FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 12, 2024
MEDIA CONTACT: Cody Hefner (513) 608-5777, chefner@cincymuseum.org
Cincinnati Museum Center celebrates late artist John A. Ruthven's 100th birthday
Day of nature-inspired art activities honors artist's legacy of preservation and advocacy Nov. 16
CINCINNATI – Today marks legendary wildlife artist John A. Ruthven’s 100th birthday. To celebrate, Cincinnati Museum Center (CMC) is hosting a nature- and art-centric day of programming this Saturday, November 16, during which guests can participate in and enjoy art in honor of one of the museum’s closest friends.
In 1934, 10-year-old John A. Ruthven proudly walked into the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History (now the Museum of Natural History & Science, part of Cincinnati Museum Center), his hands clutching a small hummingbird he intended to donate to the museum’s collections. It was the start of a lifelong friendship with CMC. In his lifetime, John helped bring thousands of specimens into the museum’s collections, building a rich and robust natural catalog by which scientists and historians can learn more about our region and the natural and wild spaces around the globe.
The museum’s 100th birthday celebration for John A. Ruthven will include a variety of nature-inspired art activities including:
- Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream
11 a.m. to noon
No birthday is complete without ice cream! Discover the science behind a classic frozen treat and sample a tasty bite.
- Aspiring Artists: Nature Imprints with Sarah Kent
Noon to 5 p.m.
Join artist Sarah Kent as she shares her love of preserving nature through imprints using clay and natural materials.
- Animal Pictionary
2:30 p.m.
Play a game of drawing and guessing animals, then stick around to learn about John A. Ruthven’s contributions to CMC’s collections.
- Laser Craze: Animal Ornaments
3 to 4 p.m.
Join us as we use a laser to carve beautiful animal ornaments and customize them with a marbling technique.
The celebration activities are included with admission and free for museum Members.
Ruthven (1924 – 2020) served with the United States Navy in World War II, returning home to study at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and open his own art studio. CMC’s collections served as a valuable resource, allowing Ruthven to use real bird specimens to inform his paintings, which he often painted in the style of an artist he admired so much – John James Audubon, the first employee of CMC’s earliest incarnation in 1819 and an artist who won international acclaim for his Birds of America series.
As a longtime member of the Explorer’s Club, Ruthven’s love of nature carried him on expeditions around the globe. He helped encourage a greater emphasis on CMC actively engaging in scientific research, contributing its own findings to the scientific community. He joined museum-organized scientific expeditions to the Philippines and to Arkansas and Florida searching for species believed to be extinct.
Throughout his career, Ruthven’s watercolor paintings have garnered accolades at all levels. His “Redhead Ducks” painting won the 1960-1961 Federal Duck Stamp competition, launching his art career. He was commissioned to design the 1996 and 2016 Ohio license plates and was awarded the prestigious National Medal of the Arts by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2004, the first wildlife artist to receive the award.
His paintings are on display in museums and universities across the world, including the Smithsonian Institution and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. He painted “Eagle to the Moon” to commemorate Neil Armstrong’s Moon landing, which is now on display at the Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta, Ohio. Ruthven has created paintings and prints for the Cincinnati Bengals, Cincinnati Observatory, SPCA Cincinnati, the Fine Arts Fund (now ArtsWave), Colonial Williamsburg, United States presidents and world leaders. Cincinnatians may be most familiar with his three-story “Martha, the Last Passenger Pigeon” mural at the corner of Vine and Seventh streets. ArtWorks headed the project and Ruthven climbed the scaffolding with student artists to create the tribute to the last passenger pigeon.
