The Newport Museum at the Southgate Street School is a new arts and cultural venue in Northern Kentucky, located in what was, until the 1950s, a “blacks only,” school for elementary and middle school children. After it closed, it became a Masonic Lodge. Now it has a new life as a museum.
The Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement at NKU has been working for the past two years with the city of Newport and the Newport Foundation to bring this museum to life with exhibits and programming.
Here’s your chance to see the progress – and hear an amazing talk about one of the most enduring historic figures of Northern Kentucky.
The topic is the art of Frank Duveneck, the Covington painter and art teacher who died in 1919.
To commemorate the artist and the hundredth year since his death, several arts, cultural and educational institutions have collaborated on “The Year of Duveneck.” As part of that series, NKU’s Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement is hosting a special speaker, Liz Simmons of the Cincinnati Art Museum for a talk at the Southgate Street School, on Feb. 6 at 6:45 p.m. at the South.
Simmons, a doctoral candidate in art history at the University of Delaware, is a research assistant at CAM, where she is helping Curator Julie Aronson organize a major exhibition and publication on the art of Duveneck, to open in fall 2020.
Before his death, Duveneck donated some of his most important work to the Art Museum.
At the Southgate Street School, Simmon’s lecture will investigate Duveneck’s drawings.
CAM has the largest collection of Duveneck’s drawings, including preparatory sketches for paintings and sculpture, academic studies from live models, whimsical caricatures of friends, finished pastel portraits and watercolor landscapes, as well as sketchbooks that span Duveneck’s career.
Admission is free. Refreshments provided.
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See the NKyTribune’s Our Rich History column on Frank Duveneck.