September 7, 2008 - January 7, 2009

Presented with the support of

Major Sponsors:
Marilyn Kauff Sheridan
Mike and Nancy Siddall
The Hoover Foundation
The Stark Community Foundation
The Butler Trustees Circle Members
The Ohio Arts Council
Thomas W. Darling
William and Sharon Luntz
Evan and Suzanne Morris

Media Sponsors:
The Vindicator (Youngstown, Ohio)
The Repository (Canton, Ohio)

Platinum Sponsors:
Arts in Stark
Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Boyd
National City Bank
Mahoning County CVB
Bob and Lesa Schnabel
Lazar and Mary Ann Tarzan
Bill and Sue Wise

Gold Sponsors:
The Belden Brick Charitable Trust
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Olivieri
Silver Sponsors:
Jeanne and Ronald Cullen
Wanda Miller
Marty and Susan O’Brien

Clyde Singer’s America is a collaboration between Ohio’s Canton Museum of Art and the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown. Clyde Singer, an artist of the American Scene who studied under the tutelage of Thomas Hart Benton and John Steuart Curry, captured the essence of the American pageant throughout his career.
His paintings grasped the vitality of both urban and rural scenes, revealing intimate, humorous and insightful observations of people working, going shopping, chatting in bars, waiting for the subway train, or playing ball. Singer enriched the lives of many throughout eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania not only through art, but also as curator and assistant director at the Butler Institute, and as an art columnist for the Youngstown Vindicator for almost sixty years.

This collaboration between the two museums has produced a simultaneous two-part exhibition, and most significantly, a definitive publication dedicated to the life and work of Clyde Singer.  This effort to shine the spotlight on Singer’s works was spearheaded by Executive Directors M. J. Albacete in Canton and Dr. Louis M. Zona at the Butler, and organized by the CMA’s Curator/Registrar Lynnda Arrasmith. The catalogue features essays by Zona, Albacete and Nanette Macejeunes, Director of the Columbus Museum of Art. The 168-page book, Clyde Singer’s America, has been published by Kent State University Press.

Singer’s works are to be found in many Ohio art museum collections, and some have found their way into prestigious collections such as the Philadelphia Academy, the San Diego Art Museum, and others.  The Butler Institute and the CMA both have many of the artist's finest works.  An even greater number of Clyde Singer paintings are in private and corporate collections.  Singer never kept a record of his paintings, and so there is no way to tell just how many were produced over his long artistic career, nor where most of these are to be found. Arrasmith, coordinating with Rebecca Davis and the Butler’s curatorial staff, located and reviewed hundreds of works.