Current Exhibitions

Canine Treasures

Want to show off Fido's show-winning accomplishments or boast about your dog's winning skills in agility? Want to let everyone know that you have the best field trial dog in the country? The AKC Museum of the Dog is seeking loan material for its first-ever Canine Treasures exhibit which will include a variety of artifacts associated with dog shows and dog-related events. If you own a champion show-dog portrait, pastel, or drawing, artifacts, photos, trophies, dog show collectibles, or other dog related items that would be available for loan, please contact Museum Director Barbara Jedda McNab at 314-821-3647 or email: dogarts@aol.com.

Canine Treasures will open in the Museum's Special Exhibit Gallery in February 2007.

Artists' Registry Exhibitions

The fifth in a series of popular Artists' Registry Exhibitions opened in the Museum's Special Exhibit Gallery in June and features thirteen works of art by Anita Baarns of Round Hill, Virginia as well as fifteen paintings in acrylic by Nan Kilgore Little of Gladstone, Virginia. Also on exhibit are whimsical, mixed-media sculptures by artist Jack Dowd of Sarasota, Florida. While the Museum's previous Artists' Registry Exhibition featured solely paintings, this special presentation includes a mix of oil, pastel, and acrylic portraits shown in conjunction with Dowd's three-dimensional works of art.

Baarns who was born in Fontainebleu, France, is heavily influenced by the subject of horses and hounds and has exhibited a the American Academy of Equine Art in Lexington, Kentucky, and her work has appeared many times on the cover of The Chronicle of the Horse. In 1998, Baarns became a naturalized citizen of the United States. She also won the Jean Bowman Award for Best in Show for her work entered in the Sporting Art Exhibition sponsored by the Museum of Hounds and Hunting at Morven Park in Leesburg, Virginia.

Nan Kilgore Little grew up in rural Maryland, but always felt Virginia, where she currently resides with her husband and a geriatric crew of Ibizan Hounds, four Pugs, and an Australian Cattle Dog in Bent Creek, was her spiritual home. Little believes that aesthetics, color, and luminosity are important elements in her work, but her interests in light and the personality of individual subjects are paramount. Little boasts numerous private commissions.

Jack Dowd knew at an early age he possessed a passion for art. After graduating from Adelphi University in Garden City, New York, Dowd became a high school art teacher and by the 1970s, his artistic interests had developed into a more serious pursuit. It was during this time he discovered his whimsical, expressionistic style of sculpture.

Dowd seeks inspiration in the everyday, often seeking out the overlooked simplicities of life. He then translates his experiences into an artistic language that speaks to everyone.

The Museum's Artists' Registry is a free resource comprising biographical information on more than two hundred artists available by commission for dog portraits or dog-related art. Artists interested in joining the Artists' Registry should send a one-time $5 fee along with photographs of their work to the AKC Museum of the Dog, 1721 S. Mason Rd., St. Louis, Missouri, 63131.

The current Artists' Registry Exhibition will be available through September 2006.

The Museum maintains an Artists' Registry - a biographical listing of artists available by commission for dog portraits or dog-related art - as a free resource available to visitors, listing over 200 artists available by commission for dog portraits or dog-related art.

The Artists' Registry Exhibitions highlight members of the Artists' Registry in special exhibits presented throughout the year.

For further information on how to become a member of the Artists' Registry or for information on a specific artist, contact Museum Assistant Jan Trudt at 314 821-3647; or, e-mail: dogarts@aol.com.