By Margaret McKenzie Peninsula Daily News
PORT TOWNSEND — Greg Mitchell of Port Townsend has donated a significant collection of paintings to the Jefferson County Historical Society, which operates the Jefferson Museum of Art & History in Port Townsend, the society has announced.
The gift of 18 paintings includes work by Max Benjamin, John Franklin Koenig, Joe Max Eminger, Jim Ball, Galen Garwood, Lenny Kesl, Candace Lee Street and Michael Schulteis.
“These are mostly Northwest artists who worked in Jefferson County in the 1970s,” said Bill Tennent, the historical society’s executive director.
“We are very grateful” for the donation, he said.
Mitchell, who could not be reached for comment Sunday, was encouraged by the late civic leader Nora Porter “to donate art to the society, which would both keep his collection together, and let it stay in Jefferson County,” Tennent said.
Porter, who died last October at age 74, bequeathed more than 80 paintings to the museum, which changed its name to reflect its new artistic mission last spring.
And, thanks to the historical society’s new research center located at 13692 Airport Cutoff Road, the donated art will be properly housed, Tennent said.
Becky Schurmann, collectsions manager and exhibit designer for the museum, said she was “absolutely delighted” by Mitchell’s gift.
It includes “extremely important examples of Northwest art,” she said.
And with the new research center, “we can take care of it and conserve it for the community.”
Mitchell’s collection will probably be put into the exhibition rotation by next summer, Tennent said.
“We just finished showing pieces from Nora Porter’s collection, which was more contemporary, so up next in January is a more historical group of paintings” dating back to 1862, when an art colony thrived in Port Townsend, he said.
In recent months, the society also has received major donations from Linda Okazaki, Pat Fitzgerald, Finn Wilcox, Lee Katzenbach and the family of Peter and Pat Simpson.
These bring the total of artworks the society owns to more than 500 paintings, Tennent said.
“Add to that all our posters and prints, plus the ceramics of local artist Anne Hirondelle, and we have a collection in the thousands,” he said.
For more information about the Jefferson County Museum of Art & History, go online to www.jchsmuseum.org or phone 360-379-6673.
News Editor Margaret McKenzie can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5064, or at mmckenzie@peninsuladailynews.com.
