Pictured is a photo of the Swope Art Gallery in Terre Haute.

By Darla McCammon

My hometown is Terre Haute, where my art experience truly began with a four-year National Merit Scholarship to Indiana State University. Also located there, near the banks of the Wabash River, is the Sheldon Swope Art Museum. This museum was donated by Michael Sheldon Swope, who was a jeweler in Terre Haute and also a Civil War veteran. The Swope owns more than 2,000 works of art and is located at 25 S. 7th St., Terre Haute. Your map will show this city at the crossroads of national highways US 40 and US 41. US 40 has been supplanted by I-70.

The trip from Warsaw will take about four hours, so it’s best to plan an overnight stay. Some nice lodging and restaurants are available at the I-70 US 41 exit. This museum was open in 1942 and admission, amazingly, is free. Hours are from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. It is open until 8 p.m. on Fridays. This museum was listed by “USA Today” as one of 10 great places in the USA to see art in smaller cities.

When you can go see work by Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, along with Andy Warhol and Alexander Calder, next to the famous “Hoosier Salon” group of Indiana artists, you are in awesome territory. The Swope has endeavored to increase their collection to incorporate good artists from many genres, as well as many different eras that produced great art in America.

Michael Swope was born in Attica but lived on a farm near Evansville until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. He enlisted as a Private at age 17 with the 14th Indiana Volunteers. This “Gallant Fourteenth” group was the first called from Indiana to head to war.

In four year he fought at Gettysburg, Antietam, and Shenandoah Valley. Returning from the war he apprenticed in a jewelry business run by his brother in Dayton. This became his lifelong career and commitment. In 1867, he became a partner in a jewelry store in Terre Haute, eventually making it Indiana’s largest jewelry store. He never married and left virtually everything to the creation of the Swope Art Gallery.

Our second item for today’s column is a request for local landscape artists to consider exhibiting at the new Wagon Wheel exhibit that coincides with new productions. We are looking for landscape work that can be hung for about a month at the Wagon Wheel lobby during the production of The Bridges of Madison County. Bridge themed work would be wonderful, but all landscapes will be considered for this honor. Please send your submission to [email protected] with a photo of work you would like to enter, or call (574) 527-4044 if we can consider your work for this public viewing. Thank you.

Upcoming and Current Events

• The Don Sheline exhibit at Warsaw City Hall Art Gallery is open now from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday until Aug. 3. Please go visit this free exhibit and appreciate his work. He is giving away a free original painting every Friday. You need to go sign up and see this wonderful work. He will also be there in person each Friday from 2 to 4 p.m. to meet and greet people.
• The July LAA exhibit Timothy Tyree is now open. It is located at 302 E. Winona Ave., Warsaw. It is open from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.