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Vacation is over and the circus has
staitsd-at Sheldon Art Gallery. "It must be
Seen and Heard to be Believed." says the
playbill, and indeed it must.
The circus is an art exhibit The Byron
Burford Circus of Artistic Wonders. It is
sponsored by the Nebraska Art Association
and wifl play until April 23.
The show, a managerie of paintings and
moving sculpture, occupies the northern half
of the second floor of the gallery. The walls
of the northeast room are draped with
canvas, lions and tigers growl and an acrobat
swings on his trapeze.
The only thing the "circus" lacks is the
smell of the cages and the sawdust on the
floor.
At the March 24 gala opening, the artist.
Byron Burford. said the exhfcmon is the
culmination of his life-long love affair with
the big top.
"Uy mother used to let me get up early
in the morning and watch the circus come
into town." he said. 1 would sit on the
porch, eating my breakfast and watch them
bring in the animals and those brightly
painted wagons.
When he was IS. he spent a week with
the Tom Mix Circus. The circus was
organized by Mix. a silent film star of the
1920s.
Said Burford: "It might have been the
most exciting week in my life. I carried food
and water for the animals and helped paint
wagons.
Wagon painting might have been the start
of his career he is now a professor of art at
the University of Iowa. But despite his
position and reputation he still "runs off to
the circus every summer just to paint wagons
and play in the band."
"I always wanted a circus of my own," he
explained. "Some people don't consider
what I do to be art. but I don't do this for
those people. People who have never been to
a museum in their lives enjoy this show. It
has a broad appeal."
The silver -haired artist looked like an
excited 10-year-old as he donned his red and
blue band conductor's uniform.
"True, I run this circus, but I don't think
of myself as a ringmaster." he said. "I'd
sooner think of myseSf as a band director-."
With that he picked up his baton and the
brightly attired band struck-up The
Barnum and Bailey Circus March."
At the conclusion of the song he said,
"Listen to that music. It's exciting. That's
why circuses are having a revival now. There
is nothing really exciting anymore. People
are dissatisfied with the unreality of
television."
He paused, smiled and said: "When I was
small. . . WeB. can you imagine being 10
years old and have 30 or 40 elephants
stomping right in front of you? That's scary.
That's real."
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Impresario Byron Durford.
WEDNESDAY. APRIL 1872
THE DAILY NEBRASKA?
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