Sue Slick, Collection Information Specialist
In March of 1925, just as the Fort Wayne Art School and Museum marked the third anniversary of its formal founding, another Indiana arts entity, which would enjoy a century of longevity, was born.
In May of 1924, a group of Indiana women living in Chicago, who called themselves the Daughters of Indiana, put on an Art Tea featuring a program on Hoosier painters. This compelling presentation spurred these proud Hoosier gals to ensure that Hoosier artists received the recognition and exposure they deserved. A lavish showcase was needed! Shortly thereafter, the first of many exhibits was planned by the Daughters of Indiana. Ruth G. Grimes wrote in the Hoosier Magazine that Indiana artists needed “a stamp of approval of the outside world” and “Chicago as the logical art center of the Middle West and a metropolis” was the place to hold this major exhibit.
These determined women chose a grand and aspirational title for this transformational event: The Hoosier Salon. After all, Paris had its Salons, why not a Salon to spotlight Indiana artists? The exhibition reverberated for a century across their home state, as well as from coast to coast, providing not only exposure to these accomplished Indiana artists but opportunities to sell their work.
Among the lofty goals established for the Salon were:
- To accord to struggling artists, sympathetic hearing, liberality, and impartial treatment so as to encourage and inspire the development of any latent talent they possess.
- To bring added renown to those artists who, by their work, have immortalized Indiana’s many beauty spots, its famous characters, and history.
- To place Indiana art on the same high plane that its literature now occupies.
- To furnish an outlet and profitable market to Indiana artists that will encourage and develop the beginner and substantially reward those of acknowledged merit.
A generous purse was also set as a goal, and has been maintained since, to the envy of other similar entities; in fact, the Hoosier Salon is recognized as having one of the richest purses in the United States. In 2023, monetary awards totaling more than $55,000 were given to Salon artists, with the best of show winner receiving $5,000. In 2022, more than $37,000 was paid to artists for works sold.
From the beginning, the Hoosier Salon has limited itself to artists born in Indiana and those who have spent at least a year living and working in the state. Also true from the start is the strong support, in both volunteer service and financial generosity, that the Salon enjoys. Among the dedicated groups that have ensured its success are the Indiana Society of Chicago, the Chicago Alumni of Earlham College, and, from the outset through the Salon’s years in Chicago, the avid support of Chicago powerhouses Marshall Field & Company and publishing magnate John C. Shaffer. Other dedicated supporters over the past century include Kappa Kappa Kappa, Delta Sigma Kappa, and Psi Iota Xi. Many corporate sponsors provided generous prize money for various categories within the exhibit; for example, The Indiana Limestone Company funded a prize for best work in limestone, the Illinois Central Railroad funded a prize for best painting of a scene along its route, and Meier S. Block of the William H. Block Company department stores of Indianapolis funded the “popular vote” prize. Block’s would continue to be an important support, especially after the Salon moved from Chicago to Indianapolis.
The inaugural Hoosier Salon received several hundred entries from Hoosiers and former Hoosiers across the United States: 253 works were selected from 132 artists and 30% of these were works by women artists. Almost $5,000 in merit prizes and special honors was awarded – quite a sum in 1925!
The first Hoosier Salon debuted on March 9 and ran to March 19, 1925, in the Picture Galleries of the Marshall Field & Company flagship store in downtown Chicago. The exhibit was held at this prestigious venue in Chicago’s “Loop” until 1941 when it was decided to move the Salon to Indianapolis.
The opening reception of the first Hoosier Salon was enjoyed by hundreds of Hoosiers who arrived in Chicago by train, joining the festivities where all were entertained by an ensemble of musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra playing “On the Banks of the Wabash” and other familiar Indiana tunes.
The two-week exhibition was attended by thousands. Sales of the Salon artwork were motivated by a generous commission awarded to department store staff. It was immediately clear that this would not be a one-off event. Special honors were bestowed upon John Ottis Adams, Otto Stark, William Forsyth, and Theodore Clement Steele, the surviving members of the Hoosier Group. Chicago Daily News art critic Marguerite B. Williams wrote, “Look in this exhibition at the work of the most brilliant of this group and you may fancy something like an art tradition is being built up here.”
Records were broken in the following years. In 1926, over 50,000 visited the exhibit during its two-week run. More than 300 works were selected for the show, including sculpture for the first time. Janet Scudder won the $300 Outstanding Piece of Sculpture award for her Victory. William Edouard Scott, an African American and former student of Otto Stark at Manual Training High School, Indianapolis was represented by his painting, Lights on a Summer Night. The top prize of $500 was given to Wayman Adams for his iconic painting, The Art Jury, a life-size portrait of the living Hoosier Group members. Both Steele and Stark were to die later that year, and Adams in 1927. The painting is now in the collection of the Indianapolis Art Museum.
After enduring two Hoosier Salons, in 1927, the Daughters of Indiana realized they needed to strengthen their internal ranks and established the Hoosier Salon Patrons Association to both boost their volunteer ranks and to raise funds. This organization continues to support the Hoosier Salon today. And the mission of the Salon, though slightly different from its 1924 verbiage, remains much the same – to “create an appreciation of visual art by promoting Indiana artists and their work”.
Recognition of Indiana’s elder professors of art who were “getting up in years” continued into the 1930s. Three of the Hoosier Group had passed since the first Salon; and, sadly, the 1936 Salon included In Memoriam tributes as the last of the Hoosier Group, William Forsyth, had died the previous year, as well as beloved Hoosier cartoonist Gaar Williams. As the years passed, the Salon founders and champions also began to retire, move to warmer climes, or to pass on themselves. The Hoosier Salon weathered these changes, the war years, the Great Depression, the COVID pandemic, and major shifts in art tastes and trends. Today, it continues to draw Hoosier talent from around the country, spotlighting and rewarding hardworking Indiana artists.
“Our mission is still the same today,” said Michael Quinn, Hoosier Salon board of directors’ president. “We are still showing the world that Indiana artists can compete with artists anywhere, and Hoosier Art Salon is still supporting Indiana artists to help them thrive.”
As the State of Indiana marks the 100th anniversary of the Hoosier Salon, the Fort Wayne Museum of Art will spotlight the artists who earned the prestige of inclusion in the Hoosier Salon. Among them are our earliest founders, John Ottis Adams and William Forsyth; second generation Hoosier Group artists Dorothy Morlan and Robert Hardrick; and noted Fort Wayne area artists Lou Bonsib, Peggy Brown, Jim McBride, John Hrehov, Joel Fremion, and John Kelty. Their works are among the dozens by Hoosier Salon artists the Fort Wayne Museum of Art has collected in its equally long history. Please join us as we celebrate the Hoosier Salon’s 100th birthday and its many talented Indiana artists in From Their Indiana Home: Artists of the Hoosier Salon from the Permanent Collection, on display July 13, 2024 – October 6, 2024.
REFERENCES
A Grand Tradition: The Arts and Artists of the Hoosier Salon, 1925–1990. Judith Vale Newton; Carol Weiss. Hoosier Salon Patrons Association, 1993.
About The Hoosier Art Salon. www.hoosiersalon.org
Art for Indiana’s Sake: A History of the Hoosier Salon. Marilyn Shank. Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History. Indiana Historical Society, 2012.
Hoosier Salon, Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoosier_Salon
Hoosier Salon Returns to Indiana State Museum, Indiana State Museum. https://www.indianamuseum.org/news-article/hoosier-salon-returns-to-indiana-state-museum/#:~:text=Hoosier%20Salon%20was%20established%20by,and%20Company%20Galleries%20in%20Chicago.
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