Boonslick Outdoor Arts Project
March 28, 2005
Emergency Operations Center

Attending: Pat Holmes, Carmen Jones, Sarah Gallagher, Maryellen McVicker, Toni Covington, Bob Dyer and Art Schneider.

Capital Improvements Tax and SB 272 Update—Sarah Gallagher, Boonville economic developer, noted that next week Tuesday Boonville residents will vote on continuing the sales tax that they have levied for 10 years. The vote is for a five-year period. It raises more than $500,000 a year and is a tax paid not only by citizens, but also by visitors who use city streets and facilities while making purchases locally.

Twenty local organizations receive funding through the tax, plus economic development, streets, public safety and park development. Loss of the funds would require the city to use other funds or discontinue funding for projects that it has approved in the past.

Maryellen McVicker noted that Thespian Hall Lively would not be possible without the CIP tax funds.

SB 272 is a bill offered by a senator from St. Charles. It would cap the amount that the city receives from gaming to the current year. It also would restrict the money to capital improvements. Any additional funds over the cap would be used to rollback property taxes. Many of the funds from gaming are used for purposes other than capital improvements, such as money to law enforcement in Cooper, Howard, Pettis, Saline and Moniteau counties. It also contributes more than $70,000 to the Y and is used for internships.

Art also noted that if the bill gets out of committee and to the full floor that it could be amended. With the state’s fiscal situation and tax increases not on the agenda, floor amendments could easily lead to transferring a portion or all of the local revenues to the state. The impact of such action would have devastating consequences for the area.

Maryellen McVicker said that when Rep. Larry Crawford was in office, he considered an issue a crisis if it generated contacts from four constituents.

J. Milton Turner donor plaque: The plaque has been cast. Art brought it to the meeting. Toni Covington said she saw no errors. The plaque will now go to Carter Memorial in Moberly for attachment to the base. The sculptor is responsible for the chronology and story plaques.

Bingham bust/pedestal fundraising: To date more than $1600 has been received in donations. Art urged members to contact potential donors so that the donor plaque could be cast and ready in time for the dedication.

Bingham program: Maryellen reminded members that there would be a program on George Caleb Bingham as a politician at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 23, at the Boone County Historical Society. Paul Nagle, former Missouri University administrator and an historian, has a new book on Bingham and will have a book signing in conjunction with the program. He will speak later that day at Arrow Rock.

Sabra Tull Meyer: Sabra presented a wax mold of the heroic size bust of George Caleb Bingham. She said if accepted by the project, the wax model would be sent to the foundry next week and should be cast and ready for the base by the third week of May. She noted the large bush of hair and noted that Bingham wore a wig, having lost his hair from smallpox.

At the public showing at 4 p.m., Pat Hanna of the outdoor arts selection committee said the wax model was "fabulous." Sabra said the dark wax model was much darker than the bronze work. Bingham's hair, coat and vest will have a darker patina. The face, collar and shirt will have a lighter patina.

Bob Dyer noted that the bust appeared to be much larger than the current bust and the bust displayed for James Milton Turner. Sabra said it was four inches or so taller than the Walter Williams bust.

Art said he thought it was similar in size to the Turner bust. Carmen Jones said it was larger and won concurrence from Toni Covington.

In the earlier discussion on a bust for Bingham, Bob had suggested contacting Columbia because the city had a Bingham bust. Art checked and found that the artist had done the work two decades ago and was living in New York. In reporting that information via the e-mails, Sabra offered to contact a private collector for whom she had sculpted a Bingham bust and offered to do the work for $2000 less than usual cost. The wax model on display is a replica of that bust. In essence, the project is receiving a larger bust for less money. He did not think it would be so noticeable in the park.

Bob asked where the bust/pedestal would be placed in relationship to the Walter Williams bust. Art said Gary had discussed adding the next bust to the west side of the Hannah Cole statue and the J. Milton Turner bust next to the Williams’ bust. Bob suggested that Gary Nauman be contacted and the bust next to Walter Williams be the Bingham bust. Turner would then be the first bust to the left of the Cole sculpture and the Frederick T. Kemper bust be the same heroic size as the Bingham bust. So there would be symmetrical balance on both sides of the Cole statue. He said it also is possible the Bingham bust could be placed in the second position to the left of the Cole statue since just six weeks later the Turner bust would be dedicated. The information will be passed on to Gary.

The project accepted the proposed model and authorized the second payment of $2026 to Sabra.

Bingham Chronology and Bingham story plaques: Concurrence to accept the chronology prepared by state archivist Ken Winn with the following exceptions:

1845-57 will read: Returns to Missouri. Period of greatest artistic success.”
1862-65 to read: State treasurer of Missouri
1875-76 to read Adjutant General of Missouri.
Maryellen will provide the date, but to include first professor of art at the University of Missouri.

Minor changes to the plaque:
After Justinian Williams: “a Boonville Methodist minister”
The apprentice line will read:
“While an apprentice he did a portrait of local lawyer Washington Adams and painted a sign of Daniel Boone for the Dade Hotel.”

The third paragraph will substitute “paintings” for “pictures.”

The following two painting names in the last paragraph will be italicized: “Order No. 11” and “Martial Law.”

Project agreed to the changes and they will be sent to Sabra.

Update on MoDOT: Maryellen has put in significant time to research the possibility of native American statues north of the Boonville bridge as an entrance to and exit from the city. Maryellen was at a meeting in which a Conservation Department official was encouraging entrance to the river bridges in Missouri. The Boonville side of the Boonslick Bridge is in Highway District 5. The Howard side of the bridge is in Highway District No. 2. Both districts expressed enthusiasm for the idea. Maryellen has been sent the guidelines and finds that the statues would be eligible under eight different categories.

She met with Senator Bon’s representative and Rep. Graves’ representative to discuss the statues and met the mayor at the meeting. She asked the mayor to stay. Told about the discussion, the mayor was very supportive.

Maryellen took the Hannah Cole dedication brochure to the meeting to show the quality and historical success that the Cole statue demonstrated.

Asked about size and number of statues, she suggested that there be two figures on each side of the bridge (four total) with a height of about 20 feet. There could be a male and female Missouri Indian and a male and female Osage Indian. (Art noted that the ballpark figure sculptors suggested to him for two 12-foot Indian bronze statues were $240,000 to $250,000.)

Senator Bond’s representative said nobody is seeking funding for Native American sculpture in Missouri and this would help make the project stand out. Possible federal programs will be investigated.

The state highway funds are much more likely to be awarded for the art if there is a match of some sort.

Maryellen noted that several trails converge at the northern point of entrance to the Boonslick Bridge.

Bob suggested there might be concerns about parking and traffic that the statues would generate. He also said there was quite a drop in the land next to the entrance of the bridge. Maryellen said she was thinking about the area just south of Highway 87 and 65 intersections as a parking area. The same could be done across the highway.

Art suggested the highway department would need to fill in some of the area to elevate it above the flood plain, but he did not see that as an overwhelming obstacle.

Maryellen noted there is no room to the south of the Boonslick Bridge. The Frederick Hotel does not have adequate space and an Indian sculpture in the VFW Park would not likely win support.

Bob suggested that Indian statues at Cobblestone Park could be a backup plan. But they would receive very little traffic.

Maryellen said this is an idea that is possible.

Toni suggested the MKT Bridge might also be an alternative site.

Maryellen will continue to investigate the possibilities. It is expected that this would be a long-term project because of the sheer magnitude.

Meeting adjourned at 8 p.m. No meeting date was set, but the project will meet in April to begin final preparations for the Bingham project.

Bingham Chronology

Born March 20 in Augusta County, Virginia.
Moves to Franklin, Missouri, with family.
Family settles in Arrow Rock after father’s death.
1828-34 Works as apprentice in Boonville, paints first portraits.
1834-40 Portrait painter in St. Louis, central Missouri; studies and exhibits in Philadelphia and New York.
1840-44 Works in Washington, D.C., as a political portrait painter.
1845-57 Returns to Missouri. Period of greatest artistic success.
Attends Whig party convention in Boonville. Represents Saline county in Missouri legislature.
1857-59 Expatriate painter in Düsseldorf. Returns to Missouri.
1862-65 State Treasurer of Missouri.
1875-76 Adjutant General of Missouri.
1877-79 First Professor of Art, University of Missouri
1879 Dies of cholera on July 7 in Kansas City. Buried in Union Cemetery.

George Caleb Bingham
(1811-1879)

One of America's greatest painters, George Caleb Bingham, was known during his lifetime as "the Missouri Artist" for his depictions of frontier life and portraits.

Bingham was born in Augusta County, Virginia, March 20, 1811, and in 1819 moved with his family to Franklin, across the Missouri River from Boonville. From 1828 to 1832 he was apprenticed to Justinian Williams, a Boonville Methodist minister, cabinetmaker, and carpenter. While an apprentice he did a portrait of local lawyer Washington Adams and painted a sign of Daniel Boone for the Judge Dade Hotel. Many more portrait commissions followed. He married his first wife, Sarah Elizabeth Hutchinson, in Boonville in 1836. She died in 1848. Remarried in 1849, his second wife died in 1876. He remarried in 1878 and she survived.

In 1845 he painted Fur Traders Descending the Missouri, regarded as his masterpiece. For the next twelve years many important works followed. His best genre paintings of the period are principally divided into those portraying life on the river, such as The Jolly Flatboatmen (1846) and Raftsmen Playing Cards (1847), and his great series of political paintings, typified by The County Election (1851), Stump Speaking (1853), and Verdict of the People (1855).

Bingham, the politician, served as state treasurer during the Civil War and later as Missouri's adjutant general. Though a Unionist, Bingham disapproved of the harsh treatment of pro-Southern citizens, portraying the cruelty in a large theatrical painting entitled Order No. 11, or Martial Law (1865-1870). The summer of 1877 he painted portraits and landscapes at his Boonville studio in Forest Hill, the Nelson family home. He died July 7, 1879.

Ken Winn, state archivist