Alson Skinner Clark (American, 1876-1949). In the Lock, Miraflores, 1913, oil on canvas. Private Collection, Princeton, New Jersey.

The Mint Museum reflects on the building of the Panama Canal, its global impact and remarkable history through art in this the centennial year of the canal’s opening with the exhibition: “Connecting the World: The Panama Canal at 100.” Bringing together more than 50 artworks, historical ephemera and two new commissions, “Connecting the World” opens on November 1st and will remain on view until February 1, 2015 at the Uptown location. The exhibition is timely, as an international multibillion-dollar project to widen and deepen the canal is also underway.

Nicknamed “the eighth wonder of the world” the Panama Canal was a worldwide sensation, garnering much attention and inspiring a major international exposition in 1915. During its construction, photographs of the canal, postcards, stereoscopic views and even playing cards kept audiences informed. Three significant American artists, printmaker Joseph Pennell and painters Jonas Lie and Alson Skinner Clark, even seized the opportunity to travel to Panama to sketch and paint the monumental construction. In “Connecting the World,” the works of these three artists will be displayed together for the first time. The exhibition creates great juxtapositions between Pennell, Alson and Lie, showcasing how they inspired each other’s work, and yet took radically different approaches to the portrayal of the canal.

The Senior Curator of American, Modern and Contemporary Art, Dr. Jonathan Stuhlman created and organized this exhibition, drawing inspiration from a painting by Alson Skinner Clark titled “In the Lock, Miraflores” that depicts the excavation of the canal. “In the Lock” has been on long term loan to the museum since 2010. “I have long been fascinated by the way in which the bright colors, delicate brushwork and elegant frame of Clark’s painting contrast so strikingly with the actuality of the gritty, extraordinarily difficult conditions under which the canal was actually created,” says Stuhlman. Furthermore, “the centennial of the canal’s opening provided a perfect opportunity to not only examine Clark’s paintings more closely, but to look at both how they fit into a historical context and to think about how the canal has impacted the world over the century that it has been operational.”

Alson Skinner Clark (American, 1876-1949). Pedro Miguel Locks, ca. 1913, oil on canvas. The Buck Collection, Laguna Beach, CA.

To this end, the Mint Museum commissioned two new works: an installation titled “SEA to SEE” by artist Mel Chin and a short story by award-winning author Anthony Doerr, entitled “The Fever Dreams of William Crawford Gorgas.” “SEA to SEE” is an immersive environment with two monumental plate-glass hemispheres representing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that visitors can pass through. The hemispheres not only implicate the oceans but also the tight funneling of people and goods that are moved through the canal. Visitors can walk through this environment and experience the weight of the hemispheres for themselves. Doerr’s story follows the fascinating life of William Crawford Gorgas, an American doctor who went to Panama to help treat workers that fell ill from malaria and yellow fever.

Dr. Stuhlman will give an introductory lecture, “Looking out from ‘the big ditch,’” at 3 p.m. on Sunday, November 2nd. Admission to the lecture is free after museum admission, but “Connecting the World” does require a special admission fee of $12 for non-members. This fee also covers the museum’s other special exhibition, “Beyond Craft: Decorative Arts from the Leatrice S. and Melvin B. Eagle Collection.”