decides what best fits the needs of various interest groups at OWU. He then contacts related academic departments to try to schedule the exhibit at the most appropriate time.

Kronewetter collaborates with the rest of the faculty because he has a desire to reach out to members of the entire campus community, rather than just fine arts students. The Space of Freedom is on a national tour, and only four schools in the nation will have an opportunity to display it.

The other two exhibits at the museum now are Witness: An Exhibition of Narrative Jewelry by Kathleen Browne and Drawing on Nature: Photographs and Drawings by Christopher Davis ’86.

Though Kronewetter does not have a favorite piece in these exhibitions, he encourages all to come and experience them before they are gone. “Anybody can just take 20-30 minutes to come and further their art awareness,” says Kronewetter, who would love to see more students visit the museum.

Take his advice. Take the time. Take away a new appreciation for all types of artistic creation.

– Shade Fakunle ’10