Hoosier artist wins first best of show, among works at Richmond Art Exhibition
RICHMOND, Ind. — Allen Hutton, a resident of Nashville, Indiana, met his golden hour Friday night.
An artist since he was about 35 years old and now 70, Hutton approximated the total number of works he's done in his lifetime to about 1,500.
Out of all of the pieces he has created, never has he ever had a piece selected into an art museum's permanent collection.
Until last Thursday night.
On Nov. 9, the Richmond Art Museum held its 125th Annual Exhibition of Indiana and Ohio Artists, the oldest in the state by 26 years, as the Hoosier Art Salon just held its 99th anniversary from August to October.
Out of the nearly 400 works that were entered into the exhibition, combined between Amateur and Professional divisions, Hutton's oil painting titled "Golden Hour", was selected as the Sarah and John Lechleiter Best of Show, winning $5,000 in prize money.
"Surprised," Hutton said of his immediate reaction after his name was called. "Shocked especially after seeing the other art in the show and just the quality of it. I'm still shocked to be honest."
The inspiration for Hutton's work came from his enjoyment of the sunset during the fall season, making an attempt to capture the moment in time.
"There's certain days where the sun comes out and everything has this orange glow to it," he said.
The setting of his painting takes place not too far from where he lives in Nashville, a small town of about 1,300 people and 130 miles southwest of Richmond, just east of Bloomington.
"There's a farm not too far from where I live, and I don't want to say abandoned but the people that are still living there aren't farming anymore and the fields are kind of overgrown a little bit. I just liked the setting with the trees and the sun in just the fall landscape."
Hutton said he didn't know how long exactly it took him to paint, as he takes breaks every so often while working before coming back, but estimated that "Golden Hour" took him about eight hours of work.
What was even more shocking about the night to Hutton, however, was his piece being bought by the Richmond Art Museum, for about $1,000, according to Executive Director Shaun Dingwerth, for the museum's permanent collection.
"I'm really honored and humbled that they would even chose my artwork to be honest," Hutton said. "That was another surprise I totally did not expect. It's probably the highlight of my career."
Hutton said he had been entering works for the exhibition since around 2016, winning some purchase awards where a work is bought before the exhibition is revealed to the public. He first began entering works when his other artist friends began recommending he enter.
"It's a great show," he said. "Shaun does a great job and I appreciate the staff and everybody here. Their exhibit is just wonderful, every show is really good and the quality of art that that they show in this exhibit, I think is really impressive."
Shaun Dingwerth celebrates 25 years at the Richmond Art Museum
Prior to the exhibition being unveiled, the museum held its annual meeting of its Board of Trustees, with the highlight of the meeting recognizing Dingwerth for his 25 years of service to the museum.
Dingwerth started working for the museum as an interim director before taking over as director of operations for four years and eventually becoming exectuive director in 2003.
For his dedication, Constance Edwards Scopelitis, a contemporary and portrait artist, commissioned a self-portrait of Dingwerth to the museum that was unlike any other self-portrait that had been done for past directors.
The portrait itself, made up of all charcoal and drawing, featured Dingwerth front and center surrounded by his favorite things and everything he his passionate about, from a turtle to represent his spirit animal to a map of Indiana with Wayne, Hancock and Monroe counties being circled to represent the facts he attended Indiana University in Bloomington, has lived in Wayne County much of his life and his family ancestors providing the namesake for Hancock County.
From the cover of and words featured in Faith & Practice to represent his Quaker faith to his family's ownership of a dairy farm and love of cow paintings, there are many different easter eggs that Scopelitis, who has known Dingwerth for 20 years, included in the portrait.
"I'm happy with it; it's great," Dingwerth said. "It's hard to look at yourself whether it's a photograph or whatever, but to me, it's me. I love contemporary art and it just represents a lot about me. I did not want a traditional corporate-looking portrait."
Dingwerth also said that he knew he wanted his portrait to be done by a woman, saying that he's been a huge champion of women and art in Indiana.
"I've known Constance for 20 years, so it was kind of an obvious choice for me," he said.
Dingwerth's portrait also added to permanent collection alongside 'Golden Hour'
The portrait of Dingwerth will become a part of the permanent collection along with Hutton's "Golden Hour" to which Dingwerth said that only three to four times in his career at the museum as the Best of Show been added to the permanent collection, the previous one being last year.
"There's a committee and Barry Johnston provides the funds," Dingwerth said. "Many years ago, I wanted to develop the Barry and Bonnie Purchase Award. I approached him about buying living artists to put them in the collection because a lot of times an artist isn't recognized until after they're gone, and I wanted to recognize artists while they were living."
He continued, "But as we look to our 125th we noticed that over the previous years they had been buying the Best of Shows, so we thought to revert back to that at least for the 125th and it was such a fantastic piece. He was an artist that wasn't in our collection, and so for all those reasons we acquired that painting."
As for the future, Dingwerth said he hopes to continue increasing the collection, doing more for students and the arts in schools, as the Richmond Art Museum is the only art museum across the country to be housed inside a high school and the oldest one to be free to the public.
"The arts in my opinion, have been neglected and cut," he said. "I think that as a society, we benefit from people being able to be creative. We're seeing more and more people are using their hands and being creative, picking up a camera or picking up a pencil. I think human nature you to be creative, so I want to support that creativity."
149 pieces selected to exhibition out of 375; $30,000 in prize money awarded
Lance Crow, education director of the Richmond Art Museum, is celebrating his own anniversary with the museum, in his 15th year helping with the exhibition.
Explaining the criteria for the exhibition, Crow said that all entrants had to be 18 years or older and must live in Indiana or Ohio. Submitted works had to be original and completed in the past two years and could be just about any sort of medium.
2-D and 3-D works were eligible to be entered, with the accepted submissions falling under the following categories: Drawing, printmaking, mixed media, painting, photography, computer generated art, fiber arts, clay, jewelry, sculpture, wood and glass.
$12,000 in merit awards went to the advanced division with $1,175 in merit awards going to the amateur division, with the rest of the money coming from 13 purchase awards not including the Barry and Bonnie Johnston Purchase Award.
The following Merit Awards were given out for the Advanced Division:
Sarah and John Lechleiter Best of Show Award and Barry and Bonnie Johnston Purchase Award for the RAM Permanent Collection ($5,000) - Allen Hutton, Golden Hour
Richmond Art Museum Award of Excellence ($1,500) - J. Anna Roberts, Untitled
Cheri and David Jetmore Award of Excellence ($1,000) - Andree Leduc, Maps
Lucretia T. Carr/Warren Chapman Memorial Award ($1,000) - Kevin James Wilson, A Toast To Us
IPAPA Traditional Landscape Merit Award ($500) - Ray Hassard, Out on the Edge
John and Karry Hansberry Merit Award ($500) - Tim Lewis, Darling Oyster Bar
Richmond Art Museum Merit Award ($500) - M. Jason Knapp, Sycamore
Richmond Art Museum Merit Award ($500) - Beth Clary Schwier, Carousel
Richmond Art Museum Merit Award ($500) - Mark H. Pearson, Menace II
Robert and Carol Eberle Merit Award in Memory of Peggy Rapp ($250) - Sally Alexander, Cluckers
Dr. Arthur Millis Memorial Merit Award ($250) - Suzanna Hendrix, Unwinding
Randall and Susan Long Charitable Fund Merit Award ($250) Rhonda Bontrage, Koi, "Swimming Jewels"
Judy Thornburg Memorial Merit Award ($250) - Constance Edwards Scopelitis, Heads Up
Awards in the Amateur Division went to:
W. Ray Stevens Jr. Memorial Merit Award ($250) - Joe Potter, My Brother Sam
Judy Wojcik and Kenton Hall Merit Award ($200) - Katelyn Wade, Overshadowed
Anna Belle Henthorne Memorial Merit Award ($200) - Kathy Bird, Maintenance
Walt and Rabun Bistline Merit Award for Photography ($125) - Larry Sturgis, Captured Light I
Antonio McAfee and Emily Campbell Merit Award ($100) - Suzanne Cox, Peek A Boo
Gary and Kathy Girten in Memory of Thomas and Joy Holthouse ($100) - Rex Godfrey, Laura's Legacy
Donna Spears Merit Award ($100) - Shirley Wise, Blue Spiral
Joe and Celeste Swanson Merit Award ($100) - Belinda Grey, Glass Glow
Pieces receiving Purchase Awards for being bought ahead of the exhibition were:
Allen and Carole Lakoff Brady Purchase Awards - Nora Henning, Harvest Time and Janice Lindboe, September Sunshine
Darlene Druley Purchase Awards - Suzanne Cox, Peek A Boo; Scott Anderson, Ruse (Apostate Series); Suzanna Hendrix, Jersey Girl; Susan Yanos, Dance of Light and Water II
Koechlein Family Purchase Awards - Shirley Wise, Vinney's Wine Patch and Steve Wohler, Autumn Sunset
Chip and Marcia Foster Purchase Award - Rena Brouwer, Intrinsic
Carol and Stephen Hunyadi Purchase Award - Mary Ann Davis, Colors of Fall
Cory and Ginger Gray Purchase Awards - Wendy Franklin, Live Boldly and Donna Shortt, As You Like It - Part Two
First Bank Richmond Purchase Award - Rick D. Wilson, Magic Hour
Crow said that criteria for the awards depended on the juror and their individual training, saying that they all have been trained in the principles of art and are qualified so that the museum can stay neutral.
"Our exhibition committee helps us select the jurors, because we don't want to be responsible for judging the show and just want to be the venue for it," he said. "So we selected qualified jurors like Greg Hull, the Dean of Herron School of Art and Design at IUPUI, who was a graduate of Richmond High School, which is really cool to have him back. The jurors typically are either artists themselves who have had kind of a decorated career and who are well respected in the art field, or sometimes we select curators from different museums or things like that."
The exhibition is free to the public and will run until Jan. 6, followed by two more until the spring exhibition featuring Wayne County students.
While students under 18 weren't qualified for this exhibition, both Crow and Dingwerth said the museum is dedicated to the importance that art has on the youth, with both giving the same quote that the first Richmond Art Museum Director from 1914 until her death in 1951, Ella Bond Johnston, said.
"If we can teach kids about war, we can teach them about art."
This article originally appeared on Richmond Palladium-Item: Richmond Art Museum hosts annual Exhibition of Indiana, Ohio Artists
