Lakewood Is Art

Preserving Lakewood’s Art Treasures:
The High Art Project
By Ruth Koenigsmark for the Lakewood Historical Society Newsletter.

The conservation and restoration of Lakewood High School’s art collection is an essential and significant facet in preserving the city's cultural heritage for future generations. The Lakewood Alumni Foundation together with Lakewood is Art has identified works of art within the high school that require conservation and developed a priority list of projects based upon the condition of the artwork, the historical or cultural relevance of individual pieces, and the financial resources presently available for this project.

This project has been named the Lakewood High Art Project. The Early Settler, by Viktor Schreckengost, is included on this Project List as being a piece with historical significance and in desperate need of restoration.

The Sculpture depicted above is the Early Settler created by the renowned and prolific Viktor Schreckengost. In 1954, Schreckengost signed a contract with Hays and Ruth to produce a piece of sculpture that would be placed on the front of the new Civic Auditorium at Lakewood High School. The final sketch approved by then Superintendent of Schools, Martin Essex, in Schreckengost’s words “was a huge kneeling figure planting a small seedling, a raw-boned Yankee type with his book, surrounded by symbols such as apple trees, rising sun from the Ohio State seal, cardinals and the Ohio state bird.” Schreckengost next created an 8” scale model of the 18’ sculpture to study proportions, scale and the effects of lighting. This was then enlarged to a quarter scale model for further analysis, followed by a full size composition projected over a steel and wood frame. The 18’ clay figure was disassembled, cut into 79 pieces and shipped to the Federal Seaboard Terra Cotta Company in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, where they created plaster molds for each piece. Over nineteen tons of water clay was pressed into molds, dried, fired and shipped back to Lakewood. Following the installation, with much of the work done by Schreckengost the sculpture won numerous awards including First Prize for Architectural Ceramic Sculpture in the 1955 National Ceramic Exhibition at the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts, an Award for Architectural Sculpture at the New York Architectural League and a Gold Medal for sculpture from the American Institute of Architects in 1957. It remains one of the largest freestanding ceramic sculptures in the world.

During its almost sixty year history, The Early Settler has undergone several restoration attempts by school district maintenance personnel. The declining condition of the sculpture has become more obvious over the last few years as employees and visitors have noticed the beginnings of damage attributed to Ohio’s changing climate. Extensive measurements, calculations, and glaze testing have already been completed by the Intermuseum Conservation Association (ICA) who will accomplish this restoration project on site. The cost of the renovation is expected to exceed $50,000. Despite these challenging economic times, organizers are confident that funding for restoration of The Early Settler and other works included in the Lakewood High Art Project’s scope will be secured through foundation grants, gifts from individual donors, fundraising events, and finally the publication and sale of a coffee table book illustrating Lakewood High School’s art treasures.

A lesser-known but equally important example of Schreckengost’s work, a wood bas-relief mural currently installed in the high school’s L-Room, is also included in this restoration effort.

1954 Cinema Yearbook: New “L” Room

Schreckengost’s wood bas-relief mural located in the high school’s L-Room was designed and modeled by the artist and sent to wood carver, James Fillouse, who carved pieces from sugar pine. The mural includes 12 carved wood bas-reliefs attached to an oak paneled wall with recessed cutouts of the Great Lakes, the letter "L" and an outline of the state of Ohio. This piece celebrates Schreckengost's great diversity and his amazing range of talents. Timing of the de-installation and restoration by the ICA will be determined according to the school district’s construction schedule. Restoration of the sculpture will require its removal from the site. It has been thoroughly measured, photographed, and documented and the same conservators will undertake its restoration. This piece will be installed in the new L-Room planned for the final phase of the high school renovation.

Photographer: Rhonda Loje

Another significant aspect of the Lakewood High Art Project includes the restoration of twenty-five (25) student murals painted during the early 1960s through the 1980s. Already scheduled for de-installation in mid January, these murals present a unique cultural landscape of the events, opinions and mood of the times. Back in the early 60s, Lakewood High School Studio Art teacher and Hi-Art Guild founder Daniel Hodermarsky was inspired by what were once windows in a hallway, which had been boarded over during renovation. He challenged his students to think creatively and envision the boarded up windows as framed, blank canvases. Current Cleveland Institute of Art President and CEO David Deming was the first to complete a mural.

It was no surprise back in those days that a football game would be Deming’s subject matter for a painting. As he painted, football players would ask him to put their number on one of the players in the painting, even kidding about bribes. Deming painted himself as the Quarterback. If he were to have named the painting, Deming says he would have called it: First and Ten, which seems appropriate for a man who was just beginning an impressive professional career in the arts.

While a second year student at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Deming met Schreckengost. One morning, Deming’s sculpture teacher announced that a visitor was coming to speak. When it was revealed that the visitor was Schreckengost, Deming only knew that he was a suit down the hall that started the industrial design school. Within five minutes of listening to Schreckengost speak, Deming had an ‘a ha’ moment, thinking, “Holy cow, I can’t believe all the work this artist has been commissioned to complete.” He remembered thinking how diverse Schreckengost’s work was, including The Early Settler at his own alma mater. Today, Deming reflects on an impressive career in art, enjoying roles as both artist and academician, lending his great talents to numerous community projects, including a sculpture at Lakewood Public Library. A 1967 graduate of The Cleveland Institute of Art, Deming earned an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1970 and pursued a successful career as a sculptor, professor and college administrator before returning to the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1998 as President and CEO.

Another large student mural at Lakewood High School is "Morning Swim" painted by artist Judith Koesy Ahlstrom in 1962. Ahlstrom painted an impressionistic depiction of students swimming at the LHS pool. She chose the student swimmers and pool as her subject matter since swimming was a vital part of the Lakewood High School curriculum. “Everyone needed to know how to swim to graduate,” Ahlstrom remarked.

Photographer: Rhonda Loje

From an early age, Ahlstrom remembers believing that anything was possible. Her interest in art was nurtured in elementary school when she participated in a group visit to the Cleveland Museum of Art where students would draw then eat their brown bag lunches on the bus ride back to school. She was inspired at the museum, especially the works by Degás and Gauguin. Judith also remembers going to see the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra in elementary school. Art teachers Mr. Cook and Mr. Hodermarsky additionally inspired Judith during her high school years.

After LHS she earned her Bachelor of Fine Art degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She also did her master's study there before moving to Maryland. She taught drawing and painting at Montgomery College before she opened her gallery 14 years ago. Deming and Ahlstrom are classic examples of the strong impact the Lakewood High School fine arts offerings have had cultivating future artistic talent.

Finding the story of the lives and artistic endeavors of the artists of the twenty or so remaining murals has been a challenge, as the artists’ whereabouts remain somewhat of a mystery. Coordinators of the Lakewood High Art Project, Teresa Andreani of the Lakewood Alumni Foundation and Barbara Michel of LIA have been playing detective to locate artists or their family members to gain information for commemorative plaques that will accompany each of the reinstalled murals. These artist biographies will also be included in the book to be published about Lakewood High School art.

In the end, Schreckengost has influenced and inspired generations of artists and industrial designers at the Cleveland Institute of Art and beyond for more than 70 years. These important works, done especially for Lakewood, must be restored and acknowledged as an important part of the art and cultural history of our city. Dually, consideration and homage must be given to the muralists - Deming, Ahlstrom and twenty or so others - and teachers, like Cook and Hodermarksy who contributed to a part of our cultural history.

The Lakewood High Art Project has been reviewed and approved by the Lakewood City Schools. The project team includes Project Coordinators Teresa Andreani, Executive Director of the Lakewood Alumni Foundation; and Barbara Michel, VP of Lakewood is Art; and the conservators from ICA. In addition, several organizations, businesses and individuals have contributed their expertise to this complex undertaking, including Lakewood High School alumni, Lakewood is Art, the Lakewood City Schools Board of Education, Rick Berdine (Treasurer of Lakewood City Schools), Tubal Cogar of Wobblefoot Gallery, David Deming of Cleveland Institute of Art and members of the newly formed Lakewood High Art Advisory Committee.

For more information on the progress of or to make a donation to the Lakewood High Art Project go to Lakewood Alumni Foundation website at http://www.lakewoodrangers.com or Lakewood is Art’s website www.artwoodohio.org.

(long shot of Early Settler)
Photographer: Rhonda Loje

This text is engraved on the wall
in the Civic Auditorium’s outer
lobby to describe the
Early Settler Sculpture:

“In this building
Lakewood Civic Auditorium
Let us sow seeds of culture
Of speech of drama of song
That all who enter
Will reap a harvest of ideas
Which are planted here”

Schreckengotst with Early Settler

The Cleveland Plain Dealer Pictorial Magazine, December 5, 1954,
The Cleveland Museum of Art,
Ingalls Library Clipping Files
Viktor Schreckengost rests on
scaffold of the finished 18-foot clay
figure before it was disassembled
for 79 separate plaster molds.

Schreckengost with Hand

The Cleveland Plain Dealer Pictorial Magazine, December 5, 1954,
The Cleveland Museum of Art,
Ingalls Library Clipping Files

Young Demming

1961 Cinema Yearbook:
David Deming working on smaller scale
painting he used as reference
to create first student mural.

The Lakewood Alumni Foundation is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit, which raises funds to award scholarships to college bound graduates, to support the teaching staff through grants that encourage creative thinking about the curriculum, and to assist with capital improvements and other district-wide projects for which public funds are limited. The Foundation office also supports Lakewood High School alumni by assisting reunion-planning committees and by communicating with alumni about their alma mater.

Lakewood Is Art (LIA) is a nonprofit community arts and culture organization that promotes and supports a collaborative arts community in Lakewood. LIA collaborates with groups and individuals in an effort to meet the community's cultural needs and to fulfill LIA goals of providing equity and access to the arts, providing exhibition opportunities for Lakewood-based artists, and allowing community members, both audiences and artists alike, to experience the arts in unexpected places; giving us all a new perspective on the boundless possibilities of who and what art can be and where it can happen.

Viktor Schreckengost (June 26, 1906 – January 26, 2008) was an industrial designer and creator of the Jazz Bowl, an example of Jazz Age art designed for Eleanor Roosevelt during his association with Cowan Pottery. He is the creator of the largest freestanding ceramic sculpture in the world, Early Settler, on permanent display at Lakewood High School in Lakewood, Ohio. He also designed dinnerware. Eschewing the fancy, flowery French designs that were popular in the United States during the Great Depression, Schreckengost created simple modern designs that were popular throughout the country. He designed bicycles manufactured by Murray bicycles for Murray and Sears, Roebuck and Company. He designed the first cab over engine with engineer Ray Spiller. This design is used in almost every city bus today.

The Intermuseum Conservation Association (ICA) is the oldest not-for-profit regional conservation center in the United States, dedicated to the preservation of works of art and objects of cultural significance. The ICA provides professional, high quality, and cost-effective services to collecting institutions, corporations, government agencies, and the general public.