Janet Turner Print Museum

Young students see original art work from the masters: Picasso, Renoir, Dali and more!

Oct 18, 2007

(Chico) Local students are benefiting from the year-long Janet Turner Print exhibition at the Chico Museum. During the upcoming week, students from four school will visit the museum at Second and Salem to see one of the Treasures of the Turner exhibitions.

Displayed currently is an exhibition entitled, “Grand Masters,” which includes fine art prints from famous artists such as Pablo Picasso, Don Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Salvador Dali, Karl Appel, David Hockney, August Renoir and many more.

The prints are part of the Janet Turner Print Museum collection of more than 3,000 prints from 40 countries spanning six centuries. Grand Masters closes on October 28.

“It’s a common misconception that the museum is limited to only Janet Turner’s work,” said Morgan. “In fact, The Turner is a priceless collection amassed over Turner’s lifetime and since. During her lifetime, Janet Turner, a renowned print artist and faculty member at CSU, Chico, traveled the globe collecting fine art prints to share printing techniques with her students. “There are few places in the country, outside of big museums, that have large collections like mine,” wrote Janet Turner at the time.

“It’s particularly fitting that now younger students are also receiving the benefit of Janet’s collection,” said JoAnn Morgan, board chair of The Turner. “Some of these children have never been exposed to fine art, and we are delighted they can see the works of these master artists.”

Research shows that exposing students to art helps children become better critical thinkers. In a study published by the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, researches report a group of 162 children, ages 9 and 10, were trained to look closely at works of art and reason about what they saw. The results showed that children’s ability to draw inferences about artwork transferred to their reasoning about images in science.

Catherine Sullivan, Curator for the Turner, says during this next year the public should prepare for a wide variety of print art styles, much of it from master and renowned artists. “The Treasures of The Turner includes six distinct exhibits during the next nine months at the Carnegie,” said Turner, “ranging from our first exhibit, Due South, that features the works of renowned Latin American artists, to the National Print Exhibit in early 2008, a juried show of up-and-coming print artists from around the United States.” The bi-annual National Print Competition is one of the largest such competitions in the United States and the only one sponsored by a California State University.

The Turner Gallery within the Laxson Auditorium at CSU, Chico will also continue to house exhibitions during the academic year. For more information about the Janet Turner Print Museum, please visit the janetturner.org website.