News Release: Studio M to Feature Growing Season

Thursday  |  February 25, 2016  |  14:35 PM

News Release:  Studio M to Feature Growing Season

The Massillon Museum’s Studio M will host Growing Season, a photographic exhibition documenting the life of the migrant community in Hartville, Ohio. The images and story are best known from the book, Growing Season: The Life of a Migrant Community, photographed by Gary Harwood with text by David Hassler published by The Kent State University Press. The Studio M exhibition marks the 10th anniversary of the original Growing Season project. 

The exhibition can be seen from Saturday, February 27, through Sunday, April 10, in Studio M, which is located in the Fred F. Silk Community Room in the Museum’s lower level. The reception for Harwood and Hassler will be held on Saturday, March 5, 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., in conjunction with the opening of the Masters of American Photography and Massillon’s Masters: Highlights from the Fine Art Photography Collection exhibitions in the main gallery.  

The Growing Season exhibition complements the Massillon Museum’s 2016 Big Read book selection, In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, the story of the courageous Mirabal sisters who rebelled against the dictator Trujillo in the Dominican Republic in the 1950s. The Big Read is a National Endowment for the Arts initiative to return leisure reading to America. This is the ninth consecutive year the Massillon Museum—the only institution in Ohio this year—has earned this prestigious grant.

The Big Read is additionally sponsored by Massillon/North Canton Elks #2029, The Women’s Fund Endowment of Stark Community Foundation, Rotary Club of Massillon, and NEA/Arts Midwest. Massillon Public Library co-hosts Massillon’s Big Read with the Museum annually. The Massillon Museum receives operating support from the Ohio Arts Council and ArtsinStark.

Also the afternoon of March 5 will kick-off of The Big Read, when free copies of In the Time of the Butterflies will be given to guests as long as the supply lasts. Las Mariposas: The Mirabal Sisters, an exhibition complementing the book, will open at the same time in the lower level lobby. 

Gary Harwood has worked as a photographer and teacher for more than 30 years. He teaches visual storytelling and other photography courses for Kent State University’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication and is also an Artist in Residence with the Ohio Arts Council. He is the co-author of Growing Season: The Life of a Migrant Community and Tiger Legacy: Stories of Massillon Football. His work has appeared in the Communication Arts Photo Annual, the Graphis Photo Annual, The Sun Magazine, and Double Take/Points of Entry.He has twice won the James R. Gordon Ohio Understanding Award from the Ohio News Photographers Association’s Pictures of the Year competition. The Growing Season book was also selected by the Stark County Mayor’s Literacy Program for its annual One Book One Community reading program. Learn more about the project at growingseason.net.

David Hassler directs the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University and is the author of two books of poems, including Red Kimono, Yellow Barn, for which he was awarded Ohio Poet of the Year in 2006. He is the author of several nonfiction books as well, most recently the play, May 4th Voices: Kent State, 1970, based on the Kent State Shootings Oral History Project. With photographer Gary Harwood, he is the author of Growing Season. His TEDx talk, "Giving Voice: The Conversation of Poetry,” speaks to the power of poetry to strengthen communities. 

The Growing Season book won the Carter G. Woodson Honor Award from the National Council for the Social Studies and the Ohioana Book Award from the Ohioana Library Association, and was a finalist for the Great Lakes Book Award.

In addition to viewing the Growing Season exhibition, visitors can see Paul Brown and Racial Integration in Ohio Football, It’s Been Awhile, Fashion Outlaws, and The Immel Circus.    

The Growing Season exhibition can be seen through April 10 during regular Museum hours, Tuesday through Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. For more information, call the Massillon Museum at 330-833-4061, or visit massillonmuseum.org.
  
Anderson’s in the City, the lobby café; OHregionalities, the Museum shop; and the Museum’s vintage photobooth are located in the lobby of the Massillon Museum.
  
Studio M enhances the collaboration between the Museum and the community by showcasing the artistic talents of local, regional, and national artists.  The series of five-week shows will continue throughout the year, selected by jurors from proposals submitted by artists.  Brochures containing guidelines and an application are available by contacting the Massillon Museum at 330-833-4061 or massillonmuseum.org.

The Massillon Museum is located at 121 Lincoln Way East (Ohio Route 172) in the heart of downtown Massillon.  A visit to the Massillon Museum is always free.