A new mural in downtown Neosho honors the artist Thomas Hart Benton.
The painter and muralist was born in Neosho in 1889. His 1936 work “A Social History of the State of Missouri” graces the walls of the capitol building in Jefferson City.
On Tuesday, a ribbon cutting was held for the mural honoring Benton.
"For the community, I think it's a really great opportunity to finally recognize and honor Benton having come from our community and his contribution to the art world," said Sarah Seiro, president of the Neosho Arts Council. "He wasn't always as recognized by the town and so I think this is a great opportunity to do that now."
The mural was created by artist and Neosho native Jared Ean Jennings who is a lecturer at Pittsburgh State University in Kansas. He was influenced by Benton as a child growing up in Neosho.
Jennings said, when he was coming up with a design for the mural, he went through archives of Benton’s art work and read biographies, letters and works by Benton and different breakdowns of his work.
And he studied pieces he’d always gravitated towards.
"After I had a good feel of his style — because that's one of the hardest things to replicate sometimes is another artist's style — to me, that's a really important component when you're paying tribute to someone — especially an artist," Jennings said.
That's because artists' show their thought process when they create a new piece of work, he said.
The new mural isn’t the first in Neosho – there are several others, and, in fact, the Neosho Arts Council offers the Murals of Neosho Guide and Descriptive Audio Tour to allow anyone to access them.
Seiro said it’s designed to make art more accessible.
"The descriptions are written with logical descriptive language that can make the mural accessible to those who are blind or visually impaired," she said, "and it also weaves in cultural and historical narratives to help explain the mural and the context of the mural and what's going on in the mural."
