News Release Robert Henri Museum
COZAD, Neb.-The Robert Henri Museum and Art Gallery is pleased to announce that it will begin its regular summer season hours on Saturday, May 7, at 10:30 a.m. The official opening will begin with the organization hosting three special events at the museum on 218 East 8th Street, in Cozad, Nebraska.
The first event will be the presentation of the Rising Sun Award to the museum from the NEBRASKAland Foundation. The award is a major emphasis of the Foundation and recognizes outstanding new tourism attractions or significant expansions to existing attractions and efforts in economic and social development. In recent years some of the other groups that have received the award have included Stuhr Museum in Grand Island, Bone Creek Museum of Agrarian Art in David City, and the Minden Opera House in Minden.
The museum will then formally open its new exhibit From Cozad to the State Prison: The Colorful Character of Miles Maryott. The exhibit provides visitors with a new look at the work of Miles Maryott, a Nebraska painter whose family had an association with Cozad. His parents Asahel and Emily Herrick Maryott managed the Hendee Hotel (currently the museum) after the Cozads left Nebraska in 1884. They purchased a half section south of Cozad and farmed there. Miles Maryott went on to become a professional ballplayer, marksman, taxidermist and well-known artist, one of the few painting Nebraska scenes in the 1920s. Of special interest will be a special chest of drawers containing a partial collection of eggs that Maryott preserved as part of his larger taxidermy collection. It was a gift of Mary and Gary White.
Major contributions that made the exhibit possible have come from Humanities Nebraska, Nebraska Cultural Endowment, the Ervin and Grace Burkholder Foundation, the Bridge Marathon, Dawson Home, Paulsen Inc., the Kosman Foundation, the museum’s Annual Fund and the membership and friends of the Robert Henri Museum and Art Gallery. The museum also sells a short biography of Maryott by Shirley Sullivan entitled Miles Maryott: His Life and Times.
The museum will also be featuring two major exhibitions. The first is entitled Through My Own Language: Robert Henri and His Portraits, Paintings and Sketches. This exhibit includes sixteen of Henri’s paintings and portraits and many of the sketches that it owns including recent acquisitions and those loaned by its patrons. The show includes interpretive components on Henri’s life and his students and features the most current knowledge about the artist.
The second major exhibit is From the 100th Meridian to International Fame. The exhibit provides visitors with an overview of the Cozad and Henri story from their arrival from Ohio in 1873 to their departure after the shooting of Alf Pearson in 1882. It includes the results of research that the museum's director has been undertaking for the last two years. There have been many interesting discoveries that allow for a more complete interpretation of the Cozad family's time in Nebraska.
The day’s programs will include tours of the Cozad home, museum and gallery, light refreshments provided by the Cozad Tourism Promotion Committee and gift shop specials.
In addition, the museum’s art gallery has made two new additions this year as it has been loaned a significant Henri painting -Normandie Farm House. Normandie Farm House, painted in 1902, may be the exterior view of another painting the museum has on display called Normandie Interior. Normandie Farm House is on loan from the Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA) in Kearney. This loan is part of MONA’s efforts to promote the work of Nebraska artists and to collaborate with other art institutions in the state. It comes from the collection of Jane Rohman, a long-time Cozad area resident and museum supporter. The museum recently was also the recipient of a generous donation of a portrait that is believed to have been painted when Robert Henri was a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia from 1886-1888.
Finally, the museum is pleased to announce that it will be hosting its first two 2022 Artists of the Month in May. The first show will include students from kindergarten to the fifth grade in Cozad Elementary School and will have their works on display from May 1 to May 14. A reception for the students, their parents and the general public will take place from 5:00-7:00 on Friday, May 6 at the museum. As part of their exhibition, they ask this question:
What did you learn in school today?
Today, I learned that red and blue make purple. Today, I helped my friend with her drawing.
Today, I learned I'm an artist!
The 429 students at Cozad Elementary learn all these things and more in their art classes.
Learners in Kindergarten through 5th grade start with the basic art concepts, such as line, texture, and color. As they progress through the grades, they build on what they
have learned, and apply those skills to more complex pieces. They tackle 3-D sculpture, one and two-point perspectives, how to mix and use color, and portraiture, both representational and abstract. Different art styles such as prehistoric cave art, classical masterworks, and modern pieces serve as inspiration for students to explore and create their own art. Cozad Elementary students work hard on their projects and are thrilled to share them with the museum and its visitors.
From May 15 to May 31, Jim Dodds, a photographer from Gothenburg will be the second artist to show at the museum. Jim was raised in the Sandhills of Nebraska. After he retired he began to study photography and enjoyed taking pictures of natural subjects. He loves to capture and document the wonders of the outdoors and the beauty of the world and God’s creations. He loves to share his work. A reception to honor Jim will take place for the general public from 5:00-7:00 on Thursday, May 19 at the museum.
The Artist of the Month program, now in its eighth year, was established to encourage understanding and appreciation of the arts in central Nebraska and to promote the legacy of Robert Henri, one of America’s greatest art instructors. He taught hundreds of
students over his long career including Edward Hopper, Rockwell Kent, Marjorie Ryerson and Elizabeth Grandin. Artists can apply to the museum for consideration for entry into the program by going to its web page and printing off the application and submitting it.
Applications are currently being accepted for the 2023 program.
The Robert Henri Museum and Art Gallery is a national treasure that is the result of the work of many volunteers, board members and professional staff who have toiled for more than thirty years. The effort to preserve Robert Henri’s legacy in Cozad started with a small group of people who saw the opportunity to bring recognition to the town that was once home to the acclaimed artist and native son, Robert Henri. This group, led by Shirley Paulsen, bought and restored the former Hendee Hotel, Henri’s boyhood home. The committee also established the Historical Walkway which included an original Pony Express Station, the New Hope Evangelical Country Church, and the Country District Schoolhouse No. 86, a one-room school.
With local support and generous donations from Cozad and Henri family members, local and area donors from across the United States, the Robert Henri Museum and Art Gallery’s collection continues to grow. The first Henri painting donated to the museum in 1988 was Portrait of Queen Mariana. Since then, numerous donations and loans of Henri works have been made. In 2014, a climate-controlled art gallery was built to house the collection. Today the Art Gallery houses the largest display of Robert Henri works in the world, including sixteen paintings and forty-three sketches. In addition, there are works by several of his students including Marjorie Organ, Marjory Ryerson, John Sloan and Ernest Fiene.
The museum and art gallery are located at 218 East 8th Street in Cozad and will be open from May 1 to November 1 on Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information about the May 7 program call 308-784-4154 or visit the museum’s web page at www.roberthenrimuseum.org.