Claremont Collects: Art, Creativity, Community

A virtual tour of the Claremont Lewis Museum of Art exhibition "Claremont Collects: Art, Creativity, Community" featuring highlights from the Museum’s permanent collection. Celebrating our rich artistic legacy, vibrant creative community, and robust support for the arts, the exhibition showcases work made by area artists from the 1930s to today.

This inaugural exhibition of the newly expanded Museum, generously sponsored by Gould Asset Management LLC, is on view May 20 through September 25, 2022. The Museum, located in the historic Claremont Depot at 200 W. First Street next to the Metrolink Station, is open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, from noon to 4 p.m. For more information about the museum, membership, and current programs, visit clmoa.org.

EXHIBITION DESCRIPTION
The exhibition connects past, present, and future by revealing the depth and breadth of our region’s continuum of creativity and honors Claremont’s role in the history of California and American art. Claremont has long been recognized as a dynamic center for artistic production. Since the 1930s and continuing through the present day, Claremont has been both magnet and haven for artists. Millard Sheets, Jean Ames, Phil Dike, and their contemporaries cultivated a tight-knit community of artists, centered around the Claremont Colleges, that promoted collaboration, innovation, and experimentation. They believed that art is for everyone and should be an integral part of everyday life. That legacy was embraced by subsequent generations including Betty Davenport Ford, Susan Lautmann Hertel, Harrison McIntosh and many outstanding contemporary artists. This long-standing creative esprit de corps continues to permeate the Claremont art community and is reflected in the generosity of artists, patrons, and collectors who have established the Museum and built the collection.

THE INSTALLATION
The exhibition offers a vibrant, multi-faceted experience for visitors of all ages. Co-Curators Adrienne Luce, Director; Catherine McIntosh, Board Member; and Seth Pringle have filled the museum’s three galleries with more than 60 paintings, prints, drawings, ceramics, sculptures, watercolors, and furniture by both legacy and contemporary artists. The film, “Design for Modern Living: Millard Sheets and the Claremont Art Community 1935-1975,” is on view in the Baldonado Atrium.

Video produced by Eddie Gonzalez.