On Tuesday February 26, 2013, from 7-8 pm, the Carnegie Center for Art and History in New Albany, Indiana, and the Floyd County Historical Society (February’s meeting) welcome Warren and Julie Payne, guest curators of the Carnegie Center’s current exhibit The Artists of the Wonderland Way, for a curators’ talk about the exhibit. The Paynes will discuss the role that private collectors, institutions, and the families of the artists played in bringing together the work included in The Artists of the Wonderland Way. This exhibit represents the first time that the work of these artists has been shown together in over 50 years. Attendees are encouraged to visit the exhibit from 5:30-7 pm prior to the program. This Official New Albany Bicentennial event is a free program, open to the public, and presented by the Floyd County Historical Society and the Carnegie Center for Art and History.
Warren and Julie Payne, of Payne Fine Arts, are art collectors who have curated exhibitions in southern Indiana and Louisville for many years. The Paynes will discuss this current exhibit as the expansion of a similar, though smaller scale, exhibit of the Wonderland Way artists that they curated in 2000, titled The Collectors’ Showcase: Artists of the Ohio Valley School and the Wonderland Way, 1883-1940. Building upon this previous exhibit, Warren and Julie were able to further refine that original idea into the more extensive exhibit that will be on display at the Carnegie Center through April 6, 2013. Their contact with collectors for the earlier exhibit proved invaluable in leading the Paynes to additional collectors who lent work for The Artists of the Wonderland Way, and enabled them to place the work of the Wonderland Way artists in a much broader regional context.
Julie Payne will also briefly discuss the use of genealogical research and tools such as ancestry.com in researching works of art, and in particular those included in The Artists of the Wonderland Way. She will discuss this topic in greater detail when she and Warren present the Lunch and Learn program A Virtual Tour of Fairview Cemetery and Artists’ Homes in New Albany on Tuesday March 19, 2013 from 12-1 pm.
