SALON

Broad Ripple gallery o f works submitted “THAT'S PART OF THE CHARM OF A but not accepted into the annual exhibi­ ANNUAL EXHIBITION,” SAID DOLE. “YOU WILL SEE tion. The name (literally an exhibition o f rejects) dates back to in 1863. “Our THE BEST WORK OF ’S MOST ESTABLISHED Salon Des Refuse promotes the main an­ ARTISTS, BUT YOU WILL ALSO DISCOVER NEW nual exhibition, because when you see the TALENT YOU DID NOT KNOW EXISTED.” quality o f works that weren’t accepted, it shows just how difficult it is to meet the judges’ standards,” said Donnae Dole, Dole. “Hoosier Salon would not be here the total prize money o f $4,375 in 1925, Hoosier Salon executive director. today if not for the supporters over the but Dole would like to see it get even Today the Hoosier Salon has three eighty-eight years. Just like the Daughters higher. permanent galleries, all in Indiana: in the o f Indiana in 1925, we promote Indiana Although longtime repeat exhibitors Broad Ripple area o f , in New artists and their art. W e want people to gain the most exposure, being accepted Harmony, and in the Charley Creek Inn appreciate the quality o f the work Indiana into the annual exhibition even once is in Wabash. All three galleries create new artists produce. But we also market and considered an honor and a distinction. exhibitions throughout the year, and all sell their work. W e want Indiana artists to Longtime art collector and current H oo­ works displayed are for sale. “We owe a survive, grow, and thrive.” sier Salon board chair, John Pantzer III, ac­ great debt to the vision and foresight o f The Hoosier Salon best o f show mon­ knowledges a work by a Hoosier Salon art­ the Daughters o f Indiana, the ongoing etary prize reached a record $10,000 in ist tends to bring a higher price when it is support o f art patrons, corporate support­ 2009 when the total prize money awarded offered for sale: “I feel a painting exhibited ers, contributors, women’s clubs, sororities, was more than $25,000. The prize money in the Hoosier Salon’s annual exhibit— ei­ and the creativity o f Indiana artists,” said is far greater than the $500 top prize and ther now or one from a past show— has a greater value than a comparable work that was not in the exhibit,” said Pantzer. Dole noted that those considered as Indiana’s master artists were in their seven­ ties and had already achieved recognition from critics when the first Hoosier Salon exhibition opened in 1925. Their works, however, she added, were exhibited along­ side “thirty-seven-year old and thirty-two-year-old William E. Eyden, both o f whom would go on creating art for another fifty plus years.” In 2011 a twenty-year-old first-time exhibitor won the prize for best traditional oil painting. “That’s part o f the charm o f a Hoosier Salon annual exhibition,” said Dole. “You will see the best work o f Indiana’s most es­ tablished artists, but you will also discover new talent you did not know existed. It is possible one o f the new artists we highlight today is someone we will still be talking about eighty-eight years from now.” Some participants in the Hoosier Salon

Famed Indiana songwriter performed at a 1949 dinner dance at the Shore- exhibition are full-time artists, said Dole, ham Hotel in Washington, D.C., as a prelude to the Hoosier Salon showing at the Smithsonian while others are cardiologists, teachers, Institution's Gallery o f Fine Arts.

24 | TRACES | Summer 2012