Exhibiting the Exhibits

Viktor Schreckengost at the American Association of Museums Annual Meeting

Slab form ceramics. Pedal cars. Dinnerware. Animal sculptures. Religious artwork. A series of paintings on musical instruments or variations on brightly-colored Mexican fish. All of these categories of Viktor Schreckengost works are being offered to exhibition directors at museums around the country at the upcoming American Association of Museums’ annual meeting May 1-5, 2005.

“Past exhibitions of Viktor’s work have been tremendously successful,” says Chip Nowacek, Director of the Viktor Schreckengost Foundation and leader of the initiative to put Viktor on exhibit. “The Cleveland Museum of Art, for example, was stunned when 70,000 people—twice the expected number of visitors—turned out for the Schreckengost retrospective they hosted in 2000. His work has been so well received by museum-goers that we feel some sense of obligation to make his legacy available to as many venues as possible.” Chip will man a booth at the MuseumExpo, a venue that hosts vendors, traveling exhibitions, and other trades that serve the museum industry. MuseumExpo is held concurrent with the American Association of Museums’ meeting, which hosts an estimated 5000 attendees. The booth will present virtual Schreckengost exhibitions on multiple computer screens. “Success by Design,” a documentary made by Cleveland’s public television station WVIZ, will play continuously. Various Schreckengost pieces will be on display. “There is no question of Viktor Schreckengost’s value to the artistic, educational and commercial communities. It is estimated that every living adult in America has used, ridden on, driven, eaten from, collected, or seen in a museum something created by Viktor Schreckengost or one of his students. But Viktor has never been a self-promoter. His contributions are not recognized by the general public, and sometimes not even fully understood by curators and directors. It is our mission to get the word out to museums and other exhibition venues. They will take it from there.”