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PDT Staff Report

According to the National Weather Service, Scioto, Pike, Adams, Jackson and Lawrence Counties in Ohio are under a Severe Thunderstorm Watch. Greenup County in Kentucky is also under a Severe Thunderstorm Watch. For each county, the watch expires at 6 a.m.

A severe thunderstorm as defined by the National Weather Service is a storm with hail equal to or larger than 3/4 of an inch in diameter or convective wind gusts equal to or greater than 58 miles per hour. Even if a storm is not severe, it still remains a potential killer. Lightning, flash flooding, wind blown hail (even small hail), and general thunderstorm wind gusts pose a threat to life and/or property. Severe thunderstorms also have the potential of producing a tornado with little or no advanced tornado warning.

Power outages often accompany severe thunderstorms.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) is reminds Ohioans exercise caution during power outages. Downed electric lines, equipment and vegetation can potentially be hazardous and should be avoided.

Do not attempt to touch or move downed electrical lines and equipment. Downed lines pose a serious hazard to anyone who comes in contact with them and can be deadly. Immediately report downed lines to emergency responders and your local utility. Do not attempt to move fallen debris in the vicinity of a downed power line and keep at a safe distance at all times.

Additional safety tips during a power outage include:

•If using a generator, be sure it is properly ventilated to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning.

•Do not attempt to use a gas stove or oven to heat your home.

•Unplug electrical devices in case of a power surge. Leave one lamp on so you know when power has been restored.

•If possible, use only battery-powered light sources for emergency lighting instead of candles. Matches, lighters and candles are fire hazards.

•Check on your neighbors, friends and family to ensure they are okay.

•Call an electrician if you have standing water near electrical wiring or appliances. Do not enter the flooded area.

For additional safety tips during electrical power outages, visit the Ohio Emergency Management Association’s website at www.ema.ohio.gov.

To review the PUCO’s guide to being prepared for power outages, please visit the PUCO website at www.PUCO.ohio.gov.

With a wall of diplomas and more than 27 years of successful museum administration, Mark Chepp and Charlotte Gordon are poised to become Directors of the Southern Ohio Museum by July 1. The Museum’s Board of Trustees enthusiastically and unanimously approved their appointment as, respectively, Executive Director and Artistic Director on Tuesday.

Asa Jewett, President of the Museum board, expressed the board’s collective delight over the good fortune and ideal timing that brought Mark and Charlotte to our attention. “We are absolutely confident that they have the skills, personality, experience and passion to take the Museum to new heights of programming and policy in the 21st century, and we are eager to welcome them into our community.”

For their part, Chepp and Gordon are also eager. “It has always been a dream of ours to work together,” the husband-and-wife team agreed. “To discover that opportunity in a museum we have respected and admired for so many years is just amazing. We can’t wait to become part of it and everything southern Ohio has to offer.”

Mark Chepp, a native of Milwaukee, earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Art at the University of Wisconsin-Steven’s Point and then a pair of Master’s Degrees, one in Art

and another in Art History, from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Before moving to Springfield, Ohio, in 1991, he had served as curator of visual resources in the UW-M art history department, director of the art history gallery there, and ultimately curator of exhibitions and collections at the UW-M Art Museum. During his 15-year tenure as Executive Director of Ohio’s Springfield Museum of Art he built an impressive permanent collection, curated scores of outstanding exhibitions and secured national accreditation, a distinction awarded to only 6% of America’s museums. Upon his retirement a grateful institution honored him with the title of Director Emeritus. He has since been directing his energies to painting and to teaching at the college level. He has been a leader in Springfield’s cultural community, spearheadeding efforts to restore the Hartman Rock Garden, a 1930’s folk art environment, and the Westcott House, a Frank Lloyd Wright residence in Springfield. He will retain his role as an Accreditation Peer Reviewer for the American Alliance of Museums.

Charlotte Gordon hails from New Orleans. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree at Newcomb College of Art at Tulane University, where she majored in ceramics, a specialty which took her the following year to North Carolina’s prestigious Penland School of Crafts. She has served as the Springfield Museum of Art’s sole curator for the last six years, a position that went far beyond the curatorial domain of selecting works for exhibitions to include as well the tasks of registrar, preparator and art transporter.

This spring she was awarded a Master’s Degree in Museum Studies from Southern University of New Orleans. She has frequently served as a guest curator or juror for numerous arts organizations throughout Ohio and is presently organizing a major touring exhibition of African art from the collection of Southern University of New Orleans. Gordon is a member of the Ohio Museum Association’s Board of Trustees.

Both Chepp and Gordon are practicing artists. He is a painter whose recent self-portraits have been exhibited throughout Ohio, including a featured role in the Southern Ohio Museum’s A Face in the Crowd exhibition last fall. He is represented by Keny Galleries in Columbus. Gordon is a respected ceramic artist whose work has appeared in solo and group exhibitions throughout the state. She is represented by the Sherrie Gallerie in Columbus’ Short North District.