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Two paintings from the collection of the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery at St. Lawrence will grace the residence of the U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador, H. Douglas Barclay.

Gallery Director Catherine Tedford was contacted by Robert Soppelsa, curator of the Art in Embassies Program, after Barclay specifically asked that the University be considered. Reportedly, Barclay wanted the loan of artworks from organizations in the North Country, especially those that represent the area well.

Barclay, of Pulaski, New York, served in various positions in the New York State Senate from 1965 to 1984, including Chairman of the Codes Committee, Chairman of the Select Task Force on Court Reorganization, and Chairman of the Senate Republican (Majority) Conference. His wife, Sara F. (Dee) Barclay, is a former St. Lawrence University trustee and their son, William A. Barclay '92, is an attorney and New York State Assembly representative. He has been a member of the University's Alumni Executive Council.

On loan to the Embassy are two paintings by Harold Weston (1894-1972), Clouds Over Giant and Frost Before Night. Weston was an American modernist painter who painted murals for the New Deal arts projects in the 1930s. The loaned paintings both depict the Adirondack-area landscapes the artist favored as subjects early in his career.

The Embassy is also being loaned artworks by artists from the Captiol District and central New York, the Akwesasne Cultural Center in Hogansburg, the Munson- Williams-Proctor Institute in Utica, the Everson Museum in Syracuse and Traditional Arts of Upstate New York, which is based in Canton.

Posted: May 28, 2004