Culver-Stockton Holding a Free Teddy Bear and Art Display

Looking for a great place to take the kids at no charge?  How about Culver-Stockton College for a Teddy Bear Collection and Art Display?

The teddy bear collection of Ron Leftwich, a graduate of Culver-Stocton College in 1964 and his wife Susie, along with a collection of paintings by Sheri Grote, a 1995 Culver graduate, are on display at the Mabee Art Gallery in the Herrick Foundation Center on the Culver-Stockton College campus now through November 22.

Leftwich, who lives in Houston, Texas, is the chairman of the Board of Trustees at Culver-Stockton College. He and his wife have been collecting the bears for many years. Their collection offers a wide variety of sizes from minuscule to life size. It also includes an array of styles and techniques, from local and hand-made to ones that have received international acclaim.

Grote, an art teacher with the Bowling Green School District, created Lewis-Grote Illustrations in Frankford, Missouri in 1995.  She apprenticed at the Muny in St. Louis with the outdoor paint crew and assisted in the creation of theatrical scale scenery. She has taken on a wide variety of commissions in illustration and murals along with her full-time teaching position.  The oil paintings for her exhibition at Culver-Stockton are part of a series titled “Baby Barn Art.”

Both exhibits are free and open to the public. Gallery hours are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and by appointment.