20 North Gallery presents the triumphant return of the exhibition, The Grant Collection, featuring a variety of media—painting, photography, ceramic, glass, drawings, sculpture, jewelry and mixed media acquired by the prominent Toledo-area arts advocate, Margaret “Peggy” Grant. The exhibit continues through March 31, 2018.
The Grant Collection: fine art
During her lengthy career as an artist, art director, longtime Fortune 500 corporate curator and curator of public collections, Peggy Grant steadily acquired art for her own collection over a six decade span. Although she deaccessioned a large number of pieces to area universities and museums in recent years, she kept the pieces from which she could not bear to part. In 2017, she decided to disperse her private collection, beginning with a special engagement exhibit in November, which Mrs. Grant personally attended.
At the time it arrived at 20 North Gallery, the collection consisted of over 100 works created by more than 70 artists from Toledo, the Midwest, the nation and abroad. Purchased by Mrs. Grant from the proceeds of her artist and arts consulting salaries, the majority of her acquisitions represented her dedication to supporting modest but significant work, created by mostly emerging artists at the time. Now many are museum-collected artists of considerable renown. Mrs. Grant consistently exercised an unerring eye in selecting beautiful and exquisitely crafted work that has appreciated in value. With the exception of a few pieces which remain in the family, all the works displayed at 20 North Gallery are for sale.
Collected artists include Heinz Brummel, Joe Ann Cousino, Willis “Bing” Davis, David F. Driesbach, Shane Fero, LeMaxie Glover, Abner Hershberger, Thomas Hilty, Jeri Hollister, Candace Knapp, Dominick Labino, Tom Marino, Joan McKee, Shawn Messenger, Gerald Moore, Andrei Rabodzeenko, Dan Robbins, Jack Schmidt, Mike Sohikian, Kenneth M. Thompson and Adrian R. Tio.
Also prominent in The Grant Collection are small scale oil paintings and charcoal sketches by her late husband, Adam Grant. Most were privately created works designed as gifts for her during their 38 year marriage and artistic partnership.
The exhibit also includes historical Paint By Number canvases and memorabilia, as well selected works from the Paint By Number collection of the late Ann Goodridge, a dear friend of Peggy Grant, in tribute to her indelible rôle in this American popular culture phenomenon as one of the original designers of the Paint By Number canvases.
The Paint By Number section of the exhibit includes pieces both designed and painted by Peggy and Adam Grant during their time at Craft Master. Some have been featured in museum exhibitions of Paint By Number history, most notably the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History 2001 exhibition, Paint By Number: Accounting for Taste in the 1950s.
It is Mrs. Grant’s wish that the exquisite works in her private collection will be acquired by those who recognize the importance and delight inherent in leading a life surrounded by art.
For purchase inquiries, please contact 20 North Gallery at 419-241-2400 or info@20northgallery.com
Margaret “Peggy” Brennan Grant (Toledo, Ohio) has had a life-long involvement in the arts: as a curator, art consultant, commercial artist, a fine artist—and for eighteen years, the art director of 20 North Gallery. A native of Baltimore (Maryland), Mrs. Grant received her degree in Fine Art from the Maryland Institute of Art (Baltimore) in 1952. She continued her studies at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, and later at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit (Michigan) and The Toledo Museum of Art, School of Design in Ohio. In 1952 she answered an advertisement for the position of a commercial designer to work for Palmer Paint Company, a firm in Detroit that would produce the world-renowned Paint By Number kits for the Craft Master brand. It was at Craft Master that she met her future husband, Polish refugee painter Adam (Grochowski) Grant, whose life experiences as a Holocaust survivor and work as a fine artist would inspire her and her life’s avocation as his curator and tireless supporter. The newly-married Grants moved to Toledo when Craft Master relocated in that community. In addition to her career at Craft Master, Mrs. Grant served as a commercial designer with several other corporations, illustrated a book for children (Forty Fabulous Tales by Aesop, published 1982), as well as continuing her own work as an independent portrait painter and a free-lance artist in her studio.
Mrs. Grant also served as art curator for the Fortune 500 company, Owens-Illinois Corporation from 1981 to 1984, assembling a corporate collection of over 400 works of art encompassing the major movements in contemporary art from the mid-20th century to the present. In that capacity, she was curator for the Owens-Illinois art galleries and mounted several exhibits including Sculptural Glass (which introduced the work of glass artist Dale Chihuly to the Midwest), Nature in Glass, Art in America: A Selected Exhibition of Works from the Butler Institute of American Art, and a 50-year retrospective of the work of studio glass pioneer Dominick Labino. In addition, she served as the curator of Toledo Hospital, assembling what is now the ProMedica corporate collection; the Sculpture Garden of Ottawa Hills (Ohio) and the Schedel Gardens in Elmore (Ohio). Mrs. Grant has also independently produced and curated over 75 shows for museums, art centers, corporations and various non-profit cultural institutions from 1981 to the present.
Mrs. Grant’s influential career as an artist and curator is exceeded only by her contributions to the many organizations of which she is a member and the accolades they have bestowed upon her. She is an Emeritus Docent for the Toledo Museum of Art and served on the Committee for Cultural Diversity for the museum’s Board of Directors. She has also served as a member of the board for several area arts organizations including the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo; the Toledo Modern Art Group, of which she was the founder; the Glass Collector’s Club of Toledo; the Toledo Artists’ Club and The Blair Museum of Lithophanes. She is a member of the Athena Art Society and past member of the Toledo Federation of Art Societies where she served as a delegate and an officer for ten years, receiving their Special Award in 1997. She has also been published in Who’s Who of American Women in 1996. In 1984 she received Ohio’s Distinguished Citizen’s Award for Art Education and, in 1999, the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo Community Achievement Award. She is the 2007 recipient of the Toledo YWCA Milestones Award for Women in the field of Arts & Sciences. She was a 2008 recipient of the Crosby Award from the Toledo Botanical Garden. And in 2009, she received initial recognition from representatives of the Polish Government for her work in promoting the artistic contributions of her late husband. In 2012, she was awarded by the Polish Government their Order of Merit, bestowed upon her for her world-wide contributions to promoting Polish culture through the arts.
Now the Art Director Emerita, Peggy Grant has been with 20 North Gallery since 1994 and has curated over 100 exhibitions involving local, national and international artists. Her major, ground-breaking exhibitions include the Wood Sculpture exhibit in cooperation with the Ohio Crafts Museum in Columbus, Ohio; Glass Month ’96 with the International Michigan Month of Glass; The Baltimore Realists, (continuing to the Midwest Museum of American Art, Elkhart, Indiana; The Butler Institute of American Art, Salem, Ohio; Evergreen House, Baltimore, Maryland; and Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, Maryland), Adam Grant: Figure Master, (continuing to the Toledo Museum of Art; University of Toledo; Collegius Maiues, Krakow, Poland); and the Annual Black History Month Exhibit, begun by Grant in 1977, which was the oldest, continuing Black History Month event in Toledo during its 37-year run.
It is Peggy Grant’s stellar international connections, her unswerving commitment to art and artists—and her exemplary mentorship and insistence on professionalism in the arts—that has made 20 North Gallery the premier independent fine art gallery in the Toledo area.
For purchase inquiries, please contact 20 North Gallery:
419-241-2400 or info@20northgallery.com
The Grant Collection Installation Images:
