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Above: Zoe Minor (with her friends Milly Legra and Alanna Moorer) realizes the ring in the display is intended for her. (Photos by Photos by Jenny Collard Williams)
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Zoe Minor and Karen Larson will always remember the rings in the Georgia Museum of Art’s exhibition The Ring Shows.
In addition to browsing quirky and conceptual rings made of both precious and non-precious materials, the women both found diamond engagement rings just for them.
The grooms-to-be, Tino Johnson and David Starkweather, respectively, coordinated with museum staff to set up their own displays within the exhibition, complete with wall labels and glass cases.
“When I was first planning the engagement, I was going to have Zoe go on a scavenger hunt around Athens to find her ring, but her best friend told me that wasn’t a good idea,” said Johnson, assistant director of undergraduate admissions, when asked to explain how he got the idea. “When the same friend informed me that they were planning to go see this exhibition of rings, the idea just clicked.”
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Above: Tino Johnson asks Zoe Minor the all-important question.
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Johnson created his own display by working with museum staff to place his custom-made ring for Minor in a case next to the rest with a label containing his name, the date, the composition of the ring and his would-be fiancé’s name.
Patterned after the museum’s style of wall text, the display blended in with the other authentic labels.
“When I first saw the ring, I was immediately taken by how beautiful it was. Right away I wanted to know more,” said Minor, a student affairs specialist in the Disability Resource Center. “I looked at the wall text to discover that the artist was T.L. Johnson, and that coincidence was more than enough to pique my curiosity. When I saw the next line had the current day’s date and that the title was ‘The Johnson Engagement Ring,’ it all became clear. I began screaming and dropped everything in my hands. I remember vividly uttering repeatedly, ‘Is this really happening?’ ”
As it happens, great minds think alike. A second groom-to-be, David Starkweather, a cello professor in the Hodgson School of Music, approached the museum staff about staging the perfect scene for his proposal. In the week prior to Starkweather’s creative surprise, the couple had attended the opening gala of the new Lamar Dodd School of Art and agreed upon a return visit to the adjacent Georgia Museum of Art to view The Ring Shows. Starkweather and Larson had privately made the decision the week before to use a beloved family ring to commemorate their engagement, whenever that date might be set.
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Above: Newly engaged couple Karen Larson and David Starkweather smile for the camera.
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The couple’s friend Betty Alice Fowler, assistant to the director at the museum, coordinated Starkweather’s
Sept. 12 proposal.
“When David took the ring out of the case to put on my finger, I was speechless,” said Larson, an assistant professor in the Division of Academic Enhancement.
The proposals both took place in the Martha and Eugene Odum Gallery of Decorative Arts, named after a couple known for their devotion to one another and deep ties to UGA and visual arts.
The Ring Shows: Then and Now and Putting the Band Back Together will be on display until Nov. 2. |
