- Category
- Symposia
George Caleb Bingham Symposium
The Bingham Trust will host a two-day symposium on George Caleb Bingham that honors and celebrates the 50th anniversary of Missouri Governor Christopher S. “Kit” Bond’s public subscription campaign to acquire 112 preliminary drawings for Bingham’s genre paintings. The event is free; tickets and registration are not required. A symposium schedule is below.
For questions, contact TheBinghamTrust@gmail.com.
George Caleb Bingham, American, 1811–1879; Wood-boatman, for The Wood-Boat (1850); brush, black ink, and wash over pencil on off-white wove paper; 11 3/4 x 9 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Lent by The People of Missouri Acquired through the generosity of The Ralston Purina Trust Fund 1977.104.64
About the Bingham Trust
Widely known as “the Missouri artist,” George Caleb Bingham gained recognition for his paintings of life and politics on the American frontier. These paintings were accompanied by numerous drawings, inspired by 19th-century daily experience along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. In 1974, these drawings were at risk of being sold by the St. Louis Mercantile Library to fund air-conditioning for the building. To keep these valuable drawings in Missouri, then-Governor Christopher S. “Kit” Bond launched a statewide campaign to raise funds to purchase the drawings and place them in a trust for the citizens of Missouri.
To kick off this groundbreaking fundraising effort, students across Missouri solicited spare change from their friends and families to help raise the money needed to buy the drawings. Ultimately, children representing more than 300 schools throughout the state raised more than $40,000, inspiring the state legislature, businesses, and other individuals to contribute to the cause.
Today, the drawings are held in The Bingham Trust, established for the benefit of “The People of Missouri,” and will never be sold or separated. The drawings constitute the largest holding of the artist’s work and have advanced understanding of his significant impact, both as an artist and a politician, on the history of American art and culture.
About the symposium
This symposium explores the connection between Bingham’s life as an artist and a politician, how those two existences are intimately intertwined, and how his work continues to be relevant to our nation today.
Chaired by Andrew Walker, executive director of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, speakers include Claire Barry, emeritus director of conservation at the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas; Amy Torbert, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Associate Curator of American Art at the Saint Louis Art Museum; Joan E. Stack, curator of art collections at the State Historical Society of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri; and Charles E. Valier, chairman of The Bingham Trust.
The campaign to save the Bingham drawings gained national news coverage, including this July 14, 1976 story in The New York Times.
Symposium schedule
Friday, November 15, 2024
2–4 pm, The Farrell Auditorium
- Welcome and Introduction
Andrew J. Walker, Executive Director, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas - How The School Children Saved the Bingham Drawings—Governor Bond’s Crusade
Charles E. Valier, Chairman, The Bingham Trust - Out of Many One: Democracy and National Union in George Caleb Bingham’s Election Series
Joan E. Stack, Curator of Art Collections, The State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
4 pm, Friends Room
- Reception
Symposium attendees can enjoy beer, wine, and light bites.
Saturday, November 16, 2024
10:30 am, The Farrell Auditorium
- Bingham in Düsseldorf
Amy Torbert, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Associate Curator of American Art, Saint Louis Art Museum - To the Beautiful Belongs an Endless Variety: Bingham’s Inventive Use of Drawings, Prints, and Preparatory Layers to Create Lasting Portraits of Riverboatmen and Frontier Life
Claire Barry, Director of Conservation (retired), Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
12:15 pm Lunch break
Attendees have lunch on their own at SLAM or nearby
1:30–4 pm, The Farrell Auditorium
- “I forget I am a painter, not a politician”—The Political Tableau that Bingham Created to Taunt His Political Opponents and Document Mid-19th-Century Democracy
Charles E. Valier, Chairman, The Bingham Trust - Panel Discussion
Andrew J. Walker, moderator, Claire Barry, Joan Stack, Amy Torbert, and Charles Valier