EDMONDS — If only piano teacher Nellie Centennial Cornish could have seen the centennial celebration of her Seattle school, which launched regional and national fine and performing arts careers.
“Looking Back, Moving Forward: A centennial tribute to Nellie Cornish and Cornish College of the Arts” is the new exhibit at Cascadia Art Museum in Edmonds.
David F. Martin, who curated the new museum’s opening show of early watercolors by Northwest artists , put together this exhibit as well. Likely, Nellie would have been proud.
It’s an exhaustive collection, one that Martin has been working on for 20 years. The artful pieces — by, and of, faculty and students — are drawn from the college as well as the Tacoma Art Museum, the University of Washington, many private collections and even the U.S. Navy.
The show includes materials that had never before been displayed in a museum, mostly because they were scattered and largely forgotten, Martin said. “Families stored things and did not know what to do with them.”
Included in the exhibit are numerous photographs (many by Wayne Albee, Imogen Cunningham and Asahel Curtis), along with paintings, sculpture, prints, dance films, costume sketches, musical scores, performance programs and marionettes.
Among the people who brought Cornish its initial renown were faculty and students including composer John Cage, dancers Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham and Robert Joffrey, and artists Mark Tobey, John Davidson Butler, Kenneth Callahan, Bruce Inverarity and Ebba Rapp. Among the part-time painting instructors were Guy Anderson, Morris Graves and William Cumming.
“The exhibition weaves together the tale of the opportunistic collaboration of some of the Northwest’s most celebrated artists of the 1900s,” said Elizabeth Martin-Calder, an interim museum administrator.
Then, if you walk through the exhibit as intended, the show concludes with a special work from 21st century Cornish alumna Aleah Chapin, who represents the future of Cornish.
You will see her large oil painting, “Auntie,” which won the distinguished BP Portrait Award in 2012 at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Chapin is the first American woman to be so honored.
The portrait is of a close family friend and is part of a series of nude portraits of women Chapin has known all her life.
Other (more recent) grads who’ve brought fame to Cornish include actors Brendan Fraser and Jane Adams, singer Mary Lambert, drag performer Jinkx Monsoon, composer Reggie Watts and photographer Mark Velasquez.
More of what you’ll see in the Cascadia Art Museum exhibit:
From the estate of Mary Ann Wells, who founded the Cornish dance department in 1916, are photos of dancers such as her student Robert Joffrey, who founded the Joffrey Ballet, and dance instructors from that early period including Martha Graham, who is often called the mother of modern dance.
From the estate of dancer Karen Irvin came dance performance films from the 1950s and ‘60s. Digitized by University of Washington’s Special Collections, these films run continuously during the run of the exhibition.
Painter Mark Tobey founded Cornish’s art department, but he also got involved in the theater department. He performed in plays, painted colorful sets for productions and a portrait of Ellen Van Volkenburg, who founded the theater department. Also displayed are Tobey’s nude contour drawings of students in Martha Graham’s classes and crayon designs of costumes.
Sculptor Ebba Rapp’s large-scale oil paintings also demonstrate the crossover between departments. Her models are dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham, African-American dancer Syvilla Fort and Nellie Cornish herself.
Other visual artists in the show include painters Louise Crow, James Edward Peck, Salvador Gonzalez and Frank Okada. On loan from the Navy are two watercolors by WWII combat artist and Cornish instructor Mitchell Jamison. And Malcom Roberts’ costume design paintings are brilliant.
Puppetry was once a popular medium for artistic performance throughout the world. Student and later faculty member Bruce Inverarity produced a surrealistic sci-fi puppet production titled “Z-739” performed in the late 1920s. The original puppets, made from mostly kitchen gadgets, were located at the Northwest Puppet Center and are displayed publicly for the first time. Also displayed are marionettes “Romeo and Juliet,” from the collection of Ulrich Fritzsche, which were painted and costumed by Edmonds’ beloved artist Helmi Juvonen. Be sure to check out the photo of a young and beautiful Juvonen working on a puppet.
Cornish College of the Arts is perhaps one of the best things that ever happened to artistic culture in the Puget Sound region, curator Martin said.
“Cornish was a school for everybody, including women and gay men, and many of these people went on to become a who’s who of fine and performing arts,” he said.
Museum volunteer Don Hall, whose wife owns the Garden Gear and Gallery at Fifth and Main in Edmonds, agreed with Martin.
“And Cascadia Art Museum is one of the best things that’s ever happened in Edmonds,” Hall said.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
If you go
Cascadia Art Museum’s “Looking Back, Moving Forward: A centennial tribute to Nellie Cornish and Cornish College of the Arts” is displayed through May 1. Admission is $10. Hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and until 8 p.m. on Thursday. More information is at cascadiaartmuseum.org.
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