The singing, grandfather-like snowman from Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer was a former Eastern student.

Singer and actor Burl Ives was born in Jasper Count on June 14, 1909, and enrolled at Eastern Illinois State Teacher’s College in 1927.

He wanted to become a football coach. But, Ives only spent three years on campus. He left in 1930 to pursue a career as a singer.

During the 1930’s and 1940’s, when Ives was traveling as a folk singer, other artists, along with Ives, began adding nationalism to their works.

Also known as Americanism, nationalism means showing a patriotic spirit through fine arts.

Ives died on April 14, 1995.

The Tarble Arts Center’s exhibit “Burl Ives and the American Scene” shows art from the time Americanism was prevalent. A lithograph of Ives and other artists show America through the great depression years.

“Burl Ives started his career collecting and singing folk songs at the times these were taken,” said Michael Watts, director of Tarble, of the pieces of art.

The exhibit will be shown until Sept. 24, which will compliment the Embarras Valley Film Festival and Symposium on Burl Ives, which is Sept. 20 through the 23.

The film festival will show two of Ives’ 1958 films, “The Big Country” at 2 p.m. Sept. 20 and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” at 7 p.m. the same day. Ives received an Oscar for his supporting actor role in “The Big Country.”

Although Ives never finished his years at Eastern, he received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in 1985. In 1988 the Burl Ives Art Studio was completed.

The Tarble exhibit remembers Ives and the time period during which he was a popular artist. The exhibit also shows how American art began to illustrate what was going on in the world.

People, their work and problems were common themes to art and Ives’ folk songs, Watts said. Writers, playwrights, visual artists and many others were concerned about art forms that represented America.

Five categories, including country, leisure, city, work and people, are represented in the exhibit. The works of arts are done in a European style.

“This (art style) was overshadowed by modernism,” Watts said. “It’s kind of like politics today. It’s not really black and white.”

Watts said that it was not black and white because there were many shapes, styles and artists during these years.

Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, and John Stuart are some of the well-known regionalist artists shown in the Ives exhibit.

Benton (1889 to1975) completed the Ives lithograph, which he called the “Hymn Singer,” in 1950 after a visit with Ives. During that visit, Ives sang some southern hymns that inspired Benton to do the portrait.

Benton’s work appears often in the exhibit including, “Night Firing” of 1943, which was lent to Tarble by Eastern faculty.

Ruth Hoberman and husband Richard Sylvia, both professors in the English department, decided to donate four pieces when they heard about the exhibit.

Hoberman inherited the pieces from her mother and remembered seeing two of them hanging on the walls while growing up.

“What I like about them is they are associated with appreciation for ordinary people,” she said.

Two of the other pieces, “At the dressmakers” of 1940 and “Birthday party” of 1944, lent by the English professors were created by Lily Harmon (1912 – 1998).

Harmon had a connection to Hoberman’s family after Harmon’s sister briefly married Hoberman’s great uncle.

The lithographs probably are not worth much, but they have much meaning, Hoberman said.

The other piece Hoberman and Sylvia donated was “Rain” from 1945 by Georges Schreiber (1904 to 1977).

Work by artist Lynn Trank (1918 to 2004) is also shown, and Trank was once a professor at Eastern.

Trank was an art teacher from 1952 until he retired in 1984. Trank was also an artist and collector of art and his “Self Portrait” was completed in 1945 is shown at the exhibit.

Some of the works shown were acquired when Trank was at Eastern, and he made sure they were in good shape.

“He was very active in making sure these prints were reserved,” Watts said.

The prints were purchased in the 1940’s and 1950’s when the Paul Sargent gallery was a part of the Eastern art department.

“The art faculty was interested in collecting arts what they could use in class,” Watts said adding that they are still being used for education. “There was a faculty member over yesterday (Thursday) taking notes.”