A big thank you to our Board member Bob Searing, Curator of History at the Onondaga Historical Association for giving ACSCNY members a talk and tour of the Color of Keck exhibition. It was a treat to have Keck-expert Cleota Reed and acclaimed art historian husband David Tatum there as well. As a surprise highlight, we were shown the fourth floor storage areas – truly CNY’s attic – where in a room of it own is piled the enormous Keck Stained Glass Studio archive with hundreds of rolls of drawings stacked on racks. We got to poke around a bit and see some of the items for which there was no room in the exhibition. Happily, OHA has a grant that is funding the better registration and cataloging of the Keck archive. After many decades it will easier for scholars and artists to consult this trove. We know there are many articles and perhaps a dissertation or two waiting in those rolls and files.The ACSCNY and OHA will be looking for ways in the coming year to further highlight the work of the Keck Studio. Hopefully this will include some tours to churches and other sites of Keck window installations. If you want to see Keck windows on your own, there is an extensive listing of (mostly extant) projects in the back of the 1985 catalogue edited by Cleota, “Henry Keck Stained Glass Studio 1913-1974” (Syracuse Univ Press). The book is out of print but is available in many libraries.
Comments