{"id":1453,"date":"2016-10-10T15:38:06","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T19:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/?p=1453"},"modified":"2016-11-01T15:36:44","modified_gmt":"2016-11-01T19:36:44","slug":"want-a-weather-vane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/2016\/10\/10\/want-a-weather-vane\/","title":{"rendered":"Want a Weather Vane?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Museum Student Advisory Board is offering\u00a0Colby students the chance to design and have produced a weather vane representing their student group.<\/div><\/div>With advancements in meteorology, it\u2019s not surprising that we no longer use weather vanes such as those on display in the exhibitions <\/em>A Usable Past: American Folk Art at the Colby College Museum of Art<\/a> and <\/em>Weather Vanes and Trade Signs from a Distinguished New England Collection<\/a>. Yet there may be some strong reasons in favor of reviving the practice. Looking to their communal and symbolic value, the Museum\u2019s Student Advisory Board is currently\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad offering Colby students the exciting opportunity to design real weather vanes on behalf of their organizations.<\/em><\/p>\n
\"Installation<\/a>
Installation View of A Usable Past: American Folk Art at the Colby College Museum of Art<\/em> featuring weather vanes in from the museum’s collection.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Weather vanes delivered crucial information to a wide variety of nineteenth-century professionals: they updated merchants\u00a0on trade winds used for shipping, notified farmers of conditions affecting their crops, and warned individuals of impending inclement and dangerous weather. Far from being solely utilitarian, weather vanes often demonstrated a multiplicity of artistic skills; examples dating from the early nineteenth century were often carved in wood or hand cut from sheets of iron before being covered in gold leaf or painted. By the middle of the century, industrialization had transformed the previously artisanal trade. Manufactured weather vanes were made in pieces by hammering or stamping sheet metal onto molded half forms by a machine. These were then soldered together and either painted or gilded. Companies like Jewell and Cushing shared their wares via catalog, allowing consumers to purchase from afar.<\/p>\n

\"Artist<\/a>
Artist Unknown, Dove Weathervane<\/em>, c. 1900. Copper with gold leaf, 19 in. x 25 in. x 5 1\/4 in. (48.26 cm x 63.5 cm x 13.34 cm). Gift of Helen Warren and Willard Howe Cummings, 1956.045<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yet despite changes in design and manufacture, the iconography of weather vanes, generally animals, still often held symbolic or cultural meaning. According to many folkloric traditions, snakes were good omens for fertile lands and water-laden clouds and so appeared atop farmhouses. Doves, with biblical links, could adorn weather vanes atop churches or chapels. These objects were also responsive to popular culture; toward the end of the nineteenth century, weather vanes featuring prominent racehorses like Black Hawk, comparable in fame to today\u2019s star athletes, became widely available.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
An example of a pattern on which Black Hawk weather vanes were molded. Attributed to Henry Leach, Black Hawk Horse Weather Vane Pattern<\/em>, 1871-72. Smithsonian American Art Museum,\u00a01986.65.358.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Colby students:<\/strong> Want to see your organization represented as a unique, handmade weather vane? In conjunction with A Usable Past<\/em> and Weather Vanes and Trade Signs<\/em>, the Museum\u2019s Student Advisory Board <\/a>invites students across campus to explore their own identities and create designs for a weather vane that would represent their club, team, dormitory, or other group. What aspects of your group\u2019s identity are most crucial to communicate to the broader community? Is that identity best represented iconographically, such as a polka-dancing club creating an accordion weather vane, or would a more enigmatic symbol better emblematize your organization? We encourage you to consider these questions as you find creative ways to represent yourselves to the rest of the Colby community.<\/p>\n

Weather-vane designs along with brief explanations should be submitted (in PDF format) to Nora Hill<\/a>\u00a0by November 1. Submissions will be evaluated by a jury composed of student representatives from the Museum\u2019s Student Advisory Board, Colby faculty, and the Museum staff. The winning design will be announced on November 10 at the Museum Mashup, an event featuring student performances inspired by the Museum\u2019s current exhibitions. This design will be fabricated by a local metalsmith and displayed at the Museum before being given to its designers to exhibit as they wish.<\/p>\n

For more information on the history of weathervanes, see Seth Thayer Jr., \u201cWeather vanes,\u201d in <\/span>A Usable Past: American Folk Art at the Colby Museum<\/span>, ed. Lauren Lessing. (Waterville, ME: Colby College Museum of Art, 2016): 152.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Museum Student Advisory Board is offering Colby students the opportunity to design and have produced a weather vane representing their student group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7103,"featured_media":1462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[101979,101973,102021],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/files\/2016\/10\/1957.045_001_cd.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3U3TZ-nr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1453"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1481,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453\/revisions\/1481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}