Collections from our Community features unique exhibitions of objects found in the closets, cabinets, shelves of Athens-area citizens.

The Lyndon House Arts Center presents another installment of Collections from our Community featuring Mike Landers’ collection of face cookie jars. This exhibition is on view April 12-June 8. Gallery hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays, noon - 9:00 p.m., and Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

According to Mike Landers, “As a lifelong collector of stuff, I’ve learned that collecting anything requires me to set limits on the collection, not just things I like, but things that fall within specific criteria for being considered for the collection. There is so much stuff to collect, you have to limit and define your criteria for collecting. The first cookie jar I bought was a Humpty Dumpty cookie jar from the 1940s designed by Brush Pottery. However, I realized that if I was going to collect more, I needed to narrow my selection criteria. I decided that any cookie jar that I would collect would need to be a head-shaped cookie jar. My collection is predominantly three-dimensional likenesses of familiar two-dimensional cartoon characters. It contains many of the cartoon characters that I loved when I was a kid - Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, Mr. Magoo, Pinocchio, Popeye the Sailor, Yogi Bear, and Smokey the Bear. However, I think the most interesting and strange ones are the oldest ones. I have three stoneware jars that look like newspaper cartoon illustrations from the 1930s-1940s. Oscar the Doughboy, Mustache Man, Moon Girl.”

All exhibitions are open and free to the public. Children must be accompanied by an adult. For more information, please call 706-613-3623 or visit accgov.com/exhibits