Museum reopening to feature Singer works

By D.A. Wilkinson

SALEM — The Salem branch of the Butler Institute of American Art is expected to reopen early next year with an artistic treat, says the art gallery’s director.

“We’re hopeful for January,” Dr. Louis A. Zona, Butler director, said of when the facility will reopen.

The East State Street building has been closed for almost a year because of water damage from a building next door.

The roof has been repaired, he said, but ceiling repairs and installation of new hardwood floors throughout the building have not started. The total cost will be just under $50,000. Part of the work was covered by insurance.

The Butler Institute in Youngstown and the Canton Museum of Art have been showing “Clyde Singer’s America” at the same time. The show highlights the late painter’s works that captured daily life: crowds on the street, people shopping or drinking in bars.

Singer was also a curator and assistant director at the Butler and an art columnist for The Vindicator for almost 60 years.

The exhibitions at the Butler and the Canton museum will end in early January.

Zona said the paintings in Salem will show Singer’s works in his later years when his vision was affected by cataracts. He later had surgery and continued to paint.

“When he was in his 30s, 40s and 50s, [Singer] painted extraordinary works that were big and complicated,” Zona said. Later in life, the compositions were not as complicated, and much later, they were more minimalist.

Zona added that in the later works, “There was very little color.”

Singer “kept very much to himself,” Zona said. “He was a real character.”

But the good news is that he pursued his art. “He loved to paint, and it kept him going,” Zona added.

The planned reopening was good news to Audrey Null, the executive director of the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce.

The Salem branch at 343 E. State was often used by other groups, such as events during the city’s annual First Night celebration on New Year’s Eve, she said.

Null said the branch also had been used for shows of work by local artists.

wilkinson@vindy.com