JASPER
KEMP ELMER
Berks County Romantic
April
13, 2002 - July 7, 2002
April
13 through July 7, 2002, in conjunction
with the 250th Anniversary of Berks County,
the Reading Public Museum will exhibit Jasper
Kemp Elmer: Berks County Romantic.
This exhibit will feature over 30 original
drawings and paintings by noted Berks Countian
Jasper Kemp Elmer.
Jasper
was born in 1906 in Cerevic, Yugoslavia
and arrived in America at the age of 14.
He began his American education in "foreigners
night school" but was quickly transferred
to the Reading School District and placed
in the second grade. Within six years he
advanced through grade school and Reading
Boys High School graduating Valedictorian
of the January 1927 class, an achievement
for which he was recognized nationally.
Jasper spoke fondly of his art training
as a student in the Reading Public Schools
where he was one of several art students
singled out to study at the Reading Public
Museum under Dr. Earl Poole (a former Reading
Public Museum director).
After
high school, he received his Bachelor of
Architecture degree in 1932 from the University
of Pennsylvania where he was appointed an
art instructor during his fifth year due
to his outstanding work in drawing and watercolor.
He returned to college during the depression
years and earned both a Bachelor of Science
in Public School Art in 1935 and his MasterÕs
degree of Science in Education in 1941 graduating
Valedictorian from Kutztown State Teacher's
College.
His
lifelong hobby, freehand drawing and painting
furnished his first serious lifework. He
was hired as an art teacher at Amanda Stout
Elementary School in the year of its opening
in 1935 and also as an instructor of Adult
Education in Art at the Y.M.C.A. at Reed
and Washington Streets. Later he taught
mechanical drawing and algebra at Reading
Senior High School and Wyomissing Polytechnic
School. While a teacher in the Senior High
School of Reading School District, he was
asked to serve as head of the architectural
department for freshman of Penn State College,
who, through overcrowded conditions at State
College, attended Kutztown State Teacher's
College. He accepted the architectural teaching
position and in addition worked nights,
Saturdays and summers, practicing architecture
in a Reading office.
At
the end of five years of architectural teaching,
Jasper abandoned teaching and concentrated
on his own architectural practice. It was
during this time that he was asked to run
on the Republican ticket for school director
of the Reading Public Schools, which he
won. He died in 1953 from a misdiagnosed
disease.
In
1936, Mr. Elmer was married to Julia N.
Shanaman, a Reading-born musician and pianist.
Her music can be heard playing in one area
where Jasper Kemp Elmer: Berks County
Romantic is being exhibited. In 1939
their only son Cedric Elmer was born and
they moved to 345 Douglass Street where
Jasper had an art studio and his wife a
private piano studio. When Julia Shanaman
Elmer died, she left the house at 345 Douglass
St. to her son Cedric. He had been teaching
at the Community School (founded by Peter
LaManna and Werner Von Trapp), then located
on Mineral Spring Road, and upon inheriting
the Douglass St. property, moved the school
to its present day location. Many of the
paintings in the exhibit are from the collection
of the Community School of Music and the
Arts. For more information on this local
art and music school see their website www.communityschooltoday.org.
Robert
Metzger, Ph.D
Director, CEO, Chief Curator Reading
Public Museum |
