PROGRESS C O M M U N I T Y
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E D U C A T I O N SHAWNEE NEWS-STAR | SECTION G
It’s been a busy year in and around Shawnee, from new businesses being built to ongoing progress and bond projects at area school districts — and even community programs at work that enhance the area overall.
Saturday-Sunday, June 1-2, 2019
Shawnee has new restaurants to choose from as well as an array of new businesses for residents to explore. Here’s a look at some of the progress over the past year.
Museum of Art
The Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art (MGMoA), at 1900 W. MacArthur in Shawnee, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. MGMoA Curator of Collections Delaynna Trim said in the early 1900s Fr. Gregory Gerrer started collecting for a museum in Oklahoma while he was in Europe training to be an artist. She said he saw these wondrous museums across Europe and wanted to bring the world to Oklahoma. “The collection started small — a few magnificent paintings, samples of woods and seashells collected from across the world and ethnographic objects from a variety of cultures,” Trim said. “The collection continued to grow with his travels and with the people he would meet.” By 1914, she said the collection was well on its way in his studio behind St. Benedict’s Church where he was an assistant pastor. “He would tell people of his dream to bring art and culture to Oklahoma, and they would give him their treasured art and artifacts for this great museum,” Trim said. “By 1919, the collection had grown beyond his studio, so he moved it to the newly-built Benedictine Hall at the St. Gregory’s campus.” Artwork hung in the hallways and the artifacts were displayed on the second floor, she said. Unlike many art museums, the Gerrer Museum as it was called then, was never the collection of a wealthy individual. Fr. Gerrer always collected for a museum for the people of Oklahoma. After Gerrer passed away in 1946, there was not a director of the museum until 1957 when Stephen Gyermek was asked to take the post. The Gerrer Museum was officially reopened Jan. 12, 1958. For more information, visit mgmoa.org or call (405) 878-5300. Information compiled from the MGMoA website.
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of Pottawatomie County
Just celebrating its third anniversary in April, Community Renewal of Pottawatomie County works to restore relationships from within neighborhoods. Director Brandon Dyer said his organization now has more than 3,200 We Care. team members, 136 Block Leaders and its Kids
Club program serves 275 children from seven neighborhood schools and its Friendship House. The nonprofit’s first Friendship House in Kickapoo Park, at 7th and Pottenger, is up and running; its second, at Main and Bryan, will soon follow suit.
PHOTOS BY VICKY O. MISA SHAWNEE NEWS-STAR
at the Santa Fe Depot
Three years after its groundbreaking, Shawnee’s longtime downtown museum and depot site just celebrated its open house. Right next to the Pottawatomie County Historical Society and Museum at the Santa Fe Depot at 614 E. Main St., now sits the Pottawatomie County Museum — Paul and Ann Milburn Center, at 207 N. Minnesota (just north of
the depot). Director Ken Landry said with the help of Dr. and Mrs. Paul Milburn, numerous donors from the community, and volunteers and staff, a lot has been accomplished. “The building has been erected and the west wing has been completed, along with the restrooms and offices in the main area,” Landry said. The facility is approx-
imately 90 percent complete, Landry said, and fundraising continues in a push for the goal line. “We are actively seeking grants and financial assistance from the City of Shawnee and other entities to complete the building and grounds, and operate the museum,” he said. Fundraising for the new museum started in 2009, Landry said.
VICKY O. MISA SHAWNEE NEWS-STAR
So far, $1.8 million in donations from more than 220 individuals, businesses and organi-
zations over the last 10 years of fundraising have made the new building possible, he said.
“We still need about $300,000 to completely finish the museum, inside and out,” Landry said.