Art Association of Harrisburg

When novice artists hit their stride, “you start looking at the world differently.”

“To an artist, there’s no such thing as white snow,” said Art Association of Harrisburg teacher Richard Michaelian. “Snow always has some kind of a hue to it. You look at the snow as dusk is approaching, and it’ll look blue or purple.”

For 100 years, artists have been boosted along their art journeys by the Art Association of Harrisburg.

“It starts with taking lessons, then creating your own painting, then from there, getting your painting into a frame,” Michaelian said. “That can take a little while for people to want to do that, and then exhibiting and getting it hanging on a wall.”

Founded in 1926, the Art Association of Harrisburg celebrates this centennial with its usual flair. Founded from an art-patron mindset, AAH has blossomed into a cauldron of learning, where people hungry for art find their voices amid a nurturing community of creatives.

“Art is the most important thing in the world,” said long-time Executive Director Carrie Wissler-Thomas. “Art is what makes life beautiful. With all the turmoil everywhere, people need art in order to find beauty in their lives. It’s a way to express oneself. Art nurtures the soul.”

 Finer Things

The “stars in the firmament of 1926 Harrisburg society” applied for the charter creating the Art Association of Harrisburg, wrote Wissler-Thomas in her AAH history, “As the Paint Dries.” Like Theatre Harrisburg, it sprang from the women of the Harrisburg Civic Club as the turn-of-the-20th-century City Beautiful Movement reached its peak.

With a goal of civic uplift, the new association focused on attracting top-tier exhibits to Harrisburg. Through early patron Homer Saint-Gaudens, son of renowned sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the fledgling organization scored a coup by attracting a major show of interiors, landscapes and portraits by Sir John Lavery.

The prominent British painter, just as enamored with this upstart group as Saint-Gaudens, startled the city by gifting two of his paintings to the association—the genesis of a permanent collection that, recently, got its own Art Association gallery.

Local artists entered the picture in 1927 with an exhibit in the Harrisburg Public Library, and, by the 1930s, artists themselves were operating a separate but tandem group, called the Studio. In the ‘40s, as money for traveling museum shows dwindled and AAH’s founders were passing on, exhibitions by local artists became the norm. In 1953, AAH reorganized, absorbing the Studio and launching a new era of encouraging the creation and display of art.

Not all of it was progressive or groundbreaking. An Evening News writer celebrated a 1963 show’s lack of works from “the automobile parts school of sculptor and ‘pop art.’”

“Neither is missed,” he sniffed.

Still, an art scene was growing up around the association, as members founded their own galleries and taught college-level art. To the possible horror of the Evening News scoffer, AAH stalwart Wanda Macomber became a well-known abstract precisionist painter.

AAH’s rejection of a nude self-portrait by Gene Suchma for a 1974 exhibit shattered relations with some members of the art community.

“This was not the Art Association’s finest hour,” wrote Wissler-Thomas, adding that, since 1980, AAH “stands tall against censorship in all its ugly forms.”

AAH found its dream home, the historic riverfront Governor Findlay mansion, in 1964. Surviving threatened demolition in the 1970s, a 2014 mini-tornado, and, of course, the joys of water leaks, the building today hosts exhibits, a sales gallery and classes, all on four levels of parquet-floored, fireplaced, carved-molding style.

There were eras of debtors and three-figure checking accounts. Active board members, nimble executive directors, and supporters kept the doors open through donations, art sales, capital campaigns and events.

Today, Summer Soirees extend members’ artwork into the elegant backyards of AAH patrons, while Community Exhibitions hang curated works in the galleries of participating businesses and institutions, bringing the serenity of art to workaday settings.

“It’s a chance to get artists’ work out in the community,” said Wissler-Thomas. “Artists will join the Art Association just because they can show their work.”

Heart for Learning

After thriving in the watercolor classes he requested for Father’s Day, Michaelian transitioned from student to teacher. As he watched artists mature to the point where they were teaching the teacher, he hatched the idea for Open Painting Studio, where burgeoning and experienced artists can find space to hone their techniques without formal instruction.

Held in Giant Food Stores’ Camp Hill community room, sessions host 40 to 50 artists weekly.

“The beginning artists seem to enjoy it because they get to see what others are creating, and the other artists get to enjoy walking around and helping the beginners,” he said.

And, he added, “A lot of my students will do their grocery shopping afterwards.”

Past AAH President David Morrison, now executive director of Historic Harrisburg Association, guided AAH through some lean financial years. He remembers the 2002 and 2003 exhibits of live tattoo recipients, displaying the works inked on their skins.

“It was really, really cool and attracted an entirely different clientele from normal art exhibits,” he said. “So, that was really a clever outreach, getting new audiences and showing that art isn’t stuffy.”

A local art association inspires artists to capture the region’s architectural and natural beauty, Morrison noted. AAH once held classes in the Historic Harrisburg Resource Center, helping to cement ties between two of the city’s anchor cultural organizations.

“The fact that we had it right here under our roof really broadened our horizons,” he said. “It brought art to Midtown long before there was the Millworks or Susquehanna Art Museum or Midtown Scholar Bookstore. So, it was kind of the beginning of expanding culture into Midtown.”

Show & Share

To Michaelian, showing at an Art Association exhibit is the North Star for budding artists. When his students exhibit for the first time, “their family wants to take their picture standing next to it, even if they don’t win a prize or it doesn’t sell,” he said. “Carrie and the association bring that to life.”

Susan Fortini and her partner, Raymond Kasper, of Lower Paxton Township, are longtime AAH donors. Artists need outlets for learning, showing and support because “it’s a little hard to do it on your own, and if there’s an organization you could participate in, it helps you to share,” she said. “I believe, if you have a talent, it’s your responsibility to share it. With organizations like the Art Association, you can get involved and have an opportunity to share your talent, your gift.”

Erie native M. Travis DiNicola was working in arts leadership and communications in Indiana. He and his wife, Michelle, had already decided to relocate to Pennsylvania when they attended an AAH show featuring her mother’s work in 2016.

There, Wissler-Thomas convinced them to make Harrisburg their home. DiNicola would serve on the AAH board when he arrived, she pronounced.

True to her word, he is the current president. Since his arrival, DiNicola has seen a diverse, professional board support the staff.

“There’s a lot of respect from local and regional artists for the work the Art Association does and tries to do and can do, and they’ve really pushed the staff and the board, as well, to be innovative and to grow,” he said.

The post-COVID need for socialization and expression propelled enrollment in the AAH school to record-breaking, “crazy high” levels of around 650, DiNicola added. AAH artists are always “pushing each other to be better,” and the organization has the potential to attract tourism and capitalize on “this amazing river” flowing on the other side of Front Street.

In a world where museums, galleries and art groups all have roles in promoting the arts, the Art Association is unique because “the artists are of and from the community and develop in the community for the community,” DiNicola said.

In its first century, the Art Association’s impact has been “huge,” said Wissler-Thomas. Students in the association’s classes—drawing, painting, mixed media, pottery, children’s classes—are constantly sharing the joy the courses have brought them and their loved ones.

To anyone who says computers have made art obsolete, Wissler-Thomas says, “That’s balderdash.” Art created by human hands has soul.

“Over 100 years, we have touched so many lives,” she said. “We’re open seven days a week, so people can come in and enjoy the art whenever they feel the urge. Art is in everything that we look at.”

The Art Association of Harrisburg is located at 21 N. Front St., Harrisburg. For more information, visit www.artassocofhbg.com.

Centennial year exhibits include “Women of the Permanent Collection,” through Nov. 27, and a Carrie Wissler-Thomas retrospective, July 3 to Aug. 30. The Centennial Gala will be held at the King Mansion on April 26.