Seuss on the Loose

Durangoans take in a preview of “Seussical the Musical” during the recent Fall Showcase of the Arts. “Seuss on the Loose,”?an exhibit featuring original Dr. Seuss artwork, performances, talks and workshops, opens this week./Photo by Stephen Eginoire

Dr. Seuss pays a visit to the Durango Arts Center

by Jen Reeder

Oh, the places you’ll go in Durango this weekend when the Durango Arts Center unveils its “Seuss on the Loose” exhibit. Featuring original artwork by Theodor Seuss Geisel – a.k.a. Dr. Seuss – the exhibit will be a catalyst for numerous Seuss-themed events during its six-week run.

“We’re thrilled that we can have a national exhibit here at the Durango Arts Center, and we think this is one that’s good for all ages, young and old, and it will be a lot of fun,” says Sheri Rochford Figgs, executive director of the Durango Arts Center. “Who doesn’t know Dr. Seuss?”

Attendees at DAC’s champagne and chocolate opening reception Oct. 7 will get the first look at some popular illustrations by Dr. Seuss, including the Cat in the Hat, Yertle the Turtle, Horton the elephant and everyone’s favorite reformed villain, the Grinch. The exhibit will also feature a selection of Dr. Seuss’ political cartoons from the 1940s, an aspect of his work seldom seen by the generations of fans who associate him exclusively with his whimsical children’s characters.

While “Seuss on the Loose” is in the gallery, other special events will include a Seuss film festival, lecture series, a Durango Performing Arts Company production of “Seussical the Musical,” dance and children’s art projects.

Figgs (favorite Seuss book: Oh, the Places You’ll Go!) says there were numerous challenges involved in bringing “Seuss on the Loose” to Durango, including transportation costs, additional insurance, framing standards and added security. The center “wrestled” with charging admission for the exhibit and the opening reception but ultimately had to.

“We couldn’t do this without tremendous support from the community, great sponsorship support and our members stepping up,” she said. “As Will Rogers so valiantly stated years ago, ‘Durango’s out of the way and proud of it.’ We are a remote community. Mostly it’s a good thing, but to get national exhibits, sometimes that can present challenges.”

Curator Mary Ellen Long agrees. The Durango artist brought the idea of a Seuss show to DAC’s Advisory Board more than a year ago. She had a contact at the University of California, San Diego – home to Dr. Seuss’ art collection – who had purchased Long’s artwork over the years, and asked if a loan was possible. When Long got a “yes,” she flew to San Diego to choose the work that will grace the art center.

“I went through many boxes and folders,” Long says. “It was quite exciting because there would be a box that would say, ‘Cat in the Hat.’ You could see how Ted Geisel, also known as Dr. Seuss, would be sketching the idea … there would be scraps of paper that would be taped on for the text, and you got the idea of how his mind worked and how he developed ideas. Eventually I picked a selection emphasizing his process.”

Long (favorite Seuss books: The Cat in the Hat and You’re Only Old Once!) then asked local artist and Durango Telegraph cartoonist Shan Wells to curate a selection of Seuss’s political cartoons. Wells (favorite Seuss book: The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins) credits his father and Dr. Seuss as two of his biggest artistic influences.

“I just loved his color sense and compositions,” Wells says. “He makes it look so simple. Then when you actually go and try to copy the drawings, it’s extremely difficult. His style is completely his own.” Wells was less familiar with Dr. Seuss’ political cartoons, which were clearly shaped by events in the 1940s.

“Seuss is definitely a liberal, but he’s a liberal in the sense of the 1940s, which means that he’s strongly pro-Jewish, and he’s very anti-isolationist,” Wells says.

Wells took care in selecting cartoons that had some of the same creatures and machines that appear in his children’s books. “A lot of them I chose because they were crossovers between the books and the cartoons,” Wells says.

He says he is excited to have the work of such an “iconic” artist come to Durango because seeing artwork in person is a different experience than seeing it in a book or movie. “I’m looking forward to seeing these original drawings and seeing the master’s hand,” Wells says. “We in Durango will join the select club of people who have seen the actual artwork, and I think that connects us to humanity just that little bit more.”

The Durango Public Library will be loaning Dr. Seuss books to DAC so visitors can see how illustrations hanging on the walls finally appeared on the page. Amadee Ricketts, youth services manager at the library, says the library’s afterschool program The Pageturners will be all about Seuss in October – she’s even wearing a Star-Bellied Sneetch costume to the Oct. 20 event.

“That Seuss humor has held up so well over the years – a 35-year-old and a 4-year-old can be sitting there laughing their heads off. It’s so cool!” she says. “I think that appeal of Seuss is so universal.”

Ricketts (favorite Seuss books: Green Eggs and Ham and The Lorax) says that Dr. Seuss got kids reading by injecting humor and little bit of suspense into his early reader books, and in honor of his contributions to children’s literacy, his birthday (March 2) is celebrated each year as National Read Across America Day.

“That’s another way that his legacy lives on to get kids everywhere excited about reading and help kids and grownups discover cool books together,” she says.

Curator Long says this kind of enthusiasm has drawn many members of the community together to help make “Seuss on the Loose” a reality. She says DAC has already heard from several schools inquiring about field trips to the exhibit, and the center hopes to fill the lobby with students’ Seuss-inspired artwork.

“For me, it’s exciting to see how it has evolved,” Long says.

Figgs hopes that public excitement about “Seuss on the Loose” will translate into new visitors. “I hope it will attract those who haven’t been to the Durango Arts Center before to take a peek and see that we’re a very full-fledged arts center,” Figgs says. “We’re here to serve the community and to create that space for inspiration, quality of life and a place to showcase all the arts.”

The Durango Arts Center will showcase “Seuss on the Loose” from Oct. 7 – Nov. 12 at 802 E. Second Ave. Admission is $3 for members, $5 for nonmembers and free for children and students. For more information, call 970-259-2606 or visit www.DurangoArts.org.

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