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NEOSHO, Mo. — A new mural honoring native son Thomas Hart Benton was installed earlier this week on the north side of Neosho City Hall.

Titled “A Social History of Thomas Hart Benton,” it was painted on panels by Neosho artist Jared Jennings, who said he was inspired by a trip his fifth grade class took years ago to the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City, where he first saw Benton’s “A Social History of the State of Missouri.”

“I didn’t really pay any attention to what anybody was saying,” Jennings said. “I was just hung up on the paintings in that room.” 

After receiving both his undergraduate and master’s degree, he approached the Neosho Arts Council with the mural proposal.

“They liked the idea of doing a tribute to this Neosho native, this muralist,” he said.

“We are so excited to not only bring another public art work to our community but to also honor this world-renowned artist who called Neosho home,” Sarah Serio, president of Neosho Arts Council, said in a statement. The Neosho Arts Council sponsored creation of the new mural.

Benton was born in 1889 in Neosho.

The mural features an older Benton at work painting. One of the dominant elements in the painting is a train with the number 75, which Jennings said plays off the euphemism “when my train comes in” to refer to Benton’s death in 1975.

There’s also a black horse racing beside a recently plowed field, and Jennings said he was inspired by a Benton painting titled “Plowing it Under,” which is at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, and also to Benton being a “dark horse,” meaning his family wanted him to pursue a career in politics and law rather than art, but he defied them even though it led to an estranged relationship with his father.

“One of the really fascinating elements that Jared included in this mural is the tree and grass on the right,” Serio said. “In spots it’s a red-brown color. This was done on purpose to reference the maquette, or small clay models, that Benton sculpted and painted and then used as reference designs for his murals.”

“I really wanted the mural to feel like something he would have done himself,” Jennings added. 

The Neosho Arts Council is working on a descriptive audio guide for the mural. 

A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the mural will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14, by the Neosho Area Chamber of Commerce.

During his 1962 visit, Benton gave 12 original lithographs to Neosho, Serio said. They are on display in the lobby of Neosho City Hall. The Neosho Arts Council has produced a guide to give a background on each piece, plus it explains what a lithograph is and how one is made.

The public can also view a second mural located inside Neosho City Hall. “Flower Box City” was painted in 2008 by Benton’s grandson, Anthony Benton Gude. The mural features scenes from Neosho during the first half of the 1900s, including Benton’s arrival in Neosho by train in 1962 for Thomas Hart Benton Day.

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The City and County of Honolulu announced Thursday that it received an award through Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Art Challenge.

More than 150 proposals were submitted to the challenge this year, with Honolulu’s proposal being one of eight that was chosen. 

Called “Wahi Pana,” which translates to “storied places,” the proposal intends to highlight indigenous stories at Oahu sites popular with tourists. 

No specific examples were included within the city’s press release, which credited the Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts with leading the proposal, but the city said that these art installations will be multimedia projects by Native Hawaiian and Hawaii-based artists.

These artists will “collaborate with cultural experts to research and create site-specific artworks highlighting the complex histories of often overlooked cultural and historical sites affected by over-tourism,” according to the press release. 

Per the funder’s guidelines, projects will be temporary installations. They will be crafted throughout the next two years.

Other cities that received the award proposed their own unique projects. 

In hot and dry Phoenix, for example, the winning proposal seeks to create more shade through its public art. Houston’s winning proposal seeks to “interrupt perceptions of homelessness,” its mayor said in an announcement video put together by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

The full list of recipient cities include Honolulu, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Orlando, Phoenix and Houston. 

photo by: Shelley Hanson (file)

During a plein-air painting event in September, Marshall County Schools students, clockwise from left, Olivia Wyatt, Alexis Roberts, Dante McGlumphy and Chyanne Foster work on their paintings of the ancient burial mound at the Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex in Moundsville. The mound is set to hold its inaugural Native American Heritage Day on Nov. 4.

The Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex in Moundsville is set to hold its inaugural Native American Heritage Day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Nov. 4.

Site Manager Jeremy Kohus said the day will kick off with a presentation by Tyrone Smith, project director of the Native American Indian Center of Central Ohio.

The Friends of Native Roots Artists Guild’s Seneca Tribe of New York members will also be doing demonstrations and selling their works of art. Demonstrations will include quill earring making at 11 a.m.; beadwork with caribou fur tufting at 1 p.m.; make and take bracelets for children at 2 p.m. and moccasin making at 3 p.m.

There will also be traditional food samples, crafts for children and a seed giveaway. The museum’s collections including cultural objects and the hellbender dugout canoe will also be talked about.

Featured visiting artists will include:

∫ Kristina Tome of the Seneca Nation, Deer Clan, of New York. She lives on the Allegheny Territory in Salamanca, New York. She uses a variety of mediums including paint, pencil, beads and porcupine quills to make traditional and non-traditional earrings;

∫ Penelope Minner of the Seneca Nation, Turtle Clan, of New York, creates black ash splint baskets and corn husk dolls. She also lives on the Allegheny Territory in Salamanca, New York.

∫ Samantha Jacobs of the Seneca Nation, Turtle Clan, New York, will also be demonstrating traditional arts. She lives in the Cattaraugus Territory in Irving, New York; and

∫ Mary Jacobs of the Seneca Nation, Turtle Clan, creates traditional Iroquois raised beadwork in traditional patterns and designs using artisan glass, semi-precious and precious stone beads, textiles and leathers.

Kohus said the event was researched and planned by AmeriCorps volunteer Basil Stewart.

“He did all the coordinating and brainstorming for this event. He reached out to all the participants,” Kohus said. “This is a first-time event for us here and it’s a one-of-kind event for our area.”

Kohus added Stewart’s term as a volunteer has ended, but he will stay on as a consultant for the museum.

“We’re glad to have him here with us,” he said.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Alaska Natives from every corner of the state are at the Dena’ina Center in downtown Anchorage for the Thursday start of the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention. It’s a time for people to renew connections and visit with friends as well as address important issues of public policy and government.

This year’s theme is “Our Ways of Life” but according to AFN Co-chair Joe Nelson, it’s more of a call to defend traditional ways of life.

“We are always in the courts over all kinds of things so we just have to continually be advocating to protect our way of life for the next generations,” Nelson said.

Nelson said the convention strives for unity, to address issues important to Alaska Natives with a single strong voice.

This year delegates to the convention will consider adopting 29 resolutions. Several deal with subsistence, including one sponsored by the AFN board that asks Congress “to permanently protect the right of Alaska Native people to engage in subsistence fishing in Alaska’s navigable waters.” Nelson said some or all of the resolutions will likely be adopted after a lengthy debate on Saturday.

The conference isn’t just about advocating for Native rights, it’s also about commerce. The Alaska Native Customary Art Fair boasts one of the largest gatherings of Alaska Native artists in the state. Nelson said the income generated from the art fair is an important boost for artists and urged people to shop for the holidays so artists didn’t have any inventory left to take home.

The AFN Convention runs from Oct. 19-21. It is free and open to the public at the Dena’ina Center in downtown Anchorage. The Customary Art Fair is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.

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