American Sites: Art Environment Photography +Fred Scruton
Fred Scruton (PA) has traveled extensively throughout the U.S. to photograph artists and their art environments, bringing attention to these often under-documented sites. He frequently befriends the artists he photographs, making return visits to artists who live near his Pennsylvania home and yearly road trips to record the evolution of more distant sites.
Among the artists he has photographed extensively are Prophet Isaiah Robertson’s house in Niagara Falls, NY; Billy Tripp’s Mindfield Cemetery in Brownsville, TN; and Joe Minter’s African Village in America in Birmingham, AL.
American Sites: Art Environment Photography presented sixty-five of Scruton’s photographs, revealing the breadth and depth of art environments throughout the U.S. and demonstrating that this way of art making still flourishes in communities across the country.
Read a special Q & A from the responder and artist, Fred Scruton, in our gallery handout.
The Responders
This exhibition is supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Department of Tourism, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Funding was also provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Kohler Trust for the Arts and Education, Kohler Foundation, Inc., Herzfeld Foundation and Sargento Foods Inc. The Arts Center thanks its many members for their support of exhibitions and programs through the year. The John Michael Kohler Arts Center is a 501(c)(3) (nonprofit) organization; donations are tax deductible.
The Road Less Traveled 50th anniversary program was conceived by Amy Horst, deputy director for programming. The exhibitions series was organized and curated by Arts Center Curator Karen Patterson. Special thanks to Emily Schlemowitz, assistant curator, for the curation of Driftless: Nick Engelbert & Ernest Hüpeden and Folk & Fable: Levi Fisher Ames & Albert Zahn, and Amy Chaloupka, guest curator of The World in a Garden: Nek Chand and Volumes: Stella Waitzkin.
