The Koth Memorial Gallery was dedicated in 1993 in memory of Wesley L. Koth, citizen of the world, art connoisseur, and longtime patron of the Longview Public Library.

Historical Photographs from the Longview Room Collection

April 25 - May 14

West Side Homes, 1925: 21st Avenue Looking South from Olympia Way

Linda McCord, "My Home Town"
Digitally-Enhanced Photographs In and Around Longview

May 15 - June 4

Linda McCord studied art at American River College in Sacramento, California and Lower Columbia College in Longview, Washington, where she later became a part-time art instructor. Linda works in nearly all the two dimensional mediums: watercolor, acrylic, pastel painting, and all the printmaking mediums including digitally enhanced photographs. She also designs software for embroidery machines.

McCord's Work has been in numerous juried competition shows, and she has taken over 100 awards on a regional, national, and international level. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Coos Art Museum and the Grants Pass Museum of Art in Oregon, Lower Columbia College in Washington, and Saint John's Lutheran Church in California. She was an invitational artist at the Museum of the Ozarks NALP winners in Arkansas, and Tacoma (Washington) Art Museum's, The Night Tacoma Danced event.

Solo and Group Exhibits include Barrett House Galleries in New York; Grants Pass Art Museum, Coos Art Museum, and Showcase '92-'93 in Oregon; Paper in Particular in Missouri; Pacific States Printing and Drawing Exhibit in Hawaii; CAL '88 and '89, Haggin Art Museum, Chico Art Center, The Art Works Gallery, and Saint John's Religious Arts in California; Alexander Museum in Louisiana; Sinclair College in Pennsylvania; the 12^th Annual League of American Pen Women in Arkansas; the Northwest Traveling Print Biannual; and many others.

About the Gallery

The library art gallery was refurbished with a bequest from the estate of Wesley Koth and generous gifts from Wesley Koth’s nephew, Frank Koth, and his wife Arlene and their three children: David Foster Koth, Judy Charles, and Nancy E. Thompson, who said “It is a perfect memorial as it incorporates both the arts and the library, two of his most favorite things!”

Wesley L. Koth, 1915-1992

Koth retired from the Washington State Employment Security Department in 1978 after 29 years of service. He was a 1938 graduate of the University of Washington and attended graduate school at the New School of Social Research in New York to study under a faculty of exiled European intellectuals. He also studied at Oxford University, England, in the summer of 1948. A consummate world traveler, he visited Australia, India, Africa, the former Soviet Union, China, Central America, South America, and Europe; to many of these countries he paid return visits. He also traveled extensively in the United States and Canada.

After Koth’s death in June 1992, in addition to the bequest from his estate to the Longview Public Library, his family gave to the library many of his books reflecting his interests in art, music, history and travel.

Wesley Koth was a man of many interests. Though he was a world traveler, he always returned to his home in Longview. He took great personal interest in family and is remembered fondly by his nieces and nephews. Quiet and unassuming, he left a major legacy to the community through this gallery, which offers area artists opportunities to share their talents with the many citizens who visit the Longview Public Library daily.