Latrobe Art Centre co-founder Elaine “Laney” Rogers Crozier was not just a patron of the arts, she was an artist herself.
An untitled and undated watercolor by Rogers, considered to be an graphic of an place farm, hangs in the vicinity of the entrance of the center.
The function depicts a barn, painted in muted grays with a red silo. A tree with out leaves in entrance of the barn implies it was completed in a chilly time of year.
“I feel it’s risk-free to say that it was painted in Westmoreland County,” explained Joe Bellack, the center’s assistant director.
Crozier, who was born and lived in Latrobe for most of her daily life, established the centre in 2002 with a different community resident, Elizabeth Hazlett.
The sister of Fred Rogers, of “Mister Rogers Neighborhood” fame, she died in 2019 at age 80.
“While her brother grew to become greatly identified for his present and its important concept for youngsters and their families, Nancy did perform of her personal to gain the regional community and make the earth a improved put,” wrote LAC Government Director Michael Tusay in a tribute to Rogers and Hazlett.
“She experienced a enthusiasm for the arts,” Tusay reported.
In addition to founding and supporting the artwork middle, Crozier served as president of the McFeely-Rogers Basis, which supports other regional educational and charitable businesses. She also served on the boards of Adams Memorial Library, Valley Faculty of Ligonier, Latrobe Medical center Charitable Foundation and Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra and was a member and elder of Latrobe Presbyterian Church.
As a painter, Crozier was mainly self-taught, though she did get some courses at Latrobe and other neighborhood art facilities, Tusay said. Her subjects tended to be scenes, objects and people from her each day daily life.
“Her most important concentration was however lifes and landscapes,” he claimed.
In addition to scenes of Western Pennsylvania, Crozier also painted the beaches and lighthouses of Nantucket Island in Massachusetts, a repeated loved ones vacation location also enjoyed by her brother.
Crozier’s portray is a person of only two items that the middle considers to be lasting operates, Tusay said. The other, paired with it around the primary entrance, is a watercolor by Hazlett.
“It’s positioned purposefully,” he stated. “We under no circumstances want to forget our roots or her influence or put in the group.”
Editor’s notice: Behind the Artwork is a recurring sequence highlighting creative operates during the county.
Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Evaluation personnel writer. You can get in touch with Shirley by e mail at [email protected] or through Twitter .
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