'Great Circus Parade' to be exhibited at GFAC in January

Written by Editor Thursday, 05 January 2012 20:28

Edwin D. Custer, East Village Magazine's photographer for the past 35 years, will exhibit his Great Circus Parade in an all media show at Greater Flint Arts Council, 816 S. Saginaw St. The opening is from 6 to 9 p.m. Jan. 13 during the monthly Second Friday ArtWalk.

It will be on display during regular gallery hours through January.

Since it was last shown at Buckham Gallery in December 2009, the ceramic circus parade has grown to three circus wagons, 12 elephants, six horses, seven camels, six unicorns, a giraffe, 16 clowns, crier, ring master and a man with a shovel and a wagon at the end of the parade. He began work on the project more than 40 years ago.

"At their height in the late 19th and early 20th centuries," said Custer, "circus parades were the preview to the anticipated circus performances in Flint and other towns. Trains brought the circus flatcars which unloaded magnificently decorated thematic wagons used to carry supplies, parade bands, animals and performers down the main street drawing the local rubes to the circus big top. My parade will continue to grow. It's only a question of increasing the size of the winter quarters."

This show holds special significance for Custer.

"The Shrine Circus is in town the weekend of the opening. My dad was a local Shrine clown named Dapper Dan for many years," Custer explained.

Custer has exhibited his paintings, photography and ceramics at Buckham Gallery (May and October 2004, November 2005 and November 2009), Greater Flint Arts Council (August 2005) Red Ink Gallery (January 2006) and Flint Insitute of Arts (December 2011).

Custer has a bachelor's of fine arts (sculpture, ceramics and photography), a master's of arts (sculpture and ceramics) and a master's of landscape architecture — all from the UM-Ann Arbor.

Custer, who moved to Flint with his parents in the early 1950s, is a retired Flint city planner.

(A extended story about the circus parade, Village life: Circus parades to Buckham by Jan Worth-Nelson, appeared in the December 2009 issue of East Village Magazine and on the Features Page of this web site.)