Freeport Arts Center
Freeport, IL
815.235.9755
Under the Big Top: Art of the Circus
The Freeport Arts Center will host a new exhibition August 13 through
September 26, 1999 Under the Big Top: Art of the Circus features
more than 20 hand-carved circus wagons by Freeportwe Cornelius Olloff. Olloff
is a member of Circus Model Builders International and several local related
groups. He and his wife, Eileen, have traveled to Canada, Minnesota, Wisconsin,
Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Ohio to take part in three-day group shows
hosted by his clubs. This six-week exhibition will be the first time his
circus wagons have been on display for more than a few days. (left:
Hand-carved Circus Wagon by Cornelius Olloff, below right: John Robinson
Calliope Wagon by Cornelius Olloff)
Olloff
remarks, "I always liked the circus when I was a kid. When I lived
on Pleasant Street, I had an older neighbor, Jack Lewis, who carved circus
wagons. My first wagon was a copy of one of his wagons." Olloff's favorite
of all his circus models is his Swan Wagon, which, like several of
his wagons, is a replica of a real circus wagon at the Circus World Museum
in Baraboo, Wisconsin.
Under the Big Top also features fifteen authentic circus
posters from Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wisconsin, which is owned by
the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. It's the world's largest circus
museum and theme park, covering 50 acres. Located at the original winter
quarters of the Ringling Brothers Circus and considered by many to be the
world's foremost circus history institution, Circus World Museum features
"the world's greatest collection of colossal antique circus parade
wagons."
Visitors will also see a clown painting by Red Skelton,
on loan from a Freeport family who wished to remain anonymous.
Read more about the Freeport Arts
Center in the Resource Library
Search for more articles
and essays on American art in Resource Library. See America's Distinguished Artists
for biographical information on historic artists.
This page was originally published in 1999 in Resource
Library Magazine. Please see Resource Library's Overview section for
more information.
Copyright 2012 Traditional
Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit
corporation. All rights reserved.
The Freeport Arts Center will host a new exhibition August 13 through
September 26, 1999 Under the Big Top: Art of the Circus features
more than 20 hand-carved circus wagons by Freeportwe Cornelius Olloff. Olloff
is a member of Circus Model Builders International and several local related
groups. He and his wife, Eileen, have traveled to Canada, Minnesota, Wisconsin,
Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Ohio to take part in three-day group shows
hosted by his clubs. This six-week exhibition will be the first time his
circus wagons have been on display for more than a few days. (left:
Hand-carved Circus Wagon by Cornelius Olloff, below right: John Robinson
Calliope Wagon by Cornelius Olloff)