Buhr, who grew up in northeastern Missouri and attended Mizzou for art history, said she first became interested in the arts after participating in an extra-credit opportunity for her high school class and visiting the Nelson-Atkins in Kansas City.
“I was just blown away,” she said. “I was like, ‘I want to work in a place like this.’”
Throughout her career, Buhr has done an extensive amount of writing for a variety of museums, including a retrospective of famed Ozarks illustrator Rose O’Neill, who is best remembered for creating Kewpies.
In addition to her writing, Buhr has spent roughly 19 years as the Springfield Art Museum curator alongside a staff of four others who collaborate to choose what art is displayed at the museum.
Buhr said she first began thinking about the idea for the book near the beginning of her time at the museum.
“When I started, I couldn’t really figure out what the Springfield Art Museum was about,” she said. “We didn’t really have a developed website, there was no historical book around, and so when I first started I was trying to get a sense of what the history [of the museum] was.
“Over the years I started to come across different documents,” Buhr said. “I started seeking out primary sources and trying to put together a history of who we were, and I just kept piecing things together.”
Around six or seven years ago, Buhr said she decided she wanted to find a place to store the information. She began writing an essay based on it but said the project “bloomed into something larger.”
The finished book includes guest essays, biographies and more in addition to information on the art museum's history.
“So it's not just a history. It's got all of these other additional resources,” Buhr said. “I say it's sort of a gift to myself. I kept thinking, what did I wish I would have had when I started? And that's sort of what this has become. I really wrote it for myself and our staff, but I think other people are responding to it because it also talks about Springfield's history.”
If interested in purchasing a copy of the book, call or email the Springfield Art Museum at (417) 837-5700 or artmuseum@springfieldmo.gov.
The Springfield Art Museum can be found on Instagram, Facebook and their website.
