Out & About: Talent abounds in annual 'Mister Fred Rogers' exhibit

Anne Kraybill, the Richard M. Scaife Director/CEO of The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, says that judging the Latrobe Art Center’s Ninth Annual Mister Fred Rogers Fine Arts Exhibition was “one of the most challenging exercises I’ve experienced since moving here.”

(Kraybill came to The Westmoreland with her impressive resume in 2018.)

She offered recorded remarks on the process to attendees at the Sept. 5 reception for the show, which runs through Sept. 30, because she was unable to attend.

One of the challenges simply came from being relatively new to the area and not being familiar with many of the regional artists. Another was choosing about 70 pieces from about 300 submitted for consideration.

It took “a few passes” through the works before she was able to make selections based both on artistic and technical merits, along with being “images that really just spoke to me.”

All in all, 48 artists made the final cut.

“It was a really hard choice for her,” said the center’s Executive Director Lauren Buches before she and Assistant Director Joe Bellack passed out the awards, which included:

• Best in Show: “Creamed,” painting by Robert D. Huckestein

• Mister Fred Rogers Award of Distinction: “Emergence,” painting by Pamela Cooper

• Ned J. Nakles Award for Excellence in Oil/Acrylic: “First Portrait,” by Barbara Kern-Bush

• Awards of Merit: “Autumn,” photograph by Clare Kaczmarek; “Stitch in Time,” painting by Jan Landini; “Mr. Smith,” sculpture by John A. Mayer; “Aurora,” painting by Melissa Reed; “Sluiceway,” drawing by Richard A. Stoner; and “Aleppo (Syria),” painting by Mark E. Weleski.

Works included in the exhibition also can be viewed at latrobeartcenter.org.