© The Children's Museum of Indianapolis

presents

June 18 — Jan. 16, 2006

Norman Rockwell’s art is as much a slice of Americana as baseball and apple pie. For more than 60 years, Rockwell painted ordinary Americans doing ordinary things.

But Rockwell’s art was anything but ordinary. He had an extraordinary talent for illustrating stories through art. If you look closely at his paintings, each detail was a clue to a story. And always, the stories he told were ones that Americans could relate to — the first date, a soldier coming home on leave or the family gathered ’round the Thanksgiving table.

© SEPS

Perhaps Rockwell’s best-known artworks were the covers he illustrated for The Saturday Evening Post. And now Rockwell’s America: Celebrating the Art of Norman Rockwell brings these magazine covers to life in 20 charming, recreated scenes.

As you enter the exhibit, you can view a short video about Rockwell’s life and work. Then visit his Stockbridge, Mass. studio, recreated to the last detail, including loft and library. Try on costumes and pose with props just like the models — Rockwell’s friend and neighbors — who posed for the artist. Find out more about the printing process that turned Rockwell’s paintings into four-color magazine covers.

Doctor Dowd's Office

Once you leave the studio, you’ll literally step through the picture frame and into recreated scenes immortalized by Rockwell’s Post covers. First, peek into Doctor Dowd’s Office to see the kindly doctor tending a little girl’s dolly. Then, stroll past the barbershop, where a quartet will periodically perform old-fashioned tunes.

Did you ever take a dip in a “swimmin’ hole”? In the Summertime scene, spot someone cooling off in the pond and listen to the splashing water. You can almost feel the heat!

Next, you’re off to Main Street — straight out of small-town America. After you climb into a Model T Ford, stop at the appliance store to catch an “I Love Lucy” rerun. In the telephone office you can eavesdrop on the party line. Peek into the desks and recite a lesson from the chalkboard in the one-room schoolhouse or relive memories of your first trip to a soda fountain. Perch on a stool and jam with the jukebox spinning discs from the ’50s.

Before you leave Main Street, be sure to stop and draw in the park. You can sit at an easel and use a mirror to sketch a self-portrait, just like Rockwell did. If you peek through holes in the park fence, you’ll catch a baseball game!

Attic Adventures

Remember grandma’s attic and how you could play for hours with dress-ups? Costumes, toy trains, games and all sorts of fascinating curios will evoke fond memories of a playful past in Attic Treasures.

As you leave Main Street, you’ll notice a difference. In the 1940s, America was changing, particularly as the nation entered World War II. Rockwell’s paintings told stories of leave takings and homecomings and finding new roles for men and women. When the men went off to fight, women went to work in factories. Rosie the Riveter and G.I. Willie Gillis were both popular subjects on Rockwell’s Post covers in the 1940s. You can climb in a military Jeep, listen to wartime radio broadcasts or find out more about the amazing women who built America’s planes and tanks.

To help the war effort, Rockwell painted four canvases in 1943 that raised millions of dollars in donations and earned the gratitude of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. “The Four Freedoms” — freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear inspired a nation and remain famous even today. You’re sure to recognize these images in a stirring display.

As Rockwell’s fame grew, he painted portraits of American Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Nixon. Images from these Post covers are included in the presidents’ gallery.

America changed again in the turbulent 1960s. Rockwell confronted this change head-on with paintings such as “The Problem We All Live With.” A full-size recreation of this painting tells the poignant story of Ruby Bridges and the school desegregation movement.

Rockwell painted 322 covers for The Saturday Evening Post. Many of these covers are displayed in the exhibit’s final section as a poignant reminder of the artist’s talent.

The Children’s Museum is extending the exhibit experience, however, with a display of 10 original Rockwell paintings and drawings. One is an original oil, “Town Meeting,” a study painting for “The Freedom of Speech,” on loan from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Five of the paintings are on loan from The Saturday Evening Post Society, an Indiana-based group.

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis is the first to augment the art in the exhibition. Ten original Rockwell artworks on loan from private collectors and art museums will be featured including “Beyond the Easel,” from the National Scouting Museum; “Scout Memories,” from The Children’s Museum’s collection and “The Problem We All Live With,” from the collection of Ian and Mimi Rolland.

Alongside the paintings, families can create their own works of art in the style of Norman Rockwell. Dress up in costumes or pose with props for informal sketching sessions. Play an I Spy game by looking closely at the details in a painting or share a memory inspired by an illustration.

This exhibit was produced by the Becker Group under license by Curtis Publishing Company.




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