New Exhibit on Writing Opens Dec. 1

The Pickens County Museum of Art & History will be presenting three new exhibitions beginning December 1, 2012. Please join us from 6:00 until 8:00 p.m. on December 1 as we host a reception to open the exhibition, “Writing; Putting Pen to Paper”. Also opening that evening will be the exhibits, “Crossing the Line: Thirty-One Drawings by Thirty-One Artists” and “Philip Gott: Explorations in Color”. All three exhibitions will continue through February 7, 2013.

In America today, if you were asked to quickly jot down a grocery list, would you type it into your smartphone or print it? Or would you use cursive writing?  Most of us end up printing or using some form of barely legible block letters. The exhibition, “Writing: Putting Pen to Paper” will celebrate history’s changing views on cursive writing and the art of calligraphy.

The “Writing: Putting Pen to Paper” exhibit will start with elegant documents showing a time when writing was regarded as an art form. Pages are decorated with illumination, scrolling calligraphy, and interspersed and surrounded with vibrant embellishments.

The exhibit moves on into colonial times.  Those who could write did so with the care and flair of an artist. Beautiful poems, bible verses, letters, journals, and even business ledgers remain as testaments to the art form of writing.

Love Letters were exchanged and later cherished during all wars up to and through Viet Nam – later replaced by emails. Through the 1970-80s school children continued to strive to master cursive writing as reflected on the “penmanship” line of grade cards.

Computers in the classroom have left little time for educators to teach handwriting. Today, 44 states no longer mandate teaching cursive in the classrooms.  Of those 44, two of them – Indiana and Hawaii – have taken it out of the curriculum completely.  Cursive writing in all its forms is leaving our society. Handwriting skills have been replaced by the use of typewriters, computers, and now smartphones and text messages.

Will the day come when our children can neither copy nor read the Declaration of Independence? Visit our “Writing: Putting Pen to Paper” exhibit and see what you think about the future of cursive writing.

C U @ MUZM

The Pickens County Museum of Art & History is funded in part by Pickens County, members and friends of the museum and a grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Located at the corner of Hwy. 178 at 307 Johnson Street in Pickens SC, the museum is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., Thursdays from 9:00 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Admission is free but donations are welcomed. For more information please contact the museum at (864) 898-5963