A Look Through The Windows Of American Art, June 8 With Alma Kearns

If the eyes are said to be the windows into a person’s soul, surely a nation’s art must be windows into its character.

Newtown Historical Society will look through the windows of American art on Monday, June 8, at 7:30 pm, in the community room of C.H. Booth Library, 25 Main Street.

The program, “What You Can Learn About American History from Visiting the New Britain Museum of American Art,” will be presented by museum docent and Sandy Hook resident Alma Kearns.

The virtual tour of the museum will offer a chance to view American history through the artists’ eyes. From Colonial portraits, which offered the rich a chance to establish their immortality in a prephotographic age, to the artists’ perception of the 9/11 tragedy, all the great moments in US history — and many of the lesser moments — have been fitting subjects for the artist’s pen, brush, graver, and chisel.

Many tend to think of historical paintings as the monumental depictions of Revolutionary War events that helped to establish a national identity in the early republic. What would the country’s development have been had there not also have been the sublime vistas of the Hudson River School, or the biting commentary of a editorial cartoonist? Art styles change as well as the events, and these changes will be reflected in the works of art to be shown, including a bequest from Newtown’s own Olga Knoepke.

The New Britain Museum of American Art has been collecting American art for nearly a century, and has built a fine representation of works from all periods and styles. While many regional museums tend to emphasize their eclectic nature by collecting objects from the ancient world through every European art movement that once rocked the critics, the New Britain museum has specialized in American art.

Some years ago, The Wall Street Journal described the museum in contrast to the usual pattern of eclecticism, saying, “Some small museums try to do everything, collecting art from Egypt up through Abstract Expressionism and too often sacrificing quality to comprehensiveness. In contrast, the New Britain Museum of American Art is limited, focusing on a selection of US paintings, watercolors, prints and sculptures that could well make one proud of native achievements.”

Alma Kearns is a former teacher, having retired after 42 years in the Milford School System. She has always been interested in art, and became a docent in order to combine her love for art with her teaching expertise. She has been a resident of Sandy Hook for more than 35 years.

Newtown Historical Society programs are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served following the presentation.

For further information, call 426-5037.