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Home art tour fundraiser to help beautify downtown

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

Charles City has many hidden delights and on Sunday people got to experience some of the art inside the homes of several Charles City residents.

The Charles City Home Art Tour showcased centuries-old artwork as well as current artists’ work from all around.

The homes of five Charles City residents were open: Jon and Ann Schneckloth, Bruce and Janiece Bergland, Larry and Donna Stewart, Norma Breitbach and Art and Susan Strong.

In the first 10 minutes of the event 10 tickets were sold, said Charles City Community Revitalization Director Mark Wicks.

“This is a first-time event. The idea came to our design committee,” Wicks said. “We’ve never done a home art tour before.”

The event was put on by Charles City Community Revitalization and is intended as a fundraiser for downtown beautification.

Christopher Anthony and Steve Schiller were two of the design committee members that came up with the idea, Wicks said.

“We’re always willing to try something once to see how it goes,” Wicks said. “A lot of people have been talking about it. We’ve got a lot of great public art.”

The Revival sculpture and pieces along the riverfront have garnered Charles City attention around the state for being a great public art community, Wicks said.

“We’ve got some incredible private art collections that a lot people don’t get to see,” he said.

Joe and Lori Nettleton have pieces that were shown at the Breitbach’s home during the tour from the 18th and 19th century along with Cambrex Art Collections.

“We have five homes that are wiling to open to the public,” Wicks said. “It’s a wide variety from pottery to water colors to you name it.”

The homes are all curating a museum’s worth of art that is now being shown to the public.

“It’s a nice leisurely Sunday afternoon’s chance to check some really neat private art collections,” Wicks said.

There’s no guarantee that the event will be continued next year, but there were at least five to six cars parked in front of each home during the event.

“Until you do a first time event you never know,” Wicks said. “It’s a great opportunity to view these private collections.”

All of the homes featured original artwork bought and displayed by the families.

“The stories behind them are equally exciting to find out,” Wicks said.

The Strongs’ home was full of original work on the walls, tables, shelves and even windows, similar to the other homes.

Art Strong had several pieces of art from his college professor while he was at the University of Northern Iowa.

“When they came up for sale I made sure I had pieces from both my college instructors,” Strong said.

“About half the stuff is stuff I’d have traded for when I was selling at art fairs,” Strong said.

The Strongs would always buy an original piece of art from a different country they’d visit.

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