Gaelic Gathering at the Everhart

Celebrate Irish traditions at the Gaelic Gathering at the Everhart, a fun, 21 and older Irish-themed event on Friday, July 14 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The Gathering takes place on the Museum grounds in Nay Aug Park and features a slate of exciting elements.

All is provided with the cost of registration of $50 per person.

Space Time Mead & Cider Works Announces Winner of Label Art Competition

Space Time Mead & Cider Works is pleased to announce Megan Runco of Scranton as the winner of the Third Annual Space Time Mead & Cider Works Label Art Competition. Runco’s piece Fragility in Bloom won both the Judges’ Selection and the People’s Choice Selection out of 16 entries.

The winning artwork. Created using pencil and alcohol inks on yupo paper.

This year’s theme is the “Overview Effect,” which is the shift in perspective that astronauts experience in observing Earth from space. “Many people experienced their own perspectives and priorities shifting because of the global pandemic,” said Dan Schreffler, President/Winemaker of Space Time Mead & Cider Works. “Megan’s work really captured both a different way to view the world and a hope for a better future.”

Runco’s artwork will be featured on the label of a wine named “The Overview Effect.” The style and release date of the wine are yet to be determined. “This artwork needs a special wine worthy of the label Megan created,” added Schreffler.

“I felt very excited and honored to have my art selected to be a part of a great local product,” said Runco. “The work was inspired from the fragile, yet important role flowers and pollination play in the balance of life. I wanted this piece to represent something so important yet quite delicate.”

Dan Schreffler of Space Time Mead & Cider Works presenting $200 check to Brent Guzik, Communications Manager, Everhart Museum.

The competition raised $200, which was donated the Everhart Museum.  “The Everhart Museum is grateful to Space Time Mead & Cider Works for its dedication to promoting and celebrating local artists, as well as for its generous contribution to the Everhart’s mission of educating, inspiring, and enriching our community through natural history, science, art, and humanities,” said Brent Guzik, Everhart Museum communications manager.

Spacetime Mead & Cider Works Label Competition

Space Time Mead & Cider Works is sponsoring its 3rd Annual Label Art Competition. All proceeds from the contest will go to the Everhart Museum. Prizes will be given to the winners.

This year’s theme is the “Overview Effect” – a shift in perspective, attributed to astronauts “experiencing firsthand the reality of the Earth in space, which is immediately understood to be a tiny, fragile ball of life, “hanging in the void”, shielded and nourished by a paper-thin atmosphere.”

“I found by talking with our customers, vendors, and family that there has been a realignment of priorities as a result of the pandemic and other transformative events that occurred in the past year.” Says Dan Schreffler. “The change in day-to-day interactions, recovering from serious illnesses, accidents, and other losses have forced us to question how we spend our time and challenge us to make positive quality of life changes.”

The competition entry deadline is August 1, 2021. The winner will be announced in August. All official competition rules, forms and dates can be found by visiting http://www.spacetimemeadworks.com/labelcompetition.html.

Museum Adventure Weeks to Return to Everhart this Summer

Museum Adventure Weeks are back this summer at the Everhart Museum. Three (3) sessions of summer camp are planned with two unique options for young explorers, both encouraging learning, exploration, and discovery. Adventures in the Museum campers will have the opportunity to explore the indoor and outdoor environments at Nay Aug Park while participating in socially distanced activities when in the museum. Adventures at Home is a week-long adventure toolkit, including all
materials for campers to explore the museum collection from home. Adventures at Home include the option to participate in LIVE virtual classes, tours, and activities with Museum staff on designated virtual weeks. The Museum uses Google Classroom for all virtual participation.

WHAT: Museum Adventure Weeks
WHEN: June 21st-July 30th
GRADES: Kindergarten through 6th
COST: Adventure in the Museum: $180 member, $200 non-member
Adventure at Home: $40 member, $45 non-member
Registration; Opens on May 3rd

Museum Adventure Weeks center on the creative exploration of the Everhart Museum collection and the Nay Aug Park environment. Each week, campers will experience a new topic or theme that uses both art and science in a hands-on, multi-modal approach to learning. Instructors will use visual thinking strategies and inquiry-based learning to talk about art and art objects from around the globe.

WEEK 1: NATURE WEEK
“LENNY’S FIRST FLIGHT”
Adventure at Home Dates: June 21st-25th
Adventure in the Museum Dates: June 28th-July 2nd

WEEK 2: ART WEEK
“THE LAND AROUND US”
Adventure at Home Dates: July 5th-9th
Adventure in the Museum Dates: July 12th-16th

WEEK 3: MYSTERY WEEK
“THE DIGS!”
Adventure at Home Dates: July 19th-23rd
Adventure in the Museum Dates: July 26th-30th

To learn more about Museums Adventure Weeks or to register, parents and guardians are encouraged to visit Summer at the Everhart on the Museum’s website
https://everhart-museum.org/museum-adventure-summer-program/ or email
assistant.programs@everhart-museum.org. Museum Adventure Week is funded in part by Arts Engage!, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC), the Overlook Estate Foundation, and the Maslow Family Foundation.

Everhart Museum Begins Second Sunday Folk Arts Series

In partnership with the PA Council on the Arts Folk & Traditional Initiative, the Everhart Museum is working to sustain cultural and artistic practices rooted in people’s histories, traditions, and everyday lives in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Pike, Susquehanna, Wayne, and Wyoming counties.

To share and educate the community on the creative practices rooted in our region’s traditions, the Museum has introduced the Second Sunday Folk Arts Series. The series will feature a different Folk or Traditional Artist each month. The Second Sundays Folk Art Series began at 2:00 pm on Sunday, March 14th as an online presentation.

“The Second Sunday Folk Art Series allows us to honor and highlight some of our region’s amazing artists who have spent their lives practicing, performing, and preserving traditional arts,” said Stefanie Colarusso, the Museum’s Director of Programs and Events. “We have an amazing line-up for 2021. Some of the artists we’ll feature may be familiar to you, and some you’ll be learning about for the first time. Each one of them has incredible stories to share about their journey within their own art form.”

The folk and traditional arts often come from a specific ethnic, religious, linguistic, occupational, or regional group. Folk and traditional arts practices are shaped and shared within families, neighborhoods, and communities and are passed down from one generation to another.

“It is a program celebrating not only each artist’s art form but, more specifically, it is an exploration of their own journey within that art. Stories of the artists’ upbringing, their personal inspirations and teachers, their own artistic processes, and the way they have shared this art with others are also highlighted in the programs,” said Kimberly Crafton, host of the Second Sundays Series.

Those who will be presenting are Maxwell Kofi Donkor, Gaston (Bonga) Jean-Baptiste, Nina Kouznetsov, Frank LittleBear, Peg McDade, Sujata Nair-Mulloth, Mona Pande, Leo Schott, Jr., Doug Smith, and Dr. Kathy Wang.

The initiative seeks to identify and document traditional artists in the NEPA region, assist those artists in keeping their traditions and create community access to folk arts through presentations, performances, workshops, and other programs.

A full schedule of the Second Sundays Folk Art Series is available on the Museum’s website https://everhart-museum.org/second-sunday-folk-art-series-virtual-ongoing/

Everhart Museum Names Kathy Johnson Bowles as Executive Director

After a nationwide six-month search and with assistance from Arts Consulting Group, the Board of Trustees of the Everhart Museum is pleased to announce that Kathy “Johnson” Bowles has been selected as the new Executive Director. Ms. Johnson Bowles brings with her thirty-two years of experience in museum management and higher education, specializing in fundraising, strategic planning, community engagement, diversity and inclusion, and sustainability.

Ms. Johnson Bowles has worked extensively with educational and not-for-profit institutions creating
philanthropic and revenue-generating solutions as the CEO of Gordian Knot Consulting, as a senior
executive in higher education, and as a museum director. Her advice on management best practices has been published in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Inside Higher Education, the National Association of University and College Business Officers, among others. As a museum director, she has organized more
than 120 exhibitions and has written numerous catalogs and essays for national publications.

” Ms. Johnson Bowles successfully led Longwood University’s Longwood Center for the Visual Art to national accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums and received more than a dozen international, national, and regional awards for excellence in programs and publications. Her experience is extensive, and the Board of Trustees and I have much confidence in her ability to provide the guidance and leadership needed as we look to the future,” said Don Frederickson, Chairman of the Board of Trustees.

Ms. Johnson Bowles has provided service to national, state, and regional boards, including an
appointment by the Governor of Virginia to The Library of Virginia Board, and was a Fellow with the
American Council on Education, the Harvard Management Institute, and the National Endowment for
the Arts.

“I am passionate about the role museums play in communities. Museums allow us to showcase our history, connect it to our lives today as we imagine the future. I hope to bring my experience to the Everhart, guiding and leading the team to achieve institutional excellence through focused innovation and shared responsibility as we serve the public,” said Ms. Johnson Bowles.

Kathy Johnson Bowles will relocate to the Scranton area from North Carolina. The move will bring her closer to her daughter, who resides in Philadelphia.

Art in Bloom Returns to the Everhart Museum

The Everhart Museum announced today that Art in Bloom will return to the Museum on Friday, March 26th, and on Saturday, March 27th. Art in Bloom is a celebration of the Museum’s collection as interpreted through fresh flowers created by some of the region’s most talented designers. The event was sidelined last year due to the global pandemic. The phrase “Art in Bloom” was created by Lorriane M. Pitts, a volunteer at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The original exhibition was previewed in 1976. It comprised traditional visual art pieces and flower arrangements done by local professional florists, designers, and garden club members. Art in Bloom is held at museums across the country.

Close to a dozen works and objects from the Everhart’s collection will be showcased alongside floral designs creating a visual juxtaposition that speaks to art and nature lovers alike. On Friday the 26th, the event will kick off at 6:00 pm with a Virtual VIP Preview of the art-inspired floral arrangements created by local designers and virtual entertainment coordinated by Scranton Fringe. The community will have an opportunity to vote for their favorite interpretation on Saturday.

On March 27th, the Art in Bloom exhibit will be on view from 10:00 am – 3:00 pm. Guests will have the opportunity to participate in mobile tours of the galleries, pick up crafts, and activities to take home or shop at our nature-inspired marketplace. Voting will open for the People’s Choice Award and be announced on Saturday afternoon. The event is pay-as-you-wish and open to all ages. 

Interested in participating? You can do so from home. The Museum will offer a series of uniquely designed floral-inspired virtual Live and Pre-recorded classes on Saturday, March 20th, between 10:00a and 4:00 pm. Some of the scheduled programs are a Pressed Flower Demo, Watercolor Painting, and Cookie Making Classes. Classes will be announced soon, and registration in advance is required. All scheduled programs will be free to the public, thanks to our generous sponsors, PNC and Toyota of Scranton. 

Join us for the perfect springtime event: an aesthetic marriage between art and nature. 

The Everhart Announces Upcoming Children’s Programs for Winter and Spring of 2021

The Everhart Museum announced today that registration is now open for the popular Everhart Minis and Junior as well as the newly created Creative Expression Lab. 

In partnership with Marywood University Art Therapy Department the Everhart Museum has created the Creative Expression Lab, inspiring kindergarten through sixth-grade artists to express creativity and imagination and explore social and emotional growth. Weekly themes will integrate social and emotional concepts such as empathy, respect, understanding of one’s emotions, and developing positive social interactions. The Creative Expression Lab is hosted by Dr. Ashley Hartman, Assistant Professor of Art Therapy, a board-credentialed art therapist (ATR-BC), and licensed professional counselor (LPC). Art therapists and students from Marywood University’s Art Therapy Program will develop and co-facilitate Studio Sessions.

Creative Expression Studio Sessions will occur at the Everhart Museum on Saturday afternoons from 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm. Winter Session runs from February 20th through April 3rd, and Spring Session from April 10th through May 22nd.  Member pricing is $35, and non-members are $40. 

Everhart Minis and Everhart Juniors will Explore Printmaking. 

Everhart Mini students (grades kindergarten through fourth) will have the opportunity to explore the art of composition and stamps used in printmaking. Students will learn what is unique about the variety of printmaking processes. Together they will explore artwork around them, their influence on their own artwork, how personal preferences and life experiences influence art, and how they can learn from past artists and connect what they learn into each individual creation. 

Everhart Junior students will be exploring composition, collagraph printmaking, and fashionable art. They will learn various art techniques and better understand the cultural and historical context of each artwork they view.

Sessions for both the Minis and Juniors are as follows: Winter Session Virtual Open Studio at 10:00 am each Saturday starting on February 13th through March 27th. Spring Sessions, which are hybrid, begin on Saturday, April 10th through Saturday, May 22nd.

Spring Session classes are hybrid and will be offered as kits with a live virtual component to all registered students. Limited on-site class seats will be available on a first-come, first-served basis once COVID restrictions are lifted for Spring Session ONLY.

Kits are unique to the Everhart Museum and can be shipped (additional rates apply) outside of Lackawanna County. To subscribe to updates on classroom availability, contact assistant.programs@everhart-museum.org. Notifications will go out ahead of openings.

“The programs offered this winter and spring have great potential to enrich arts learning at home,” said Stefanie Colarusso, Director of Programs. “The minis and juniors classes will provide students with the technical skills needed to create a work of art, and the expression lab is a safe space for all learners to express themselves through active arts learning.”

Member pricing is $35, and non-members are $40 for both the Minis and Juniors. Kits are unique to the Everhart Museum and can be shipped outside of Lackawanna County. 

To Register for all programs, please visit “LEARN” on the Everhart Museums website at www.everhart-museum.org and click the link for member or non-member pricing.