Seeking Sanctuary in the Indiana Dunes“Wood, if you stop to think of it, has been man’s best friend in the world. It held him in his cradle, went to war as the gunstock in his hand, was the frame of the bed he came to rejoicing, the log upon his hearth when he was cold, and will make him his last long home. It was the murmuring bough above his childhood play, and the roof over the first house he called his own. It is the page he is reading at this moment; it is the forest where he seeks sanctuary from a stony world.” — Donald Culross Peattie, naturalist and advocate for the preservation of the Indiana Dunes
The quote above from Donald Culross Peattie introduces our newest featured exhibit called Against the Grain, which opened last week and explores the wide-ranging dimensions of making objects out of wood. Wood’s presence in our lives is so ubiquitous and close to us, we often taken it for granted. Across the museum in the Robert Cain Gallery, Peattie’s words again resonate with the selection of artwork inspired by the Indiana Dunes in another brand new exhibit called The Drama of the Dunes. Artists have long been drawn to the dunes to seek refuge and renewal from a seemingly more complicated urban existence. Here, they’ve found their voice to express their passion for the natural world.
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