Artist Lydia Sohlberg Deere
" Professor Sandzén was known for encouraging everyone to live a life filled with art and culture."
-- Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery Curator Cori North
" Professor Sandzén was known for encouraging everyone to live a life filled with art and culture."
-- Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery Curator Cori North
<> The Legacy Art Community <>
Bethany Home
~ Celebrating Artist Birger Sandzén through his students' paintings
Bethany Home
~ Celebrating Artist Birger Sandzén through his students' paintings
It is important to note that before there was a Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery, there were already "other Sandzén galleries" very early on in Lindsborg found at Bethany College, of course, but in the homes, town buildings, the public schools and in the "Bethany Home for the Aged," as today's Bethany Home was once called when it was founded in 1907.
I had the privilege of working at Bethany Home in early 1977 for several months as a nurse's aide during the evening shift while helping my mother deal with the Sohlberg Deere Estate. This was after teaching in Melbourne, Australia, and my remaining world travels finishing in California via Lindsborg, just in time to celebrate the Centennial with all the Swedes there on July 4, 1976!
Bethany Home was a wonderful place to work with teacher, historian and author-to-be Bill Carlson, the fairly new Administrator of the Home at the time; and, to learned quickly that the Home was ground zero for historians and writers to come to hear and record from its residents "the early history" of Lindsborg and Bethany College!
Not only was it rich in residents who had strong links to early leaders of Lindsborg and of Bethany College, the Home was rich in art from the students of Sven Birger Sandzén as any visitor would notice in the various corridors that had large paintings hanging on its walls, one of which I noticed was done by my great grandaunt Lydia Sohlberg Deere during the beginning of her life as an artist at age 50.
I had the privilege of working at Bethany Home in early 1977 for several months as a nurse's aide during the evening shift while helping my mother deal with the Sohlberg Deere Estate. This was after teaching in Melbourne, Australia, and my remaining world travels finishing in California via Lindsborg, just in time to celebrate the Centennial with all the Swedes there on July 4, 1976!
Bethany Home was a wonderful place to work with teacher, historian and author-to-be Bill Carlson, the fairly new Administrator of the Home at the time; and, to learned quickly that the Home was ground zero for historians and writers to come to hear and record from its residents "the early history" of Lindsborg and Bethany College!
Not only was it rich in residents who had strong links to early leaders of Lindsborg and of Bethany College, the Home was rich in art from the students of Sven Birger Sandzén as any visitor would notice in the various corridors that had large paintings hanging on its walls, one of which I noticed was done by my great grandaunt Lydia Sohlberg Deere during the beginning of her life as an artist at age 50.
- Style and age similar to what I saw on the Bethany Home wall by Lydia Sohlberg Deere when I worked there in 1977 -
In the early 2000s, while in Lindsborg, I visited Bethany Home briefly and saw an amazing increase in the number of paintings on the walls, many of which continued to be from the students of Sandzén. Some of those artists and the resident artists are noted below revealing the ongoing testament of the love and respect held by Bethany Home for art and the artists embracing Sandzén's call "to live a life filled with art and culture!"
The artists: John Bergers, John Bashor, Irene Christensen, Ann Eitel, Doris Ferguson, Maleta Forsberg, Edith Flitchen, Louis Hafermihl, Oscar Gunnarson, Dellan Jacobson, Joseph Johnson, L. Johnson, Sally Johnson, Signe Larson, Alba Malm, G.N. Malm, Carl Muller, Annabeth Nelson, Marcella Oakes, Anton Pearson, Carl Peterson, Eldon Swenson, A. “Tuttle,” Hannah Swenson, and Edith Woodbury.
Source: 2020, Bethany Home's Lan Nelson, a former long-term Activity Director and art enthusiast, working part-time
The artists: John Bergers, John Bashor, Irene Christensen, Ann Eitel, Doris Ferguson, Maleta Forsberg, Edith Flitchen, Louis Hafermihl, Oscar Gunnarson, Dellan Jacobson, Joseph Johnson, L. Johnson, Sally Johnson, Signe Larson, Alba Malm, G.N. Malm, Carl Muller, Annabeth Nelson, Marcella Oakes, Anton Pearson, Carl Peterson, Eldon Swenson, A. “Tuttle,” Hannah Swenson, and Edith Woodbury.
Source: 2020, Bethany Home's Lan Nelson, a former long-term Activity Director and art enthusiast, working part-time
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"Let Us Celebrate Them"
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Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
~ restoring lost local histories ~
reconnecting past to present
* * *
All color photography throughout Swedes: The Way They Were is by Fran Cochran unless otherwise indicated.
Copyright © since October 8, 2015 to Current Year
as indicated on main menu sections of
www.swedesthewaytheywere.org. All rights reserved.
"Let Us Celebrate Them"
* * *
Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
~ restoring lost local histories ~
reconnecting past to present
* * *
All color photography throughout Swedes: The Way They Were is by Fran Cochran unless otherwise indicated.
Copyright © since October 8, 2015 to Current Year
as indicated on main menu sections of
www.swedesthewaytheywere.org. All rights reserved.
