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January Issue 2006
McKissick Museum in Columbia, SC, Offers Exhibitions on Pets and Regional Student Printmakers
The McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC, is offering the exhibitions: Pets In America, on view through Apr. 22, 2006, and The Southeast Printmaking Invitational, on view through Jan. 29, 2006.
People everywhere have pets. It seems that we keep some animals around simply because we like them. We are amused by their actions and we find that they are good company. For centuries, the kinds of animals that people have kept as pets has differed depending upon the species that were available locally. But today, the animals that share our lives as companions, sources of pleasure, and objects of beauty come from all over the world.
In 2003, an estimated
61% of households in the United States owned one or more pets.
And, American's enthusiasm for their pets is evident everywhere.
A search on the worldwide web alone brings up thousands of sites
on pets. When did this national love affair begin? Few of us know
anything about our history of life with animals at home.
Pet keeping used to be just one kind of relationship Americans
had with animals. Well into the 20th century people in both cities
and on the farm lived close to horses, pigs, chickens, and other
livestock. Even dogs and cats were expected to work, protecting
property and catching rodents. By the 1940s few of us had face-to-fact
contact with working animals and the popularity of pets grew along
with our standard of living.
The exhibition, Pets in America, will offer a lively and surprising look at the history of how we have come to think and act very differently where companion animals are concerned. The result of over a dozen years of research by curator Dr. Katherine Grier, it will examine the social and cultural history of the crucial relationship between animals and people. Pet keeping is presented as an important part of the history of everyday life in the United States. Changes in attitudes toward pets go with changing ideas about human nature and our individual and social responsibility. This exhibition provides a lively exchange of information and an enjoyable array of objects related to all kinds of pets. It also provides a compelling forum to examine social, economic, and ethical issues at the heart of our contemporary society.
The exhibit includes
a rich display of more than 200 everyday objects associated with
the long history of pets, their owners and the evolution of pet
keeping.
McKissick Museum is hosting a series of public lectures and programs
to accompany the exhibition during Spring 2006. Also, visit the
Pets In America website at (www.petsinamerica.org) for
a virtual visit of the exhibit and in-depth information.
The Southeast Printmaking Invitational was organized in
collaboration with the University of South Carolina's student
printmaking organization, "Ink and Paper" and showcases
some of the finest art students from the southeastern United States.
Students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
the University of Georgia at Athens, the University of Tennessee
at Knoxville and Clemson University join with USC's students to
create this traveling exhibition.
On display are 50 prints, each illustrating how today's artists are using both traditional and experimental techniques and media.
For further information
check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Museum at
803/777-7251 or at (www.cla.sc.edu/MCKS/).
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