Internationally renowned artist Hunt Slonem recently donated an artwork titled “Totem Winter” to the Golisano Children’s Museum’s permanent collection.
Slonem has works in in the permanent collections of 250 museums around the world, including the Whitney, Guggenheim and Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. But he’s always shown favor to his friends and supporters — such as the Golisano Children’s Museum in Naples.
“We did an exhibition of his work two winters ago, and it was super successful,” CEO Jonathan Foerster shared. “Both parents and kids just loved it. It was organized by Harmon Meek Gallery, and they sold several pieces, also, of his work through people who had visited and just were exposed to it. You think about being exposed as an adult to fine art through a gallery or formal fine arts museum, but in this case we had patrons who were like, ‘I love this. I want this in my home’ because they came here to the children’s museum.”
“My entire career as a painter traces back to my childhood, my formative years spent in Hawaii and Nicaragua,” Slonem said. “I hope that this gift, in some small way, inspires these children to create and imagine a more perfect world.”
That’s precisely the reaction that Golisano Children’s Museum hopes to get from children who come to play in its various learning zones.
“We really want to see kids experience fine art. We think it’s an important part of the process of becoming a cultural consumer over the course of their lives. So we see ourselves as sort of that first stop before you go to the Baker Museum, maybe even before you to the Botanical Garden, you come here and sort of explore some of those same ideas and themes that you would see at those places.”
“Totem Winter” joins two other of Slonem paintings in the museum’s collection of more than seventy pieces.
“Hunt is a very serious artist who is in collections around the world. So that just adds to the seriousness of our endeavor to have a fine art collection…. The artists in our collection are real, are serious and we take it very seriously.”
The new Slonem painting will be the centerpiece in a Pop Art-inspired exhibition slated to open later this month in conjunction with Golisano’s Night at the Museum on February 8.
MORE INFORMATION:
Throughout his career, Hunt Slonem has focused on exotic birds, rabbits, and butterflies, often using flat spaces with simple forms and vibrant, textural brushstrokes inspired by German Expressionism.
Slonem's connection to his subjects began in childhood in Hawaii and deepened in Central America, where he was influenced by the local devotion and spiritual fervor.
The artist’s extensive resume can be viewed at https://www.huntslonem.com/resume
The Golisano Children’s Museum of Naples is among a handful of children’s museums nationwide that boast a fine art collection. With more than 70 works by American artists depicting children and animals, the museum uses these works in various exhibitions throughout the year to inspire artistic appreciation and creativity in all its visitors.
“Art was always going to be part of the museum structure,” said Foerster. The collection, however, originated when a group of local art collectors, art dealers and philanthropists banded together to start a collection “which focuses on American artists who create art that depicts children, animals or the natural world.”
Through this exposure to fine art “we can help set [children] on a pathway to cultural enjoyment over the course of their lifetime,” Foerster added.
That exposure comes in a myriad of ways. “First, there is art on the walls throughout the museum,” Foerster observed. The museum rotates the art in their collection so that returning families experience different pieces on each visit.
“Almost every time you come through, you’re going to have a new fine art experience in some way, shape or form,” Foerster said.
The museum also curates exhibitions several times a year, such as the Pop Art-themed exhibit that will feature the new Slonem painting “along with facsimile pieces from famous Pop Art throughout the centuries,” Foerster added.
While Golisano Children’s Museum does not exhibit work from its collection at the various Golisano Children’s hospitals, it does collaborate from time to time with Valerie’s House, the grief counseling center that helps children and their families work through the loss of someone they love.
“They brought arts educators in from the United Arts Council to our space and created work that helped the kids work through their grief, and then we displayed that for about three months in our atrium area so that the kids could come and see their work,” said Foerster.
In addition to hanging fine art on the walls and orchestrating exhibits, the museum also holds numerous art workshops for both youngsters and older children “in the 7 to 10 range, where they come in and make pieces start to finish and they learn different techniques; they learn different styles.”
Foerster hopes that the workshops inspire the next generation of artists “who bring beauty and joy to the world.”
One tangential benefit of exposing young children to fine art at such an early age is the possibility of making their parents art lovers as well. In their 20s and 30s, many may not have previously experienced the joy and wonder of viewing and creating art.
“If it does, that’s fantastic,” said Foerster. “We want to be a convener for the community and introduce them to all sorts of different ideas, whether that’s just new ways to help their kids learn and grow or building community. So we often hear from moms specifically that they moved to Naples, they had a kid and were sort of socially isolated and then they came here and they met their community. They met another mom who had a kid the same age and they became best friends. They spend their time together now. So the fact that we can bring community together now means we can really influences all sorts of different things.”
The Golisano Children’s Museum of Naples is a brain-building powerhouse and Southwest Florida’s first museum devoted for children and families to learn through play. With hands-on exhibit galleries, the accessible museum invites visitors of all ages to journey through the swamps of the Everglades, climb a two-story banyan tree, or experiment with the water play station.
Children can become a weather forecaster, a farmer, a chef, a fisherman, an artist, an architect, or a veterinarian; explore the cold of an igloo, the whoosh of the wind, the sound of the sea, and the effects of gravity. Throughout the day special activities encourage our guests to get involved, try something new and be energized. CMON offers a variety of interactive exhibits providing kids with education through play.
For more information about Golisano Children’s Museum of Naples, or to make a contribution, visit www.cmon.org or call 239-260-1604.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.