Monday, February 20, 2012

Creator: Reed Crandall



The story of how Reed Crandall was able to attend the Cleveland School of Art is told in the following article from The Santa Fe Magazine, August 1935.


Exceptional Newton, Kan., Art Student Wins High Honors in National Art Department Contest

By Vincent C. Root
Master Mechanic’s Office, Newton, Kan.

Newton, and all Kansas, in fact, should be mighty proud of one of its studious and artistic sons, Reed Crandall, senior in the Newton high school, who recently won six separate awards in a contest sponsored by the Scholastic, a weekly high school magazine. Crandall being the only student this year out of a group of 10,000 to win honors from all the states west of the Mississippi. So far as is known, Crandall is the only student from Kansas to have ever won distinction in this yearly contest in art.

Newton, enrolling only in one department of the contest—the art department—entered six different groups of the work of Crandall, 18 years old, and emerged from the contest very much a winner.

Crandall entered three pieces of sculpture in plastic wood. One of these, which won for him second place, was a model of a newsboy selling his papers. His second entry was a plastic wood model of a runner, and the third was a model of a pirate, depicting Long John Silver of Treasure Island. In addition to winning the high honors in plastic wood modeling, this young artist won a cash prize in oil painting and three places of honorable mention in pictorial arts division, black inks division and the oils division. Not only did his individual pieces win distinction but his group as a whole was outstanding in the pictorial arts division, also winning honors in this department.

This honor won by Reed Crandall is even more impressive when one considers that half a million high school students during the past year have turned their efforts toward winning these honors, and of this vast number only 10,000 survived the preliminary eliminations, which were conducted in their individual cities by judges selected from the teaching staff.

The jury, consisting of Audrey Avinoff, director of Carnegie Museum; Royal B. Farnum, director of the Rhode Island School of Design; C. Valentine Kirby, director of art in Pennsylvania schools; Alfred Pelikan, director of Milwaukee Art Institute; W.A. Readio, chairman, department of painting and design, Carnegie Institute of Techology [sic], and Dudley Crafts Watson, Chicago Art Institute. This group distributed eighteen scholarships and 215 prizes to excelling students scattered widely over the entire United States.

The work of Crandall now is at the International High School Art Exhibit in the Fine Arts Galleries of Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pa., the American division of which is made up entirely of work submitted for the scholastic awards. Seven nations are represented in this show, which will be released for a tour of the entire country upon completion of its engagement at Carnegie.

The main award won by Crandall for his exhibit is a scholarship in the Cleveland School of Art, beginning next September, which he is planning to enter next fall.

Reed is an exceptional student in school, and in addition to excelling in art is a prize pupil in typewriting, having recently won distinction by typing for ten minutes without making a single mistake. Miss Marie Orr, art instructor in our Newton schools, has been Reed's only instructor, and she is past president and past secretary of the State Art Teachers’ Association, which organization she was very active in bringing into existence.

Miss Orr has been active in Newton schools for the past fifteen years, having been art instructor during this long period, and due to her outstanding ability she has turned out of our Newton schools many very brilliant students of art as well as winning for herself high acclaim in this field and taking part in the various organizations for the advancement of art in this state.

Crandall is a cousin of Harrison Crandall of Boise and Jackson Hole, Idaho, who is nationally known as painter of Tetone mountain country scenes. His parents are Mr. and Mrs. Rayburn Crandall of Newton. Newton is mighty proud of Reed and we trust all Kansas is equally proud of him for bringing high honors in art to our city and state, and we wish him the greatest measure of success in his profession in the years to come.

(Crandall’s birthday is February 22. Below are links to additional information about Crandall and images of his work. Next post on Monday)

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