DAYTON, OH.- Have you ever wondered what art can be found in the homes of Dayton area collectors? The Dayton Art Institute’s centennial special exhibition, Our Century: Dayton Area Collects, helps answer that question, with a look at local art collections.

Our Century: Dayton Area Collects, on view from June 29 through September 22, brings together works from private art collections in the Dayton Area, as well as recent significant and promised gifts to the DAI, as part of the museum’s ongoing centennial celebrations in 2019.

The exhibition is organized by the DAI and curated by the museum’s Chief Curator, Dr. Jerry N. Smith. The DAI is the sole venue for this fascinating look at area art collections.

“It has been a real treat to visit so many collectors and see such wonderful works people surround themselves with,” Smith said. “The exhibition is fabulously eclectic because peoples’ collections are as varied as the people themselves. This exhibition really demonstrates the important role art plays in our daily lives.”

Featuring a diverse range of objects, this exhibition looks at the important role collectors have played in helping to grow the DAI’s collection, through the museum’s first century and into the next. A few of the featured artists in the exhibition include Frederic Remington, Norman Rockwell, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renior, Dale Chihuly, Wayne Thiebaud, Jean-Baptiste Corot, Cindy Sherman and Roy Lichtenstein. Works range from paintings to sculpture, Japanese woodblock prints, decorative arts, and even beadwork by one of the artists featured in the DAI’s recent Ubuhle Women exhibition.

“The DAI has a built a fantastic collection over the past century thanks largely to the generosity of donors giving works from their collections,” Smith continued. “Seeing the wonderful things people still collect and continue to gift is reassuring. It confirms that the DAI’s collection will continue to expand, thanks to today’s collectors.”

In conjunction with the special exhibition, the focus exhibition In the Company of Friends: The Kettering and Patterson Legacy explores how Virginia W. Kettering and the Honorable Jefferson Patterson played a key role in shaping the DAI’s Asian collection, which is rated among the top collections of its kind in the United States. The focus exhibition, which showcases a number of rarely seen pieces from the DAI’s Asian collection, is on view throughout the DAI’s centennial celebrations. This exhibition is curated by Dr. Peter Doebler, Kettering Curator of Asian Art.

“This exhibition will offer a fascinating look at area art collections,” said DAI Director and CEO Michael R. Roediger. “We hope you’ll join us, as the museum continues to celebrate its centennial with this exhibition, plus other fascinating focus exhibitions, as well as many other events and programs, throughout the remainder of the year.”