July 10, 2002

Contact: Joe Lampo, Spencer Museum of Art, (785) 864-0142.

Art of nature to fill the Kress Gallery at the Spencer Museum of Art

LAWRENCE -- The latest exhibition at the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas offers works of art from the collection depicting all manner of flora and fauna. "Fish, Flowers and Flying Things: Nature at the Spencer Museum" is in the Kress Gallery July 20 through Sept. 1.

Joe Lampo, acting assistant to the museum director, organized the show of artworks depicting fish, amphibians, reptiles, plants, mammals, birds and insects. The art is by American, European and Asian artists and craftsmen from the 12th century to the present.

The museum presents the exhibition in conjunction with the annual conference of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, who will meet in Lawrence Aug. 4 through 9. For more information on the conference, contact Sara L. Taliaferro, (785) 842-4051, tally@ku.edu, www.gnsi.org.

Decorative art objects are a particular area of the Spencer Museum collection not fully exhibited because of space limitations. Several works in the new exhibit are from the founding art collection given to KU by Sallie Casey Thayer in the early 20th century. These include an 18th-century English cauliflower teapot, a pair of dolphin pressed-glass candlesticks made by the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company and a Japanese "netsuke," or miniature sculpture, in the form of a frog.

"It is especially fitting to display more objects from Mrs. Thayer's eclectic collection at this time since 2002-2003 is our 25th anniversary as the Spencer Museum of Art and our 75th as the art museum of the University of Kansas," said Andrea Norris, Spencer director.

Spencer Museum of Art, 1301 Mississippi St., is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday; and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. The museum is closed on Mondays. Admission is free.

Related events include a gallery talk by Lampo at 7 p.m. July 25 in the Kress Gallery and a showing of the film "A Bug's Life" at 7 p.m. Aug. 22 in the Spencer museum auditorium.