Harlee Rozell with Hailee Fouch and Jessica Cydrus setting up art exhibit at Federal Valley Reserve Center April 14, 2016.
By Harlee Rozell ’17
On April 14, Hailee Fouch ’18 and I accompanied Jessica Cydrus, the curator for the Athens County Historical Society and Museum, to the Federal Valley Reserve Center in Stewart, Ohio, to help set up an art exhibit for viewing by the public later that evening.
Hailee and I are both Ohio University Anthropology interns at the Athens County Historical Society and Museum and are enjoying the opportunity to participate in this event.
The exhibit features 80 individual paintings and honors the late Cosette Byron Jarvis, the artist of all 80 paintings in the exhibit.
Jarvis was born in Stewart in 1867 and passed away in 1958.
She was one of the first paid female artists in Athens county. Her love for art began as a child, where she first began practicing sculpture using mud.
She later moved on to sketching, and then painting.
Cosette Byron Jarvis self-portrait
According to the center’s short biography of Jarvis, when asked at the age of 81 which of her many portraits was her favorite, “she chose one of herself at age 19 and a series of a man through the ages of his life, known as The Fisherman.”
Jarvis was a very popular artist. She created more than 1,000 paintings, most of which were commissioned by people around and out of the state of Ohio.
She is survived by many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who supplied the paintings for this exhibit.
We helped set up over 50 easels and coordinate the location of the paintings and arrange the room for the many guests expected to come.
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