LIMA, Ohio - For a guy who has made his living selling hamburgers from three of the last surviving Kewpee restaurants in the nation, Harrison Shutt might not seem like the most likely booster of culture and the arts.

Appearances can be deceiving.

For more than 20 years, Mr. Shutt and his Kewpee Hamburger have underwritten jazz concerts, theater performances, Ohio Northern University's Holiday Spectacular, and the Kewpee Invitational high school art show that opened here yesterday. Mr. Shutt received the Business Support of the Arts award this month from the Ohio Arts Council.

He said he and his wife, Myrna, support the arts in hopes that the arts will promote education.

“It has gotten to the point where it's very hurtful for us to see so many people walking the streets without a high school education. We see it on job applications all the time,” he said. “We're trying to do things to keep kids in school.”

Mr. Shutt, 69, said he raised a few eyebrows when he spoke at the Ohio Arts Day luncheon and suggested that athletics and other youth activities like 4-H are a form of the arts too.

If they are not technically “the arts,” they are at least worth supporting, in Mr. Shutt's mind. “Anthing that keeps kids busy and keeps their interest in getting an education,” he said.

Mr. Shutt's involvement with the arts dates back to the mid-1970s when he was asked to underwrite a high school marching band show at the Allen County Fair. He agreed and has done so ever since.

He became a booster of performing arts at ONU in Ada, where he serves on the board of trustees, when his son Scott was in college there. He began paying for the ONU jazz band to perform at Lima's summer arts festival, Square Fair.

Since then, he and his wife have underwritten ONU's Christmas show, which is presented both on campus and at Lima's downtown Civic Center.

The man who names Glen Miller and the Ohio State University marching band as his favorite performers has owned the Kewpee trademark since 1985 and has been involved with the nearly extinct hamburger chain since 1957.

Mr. Shutt said that after graduating from Ohio State and serving a stint in the Army, he took a job at the downtown restaurant where locals still come for a fresh hamburger, a piece of pie, and a cup of coffee.

The white porcelain enamel building, which was built in 1938 and today looks nearly the same as the day it opened, remains one of the few Art Deco buildings in the nation still used for its original purpose. A five-foot plaster Kewpee doll is perched on the roof.

Mr. Shutt became Kewpee's general manager in 1970 and later opened new Kewpees on Lima's east and west side when he saw the downtown beginning to decline. While both are busier than the downtown location, he said even it is surprisingly vital.

“Our structure has always been to sell a lot at a low price, to give people a lot for their money,” he said. “It's kind of an institution. It's amazing that as much as downtown has gone downhill, we have maintained our image. We have stayed the same.”

At ArtSpace Lima - an old brick building on Lima's Town Square that was renovated with support from the Shutts - the 14th annual Kewpee Invitational art show opened yesterday. It attracts entries from students in 26 high schools in 10 surrounding counties.

Mr. Shutt and his wife said they hope younger kids will take note of what the older students do in their art classes and see them as role models.

“Education is so important,” Mr. Shutt said. “A lot of these kids don't have the people at home supporting them. We just want to do anything we can to give them the opportunity.”

Jami Goldstein, spokesman for the Ohio Arts Council, said that kind of support keeps the arts alive in small cities like Lima.

“Every arts organization in every town depends on their local corporations for support, and in smaller towns there are fewer of those to go around,” she said. “When you can find people like the Shutts, it's wonderful, and they do keep the community vital.”

David Cottrell, gallery director at ArtSpace Lima, said people like Mr. Shutt are his group's lifeblood.

“As a nonprofit, we exist only by the good graces of people like him,” Mr. Cottrell said.

Mr. Shutt declined to say how much money Kewpee invests each year in local arts projects.

“It's not what we spend. It's what we spend it on,” he said. “If a program comes along that we think is a good one, we'll support it and worry about the money later.”

First Published March 26, 2001, 12:42 p.m.