DECATUR, Ill. – The Robert Crowder Art Gallery in Millikin University’s Kirkland Fine Arts Center and the School of Art & Creative Media recently held a reception for the gallery’s inaugural exhibition. The event celebrated his artistic legacy, featuring paintings and other works by Crowder, a Millikin graduate from the Class of 1933.
Crowder (1911-2010) was a native of Bethany, Ill., and became a celebrated artist, business owner, and author. He was also an expert in the Byobu style of Japanese painting. The Crowder Gallery currently features many of his original oil and watercolor paintings that were created in the final years of his life.
“Opening the gallery was a team effort in planning, marketing, building, installation, and securing the exhibition. It's all part of putting together an exhibition. It could not be accomplished without a team of good students to assist me. There is much to be said about how the School of Art & Creative Media builds relationships and how our students and faculty work together to bring these kinds of experiences to campus,” Robert Crowder Art Gallery Director and Curator Ed Walker said. “The process took about a year to plan, and we had a lot of decisions to make. We decided to focus on the private paintings that Robert Crowder created and the work that he had done in the latter years of his life. He passed away in 2010 at the age of 99. The paintings demonstrate his love of beauty and how he embraced being an artist every single day until the end of his life. These paintings are executed in a somewhat impressionistic style. They show expressive brush strokes or vibrant colors taken from real life.”
Crowder’s achievements in Japanese art were all the more remarkable given that he spent nearly two years in a Japanese prison camp during World War II. Today, his name lives on through Robert Crowder & Associates in Los Angeles, a successful design firm now owned by Mr. Crowder’s former assistant, Yasu Tanano.
Tanano was in attendance at the reception that honored his mentor, who was also a renowned artist, horticulturalist, poet, linguist, and musician.
Along with supporting the creation of the Crowder Art Gallery, Tanano has also been a generous backer of the annual Robert Crowder Summer Artist Residency, which provides a unique opportunity for Millikin junior and senior School of Art & Creative Media students to be able to fully realize their own creative and entrepreneurial potential at the Blue Connection Art Gallery in downtown Decatur.
“ Mr. Tanano has been a big part of the Millikin Arts Entrepreneurship program for a long time, and he has done that by quietly funding the Blue Connection Art Gallery Summer Crowder Residency program,” Walker said. “ On behalf of Millikin University and the School of Art & Creative Media, I would like to thank you for making this exhibit possible and generously giving the School of Art & Creative Media the honor of naming this gallery the Robert Crowder Art Gallery.”
