Victor paintings donated to Wassenberg

By Hope Wallace

First Financial Bank has recently gone through some renovations and they generously donated great office furniture, conference room furniture and, best of all, original watercolor paintings of area landmarks by well-known artist former Wassenberg Art Club member, the late Pat Victor. Aside from the fact that these paintings are a wonderful treasure with great local interest, the extra benefit is that they look simply perfect in the conference room here at the new Wassenberg Art Center!

Pat was known at a national level during her career and her work would definitely hold its own in higher end competitions today. Her paintings are recognizable by their bold color, energetic and confident brush strokes, and dramatic skies indicative of this corner of Ohio. The paintings so generously donated by First Financial Bank include the Brumback Library, Van Wert County Fairgrounds, the Marsh home, a farm (we are researching the actual location) and the Van Wert County Courthouse. We wish to extend our thanks to Denise Frey, George Brooks
and Charles Carrier of First Financial Bank for their thoughtfulness in helping these paintings stay together as a group, and keeping them available for our community to enjoy.

We have had additional donations towards our modular display units, and they are much appreciated. We wish to thank Larry and Gloria Wendel, George and Altha Brooks and family, Terry and Verona Eikenbary, Staci Kaufman and Steve Whitcraft, who donated a unit in honor of Dee Whitcraft, and Jerry and Sonia Mazur. The mobile display units are enclosed rectangular structures designed to provide a place to hang artwork while keeping our gallery space flexible. They are equipped with industrial casters, can be moved by one person, and the interior can be accessed for storage. Shawn Hire has been constructing the units as funding become available.

Did you ever worry over a project in school or a particular test you needed to pass in order to be able to move onto the next area?  Do you remember the sense of relief when you managed to accomplish your goal? Well, we’re feeling that sense of accomplishment now. The new Wassenberg Art Center has passed all the inspections and tests required, which permits us to move in! The trouble alarm has been properly adjusted and has stopped calling in the wee hours and everything is functioning.  Dealing with a beehive of activity sometimes akin to a war zone has finally started to pay off for our staff and volunteers! The contractors are down to making brief stops to finish up details and the silence in the building is a sharp contrast to the racket of prior months. In the quiet, I’m reminded how much Charles Wassenberg and the Van Wert County Foundation has done for this community and how fortunate we are to have such resources. We will be moving in soon and plan to open sometime mid-November, so stay tuned!

Entries for the 24^th Annual Artist Sale & Exhibit are scheduled for check-in on November 9–10 from 1–5 p.m. at…wait

for it…214 S. Washington St.! (Formerly known as the Van Wert Armory.)  Members may enter the show for free. Other artists, for a nominal artist annual membership of $20, may enter this judged exhibit and display their work. Work will be on display until Dec. 20. If you are interested in obtaining a prospectus give us a call and we will put you on the mailing list. Cash awards are presented for several categories. This exhibit is sponsored by the Van Wert County Hospital and the Van Wert County Foundation.

If you have any questions regarding exhibits, classes or programs or would like to get involved please call the Wassenberg Art Center at: 419.238.6837, email: info@wassenbergartcenter.org or you may register online at: wassenbergartcenter.org. Hours during exhibits are: Tuesday through Sunday 1–5 p.m. The Wassenberg Art Center is currently located at 643 S. Washington St. in Van Wert.