about the exhibit
West Nebraska Arts Center, with the support of the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment, is pleased to present Peg Fowler Retrospective, she will be exhibiting landscapes, portraits, abstracts in acrylic, acrylic & ink, pastel, oil paintings.
Interim Director, Michele Denton, “Peg is a creative treasure and people will be overwhelmed by the journey she has had over the last 80 years. She has been a gift to our area”.
Program Manager, Maria Lena Soto, “We are excited to exhibit artwork from Peg, she will be exhibiting abstracts, still life, portraits, landscapes in oil, acrylics, pastels, and inks. Her artwork is vibrant and colorful. And it all started with a cartoon drawing that she did in 1958”.
Peg Fowler – Biography
Born October 2, 1938, in East Rockaway NY, to Harry Fowler and Elsie Koehler, Peg showed early artistic tendencies. They were largely unappreciated by her mother, perhaps because her early preferred mediums were diaper loads, pureed beets, and crushed peas—all applied enthusiastically to available walls.
After several family moves from New York to Wisconsin, to Indiana, and finally Pennsylvania, Peg graduated from Rocky Grove High School in 1956 at age 17 and entered Penn State University that fall.
She lasted one semester in art-education, then switched to geology, then switched to Fine/Applied Arts with an English minor. In 1957, Peg discovered “caving” (spelunking) as a sport, and began doing cartoons for various campus publications.
When a car wreck in 1960 scuttled plans for graduate school in Colorado, Peg went back for her education degree. Married at the end of 1960, she had a daughter, and taught in Utica, NY, for the next four years. The marriage ended in 1964. Peg moved from Wyoming, to California, and finally to Colorado (carrying along the daughter and much art work) where she married again, had a son, and divorced again.
Peg taught English and journalism in the Denver Public Schools for thirty years. Then she retired, and looked for a place away from the city where she could write and paint without distraction.
She found that place in 1999: Harrison, Nebraska. Invited by friends, she drove north on 29 and fell in love with the land. And then she fell in love with Harrison. “It was a perfect little town, rising in a tuft of trees, right out of the prairie!” she told people. She found a house she loved, too, and then a studio, and a bunch of nice people, so what if it was in the middle of nowhere and the snow blew sideways on occasion. Peg lived in Harrison for 14 years.
“But sometimes it’s just time to leave,” Peg says. She sold both houses in Harrison and moved to the Valley in 2014. “It was a good move,” she says, “Easier on an old lady.” She’s filled her Gering house with paintings, sculptures, and shows no signs of slowing her creative work.
Will she have another showing of her work? “Well, I’m 80,” she says. “Who knows? Talk to me in ten years or so.”
Peg Fowler Retrospective can be viewed August 30th through September 30th. WNAC will be closed Sunday, September 2nd for the Labor Day weekend. Visit the gallery Tuesday - Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Closed Mondays. Gallery admission is FREE and open to the public.
special thanks
A special thanks to volunteers Mary Hunt, Kelsey Thompson, and Karen Mecklem, for their assistance in the gallery. And thank you to the WNAC Board & Questors for providing food for the opening reception.
about WNAC
The West Nebraska Arts Center is a 501c3 cultural non-profit organization committed to education, awareness and excellence in the arts, serving the North Platte Valley Region. WNAC is located at the corner of 1st Avenue and 18th Street in Scottsbluff, NE. Visit the gallery free of charge Tuesday through Friday 9 to 5, Weekends from 1 to 5. www.thewnac.com. find us on Facebook.
show your support
WNAC is supported by local businesses and individuals who value having the Arts Center in our community. Do you support WNAC with an annual membership gift? If not, please consider joining our efforts. Members of West Nebraska Arts Center receive first notification of our events. Members also receive gallery postcards, a monthly newsletter, discounts gallery and gift shop purchases as well as classes, workshops, fundraiser tickets, and other special events. You will also receive the WNAC newsletter and invitations to special events. Activate or renew your membership online at www.thewnac.com, by visiting the Arts Center office, or call 308-632-2226.
Sponsored by
The West Nebraska Arts Center is a cultural non-profit organization committed to education, awareness and excellence in the arts, serving the North Platte Valley Region. WNAC is located at 106 East 18th Street in Scottsbluff, NE. Visit the Arts Center’s website, www.thewnac.com or find us on Facebook to learn more. The Nebraska Arts Council, a state agency, has supported this program through its matching grants program funded by the Nebraska Legislature, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment. Visit www.nebraskaartscouncil.org for information on how the Nebraska Arts Council can assist your organization, or how you can support the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.
