The Kent State University School of Art Gallery will present A Timeless Community: Photographs by Richard Sweet from June 19 through Aug. 9 in the School of Art Gallery. The gallery, located on the second floor of the School of Art building, will host a reception on Thursday, July 25, from 5 to 7 p.m., which is free and open to the public.
This exhibition is the first of two exhibits about Richard Sweet that the School of Art Galleries will host this summer. The second exhibit Time & Town: A Sweet History of Kent runs from July 24 – Aug. 24 at the School of Art Downtown Gallery located at 141 East Main St. in Kent, and will also have a reception on July 25 from 5-7 p.m. Both exhibitions have been curated by Brenton Pahl, assistant to the director of the School of Art Galleries.
“As a photographer for the Record-Courier, Richard Sweet was able to chronicle numerous events in the history of Kent and Portage County,” says curator Brenton Pahl. “While active during the second half of the 20th century, Sweet was able to capture times of change in the town. Changes that include the burning down of the department stores on Main Street next to the mill, facelifts to the Pufferbelly LTD Restaurant and Ray’s Place and the installation of the river’s fountain.
“The vision for these two exhibitions on Sweet was to inform the rotating young adults who call Kent home, and to remind Portage County residents, of how far we have come in the past 40 years,” Pahl continues. “The images of this exhibition exemplify how the region is a living and breathing area with a mindset of its own. In order to find these images, the School of Art Galleries combed through half a dozen boxes filled to the brim of 35mm and 120mm negatives, as well as slides. After retiring in 2004 and passing away the following year, Sweet left behind an unprecedented record of Kent and Portage County.”
For more information, contact Anderson Turner, director of galleries, at haturner@kent.edu or visit http://galleries.kent.edu.