Ohio first lady to open gallery at arboretum

Peggy Grant, with a portion of the sculpture exhibit at Schedel Arboretum and Gardens, says she'd never visited the arboretum until she was asked to do a sculpture show there.

ELMORE - Adding artwork to 17 acres of perfect peonies, bonsai, basil, redwoods, and roses may seem silly, but Peggy Grant loves to gild the lily.

The Toledo artist and art promoter is hard at work in Elmore these days, setting up a second annual sculpture show and now opening an art gallery at Schedel Arboretum and Gardens, a serene riverside estate once owned by a German quarryman and millionaire.

Ohio First Lady Hope Taft will come to Elmore today to plant a ceremonial cherry tree and dedicate the Trellis Gallery, the area's newest art venue.

“I'd never been out here before two years ago. Like a lot of city people, I'd heard of this place, but I'd never bothered visiting,” Mrs. Grant said, “until they asked me to do a sculpture show. And now, I can't tell you how many times I've made the trip.”

Last year's sculpture show was successful enough to prompt a second, and this time the well-known gallery and studio maven - she runs 20 North Gallery on North St. Clair Street - decided to add works by artists from outside the area.

This year's sampling of 16 includes a 9-foot steel-and-bronze by Genoa steelworker Mike Sohikian, an untitled 13-foot abstract work by Pittsburgh sculptor Stephen H. Murdock, a limestone Ceremonial Table by Sylvania artist Sally Hobbib Rumman, and Metamorphosis, a monumental stone sculpture by Bowling Green sculptor Emanuel Enriquez, a show-stopper set just inside the garden gates.

But dear to Mrs. Grant is what's taken over the Schedel's five-car garage: The Trellis Gallery. Here is hung “Treasures from the Studio,” a show of paintings by the late Bowling Green painter Dorothy Uber Bryan.

The show opens Saturday.

Later this summer, the gallery will fete painter-sculptor Joseph Sheppard, an artist of international fame whose St. Francis bronze is also in the garden through summer.

The stone and steel artworks are carefully landscaped to fit into their garden-spots. But they stand amid a garden - a place full of iridescent dragonflies, birdsong, the scents of water and spruce and cut grass.

Schedel Gardens are a half-hour drive and a 75-cent turnpike toll away from Toledo. “It's a place for art lovers and garden lovers,” said Mrs. Grant. “It's different from anything else in the area. It's a real discovery. It's very much worth the drive.”