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Section: Arts

The Enduring Apron
By Caroline Huftalen

The apron has left the kitchen and jumped onto art gallery walls for a series of unique exhibitions at the Castellani Art Museum at Niagara University. From the workplace to the kitchen drawer, CAM shares the beautiful, the practical and the memories of this domestic necessity.

Many aprons began as over-worn pants or shirts, outdated curtains, or even a child’s favorite quilt. As a way to recycle fabrics and never let anything go to waste, women across the nation found a new use for items that often housed memorable smells and patterns.

“Aprons are particularly relevant in light of our society’s economic and ecological concerns,” says Claire Aubrey, interim curator of folk art at CAM. “Aprons have always been items of preservation, conservation and re-use. They’ve historically been made of recycled materials — most notably feed sacks — a trend that continues to this day.”

Aubrey says apron use diminished over time “due to technological advances like the washing machine and our culture of consumption, which resulted in people thinking, ‘If it gets dirty wash it, if it stays stained throw it away.’ Now, people realize that mentality is not good for the wallet or the planet.”

The exhibit begins with Artistic and Functional: Aprons from the Karen Anderson Collection, which showcases 50 of the 500 aprons that were collected by Karen Anderson of Lynn Center, Illinois. The collection began in 1990, with purchased aprons from farm auctions, estate sales, antique stores and garage sales. Anderson also received aprons as gifts, and even hand-crafted her own.

“These aprons were the focal point of presentations she gave at mother-daughter banquets, home extension meetings, women’s groups and senior centers,” Aubrey says. “Karen was killed in a car accident along with her 2-year-old granddaughter, Erin, in 2000. Her sister, Marlowe McSparin, and daughter, Melinda Anderson, still lovingly maintain her collection.” And after some encouragement from Laurene Buckley, previous director of CAM, Melinda and Marlowe decided to share the collection with the public.

Aprons from a Local Kitchen Drawer takes a collection of aprons created by Catherine Weinheimer Hackenheimer (1857–1952), the grandmother of Jean Hackenheimer, a Castellani volunteer, and shows them as the local treasures they are. Hackenheimer preserved her grandmothers creations and put them away for safe keeping in her own kitchen drawer.

The final part of the series demonstrates how the innovation of the apron has gone beyond its usage in the kitchen. Aprons at Work provides the viewer with a series of occupational portraits that portray people in the workplace who wear aprons on a daily basis. From cobblers and butchers to radiology technicians, aprons at work provide not only protection to the wardrobe but also to the body. The photographs were taken by Lauren Tent of CEPA Gallery and donated by DiCamillo’s Bakery in Niagara Falls, whose family has worn aprons at work for four generations.

The apron appreciation will continue on June 7 as CAM holds a celebration of ethnic aprons and on June 28 with demonstrations of Norwegian hardanger embroidery and Ukrainian cross-stitch. There will also be a further look at occupational aprons.

The apron art craze has struck other local museums as well. The Sanborn Area Historical Society exhibit runs through the middle of October. The Historical Association of Lewiston will open their apron exhibit on June 3 and CAM’s exhibition runs until July 19 at Niagara University.


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