By LINDA KELLETT

C-S-E News Staff

ST. JOHNSVILLE — A cultural and historical gem on the western fringes of Montgomery County was among two dozen such institutions tapped for landscape paintings currently on display at the State Capitol.

For Dawn Lamphere, director of the Margaret Reaney Memorial Library and Museum, and Sharon Fuller, a member of the Reaney Library Board of Trustees, the honor of the selection was magnified last week when they received invitations to the unveiling of the exhibit and the refurbished skylight there. Both opened to the public on the day of the governor’s State of the State address after a delay caused by Hurricane Sandy.

It was an emotional day for both local women as they walked where governors had walked, toured the beautiful and historic state Capitol building, and experienced the thrill of living in a democratic nation as they passed through hydrofracking protestors on the concourse at the end of the day. Unbeknownst to them until later in the day, folk singer Pete Seeger was among those present.

Sasha Eisenstein, the assistant to the counselor to the governor, was the staff member tasked with establishing the Hall of New York exhibit on the second floor of the State Capitol building. She worked under John Howard, the director of operations there.

She said, “We have two large galleries in the Capitol: The Hall of Governors and the Hall of New York.”

She said the Hall of Governors was established when Gov. Andrew Cuomo took office. It has been up for a year and features portraits of all of the state’s governors. A section of the exhibit has an etched timeline that gives a sense of what was going on at the time each official served.

The new Hall of New York features landscape paintings organized by regions, she said.

“It takes up an entire wing of the Capitol,” she said, noting both galleries are on the second floor where the governor’s office is. “It’s going to be a permanent gallery space. Each painting is on loan for one to two years. Maybe next time, we’ll have landscapes and photographs of New York.”

Eisenstein said, “It’s really nice. It’s definitely worth a visit.”

She said, “We wanted to have equal representation of each region and its diversity, with landscape paintings as well as paintings of iconic places. We called a lot of county historical societies. They’d often refer us to museums. The New York Historical Society was one of the big lending facilities as was the Museum of the City of New York. We didn’t have time to work with some of the larger museums. Initially we thought we had only four months.”

By way of example, she said paintings selected to represent the Southern Tier featured a painting of Elmira College, another of Lucifer Falls in Ithaca and a landscape painting from Binghamton.

Lamphere said the Reaney Library and Museum was contacted mid-summer about the exhibit. She sent eight to 10 photos of relevant works in the St. Johnsville collection. She was thrilled when Eisenstein called back and wanted three.

“We’ve been doing a major revision of the museum,” said Lamphere. “It’s very, very cool.”

It went to the library board, and contracts were signed. Representatives from the governor’s office came in November, and the paintings were professionally packaged and sent to Albany.

Fuller said the governor’s objective was to promote tourism.

Lamphere noted that the person in charge of the exhibit said the governor is hoping people will see the paintings and want to visit the places.

Ultimately, 24 different lending facilities, including the Margaret Reaney Library and Museum, loaned works. Fifty-six paintings have been included in the exhibit.

The St. Johnsville facility loaned a painting by Hudson River painter Asher B. Durand titled “In the Mohawk Valley-East Canada Creek” and a second by George Clough, “Low Tide at Glen Cove Landing.” A third painting by Clough was borrowed but not used because the frame needed work.

Art conservators at Peebles Island repaired the Durand painting’s canvas, said Lamphere. “We got a report from Peebles Island that [it] had a scratch. They wanted to stabilize it. I said we had no money to pay for it. They said there would be no charge for this. It’s part of the exhibition preparation.”

Fuller joke, “We wanted to send more.”

Eisenstein said several paintings (more than 10) came in with damage so they couldn’t be hung properly. “The art conservators fixed the canvases and frames. Everyone was happy to have us do that for them,” said Eisenstein.

For a virtual tour of the Hall of New York gallery, go to www.hallofnewyork.ny.gov/.