News & Media

‘The Shadows We Cast’

New Outdoor Exhibit at Ross Art Museum to Project Video Images on Building’s Facade 

DELAWARE – The newest exhibit at Ohio Wesleyan University’s Richard M. Ross Art Museum promises to provide viewers with an especially illuminating experience. 

The exhibit, “The Shadows We Cast,” will feature an architectural-scale video projected nightly onto the front façade of the art museum, 60 S. Sandusky St., Delaware, between Sept. 20 and Oct. 31. 

The exhibit will debut with an opening-night celebration at 7:15 p.m. Sept. 20 that includes an opportunity to hear from the artists who created the 12-minute video and archivists who will speak about the importance of preserving local history. Then at 8:15 p.m., guests will be invited to grab a cookie and a cup of hot chocolate or hot cider and go outside and watch the video play for the first time. 

The video uses a montage of archival documents to explore changes to labor and leisure practices at two different periods in U.S. history. It considers how stories told in postcards, letters, and home movies – by ordinary people in central Ohio – helped to define and promote the “American Dream.” 

“Sharing this artwork on the front of the former post office for the town, now the museum, really highlights The Ross as a doorway between campus and the city,” said Erin Fletcher, M.A., museum director. “This video projection is our first foray into public art, and we are excited to share it with our community, both on campus and in town.” 

In creating “The Shadows We Cast,” artists Tiffany Carbonneau and Susanna Crum used materials culled from the archives of the Delaware County Historical Society and the OWU Historical Collection. 

Carbonneau, M.F.A., is a video installation artist and assistant professor of art at Indiana University Southeast, and Crum, M.F.A., is a printmaker and interdisciplinary artist who conducts “research-based, site-specific projects that investigate the layers of history stored within public spaces.” Learn more about them at www.tiffanycarbonneau.com and www.susanna-crum.com, respectively. 

A highlight of the new video exhibit, Fletcher said, is the spirit of collaboration that made it possible. 

“It’s really wonderful how many people were willing to get on board with this exhibit when they understood that it told a story shared by Delaware and Ohio Wesleyan,” she said, ticking off a list that includes colleagues at Ohio Wesleyan and representatives from the Delaware County Historical Society, City of Delaware, and Main Street Delaware, which plans to include the outdoor exhibition in its Oct. 6 First Friday celebration. 

Fletcher said the continuously looping video will be projected on the museum nightly, seven days a week, from dusk to midnight throughout its run. “The Shadows We Cast” is the second iteration in the museum’s “Inside/Outside” series, which features exhibitions in non-traditional spaces. The series debuted in April with the exhibit “With Radical Love & Fierce Resistance.” 

In addition to the outdoor exhibit, the Ross Art Museum’s current and upcoming indoor exhibitions include: Now through Oct. 8, the “Marty Kalb Retrospective,” featuring paintings that span the 50-year career of the retired Ohio Wesleyan fine arts professor, and, beginning Oct. 19, concurrent displays of photographs by Cleveland visual artist Charles J. “Chuck” Mintz and paintings by Ohio State University assistant art professor George Rush. 

During the academic year, Ohio Wesleyan’s Ross Art Museum is open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The museum is handicap-accessible and admission is always free. Call (740) 368-3606 or visit www.owu.edu/ross for more information. Like the museum of Facebook at www.facebook.com/RossArtMuseum. 

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Founded in 1842, Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier liberal arts universities. Located in Delaware, Ohio, the private university offers nearly 90 undergraduate majors and competes in 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Through Ohio Wesleyan’s signature OWU Connection program, students integrate knowledge across disciplines, build a diverse and global perspective, and apply their knowledge in real-world settings. Ohio Wesleyan is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” listed on the latest President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction, and included in the U.S. News & World Report and Princeton Review “best colleges” lists. Learn more at www.owu.edu.