Plans are in the works for a permanent Harlan Hubbard gallery at the Behringer-Crawford Museum.
The museum also says it hopes to publish audiobook versions of several of Hubbard's books.
Until then, several never-before-exhibited paintings by Hubbard are among the artwork and memorabilia displayed in
Behringer-Crawford's latest salute to the famed Northern Kentucky artist, author, and shanty boater.
The new paintings are a portion of a recent bequest from the estate of Mia Cunningham, a close friend of Hubbard and his wife, Anna. Cunningham was the author of the biography, "Anna Hubbard: Out of the Shadows," which was published in 2001.
Also in the exhibit are oils, watercolors, and woodcuts from BCM's Harlan Hubbard collections, his brother Frank's sketchbooks, and his mother Rose's diaries.
Two models of Hubbard's shantyboat, including one crafted by the artist himself, are also displayed, along with vintage photographs of the Hubbards at Payne Hollow, their rustic home along the Ohio River in Trimble County, Ky.
Visitors can also view "Wonder," a celebrated documentary about the Hubbard's lives.
BCM Curator of Collections Jason French says the current exhibit, a small sampling of Behringer- Crawford's extensive Hubbard collections, will remain on display through mid-summer.
Hubbard was born in Bellevue in 1900, moved to New York City as a child after his father died. He moved back to Northern Kentucky in 1919, settling in Fort Thomas. In the 1940s, he built a shantyboat and traveled down the Ohio and Mississippi with his wife for eight years. The couple then built a simple home on the shore of the Ohio, where they lived for decades. Anna died in 1986 and Harlan died two years later at the age of 88.
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