The Hoosier Salon has survived wars, economic recessions, a fire, venue changes for its annual exhibition, relocation of its offices and gallery spaces, and modifications to its outreach programs.
[4] The organization's vision is to foster an appreciation for visual art through activities that "educate, inspire, and enhance the lives of the citizens of our state while promoting the creativity, talent and technique of Indiana artists.
[7] Following this initial meeting, Estella King, chair of the group's arts committee, led the organization's plans for an exhibition featuring high quality artwork from Hoosier artists that would help gain more recognition for them outside of Indiana.
[4][8] The Hoosier Salon's name and concept come from the nineteenth-century French tradition of annual art exhibitions held in the Grand Palais des Champs- Élysées in Paris, France.
[4][9] Chicago, Illinois, was selected as the site for the first Hoosier Salon because of its large population and its reputation as a midwestern art center.
[10] The first Hoosier Salon ran from March 9 to 19, 1925, at the art galleries of Marshall Field and Company at 28 East Washington Street in Chicago.
[8][12] Hoosier Group artist T. C. Steele and his wife, Selma, attended the opening of the Salon's first exhibition, which was well received by art critics and the public.
[4][14] At the first Hoosier Salon merit prizes were awarded to Steele for Winter Morning, First Snow, judged best picture and painted by a man more than sixty years of age.
[16] Marguerite B. Williams, art critic for the Chicago Daily News, remarked at the time of the first Salon that Indiana was well known for its writers; however, "it would seem that some of this desire for self-expression has overflowed into painting for there is probably no other state that could show as many and such a high average of practically unknown painters.
"[9][14] Hoosier authors Tarkington, George Ade, and Meredith Nicholson supported the idea of an annual exhibition featuring Indiana artists.
In the forward to the Hoosier Salon's exhibition catalog in 1926, Nicholson wrote, "we are anxious for our brothers and sisters who paint or draw or sculpt to have their day in court, just as we have had it.
Janet Scudder, a native of Terre Haute, Indiana, who gained an international reputation for her work as a sculptor, earned the $300 merit prize for her outstanding sculpture called Victory.
[17][18] In addition to hosting the annual Salon during its seventeen-year run in Illinois, the patron’s association opened a year-round gallery on October 15, 1928, in donated space in the Chicago Evening Post Building on West Wacker Drive.
In June 1936 the Hoosier Salon held its annual exhibition during the summer months at the Spink-Wawasee Hotel at Lake Wawasee in Indiana.
[26] After the move from Chicago, the Association's next annual Hoosier Salon opened in downtown Indianapolis on January 19, 1942, for a two-week run in the sixth-floor auditorium of the William H. Block Company department store at Market and Illinois Streets.
[22] The annual Salon was scaled back during World War II, and the wartime themes that continued for several years frequently outnumbered the usual landscapes, still lifes, and portraits.
[28][29] In the 1950s several artists who had contributed to the first exhibitions in Chicago continued to submit works for the Salons, including Polley, Wheeler, and Wayman Adams, among others.
Salons in the 1960s marked the changing times for Hoosier artists with the introduction of new materials, such as prints, metal sculpture, collage, and fewer of the more traditional landscapes of southern Indiana.
A Lilly Endowment grant of $5,000 and additional $1,000 contributions from several sponsors allowed the Hoosier Salon to open in January 1974, although the other planned events were cancelled.
[12][33] In November 1974 the Hoosier Salon purchased the Victorian-era Bals-Wocher mansion on Indianapolis's North Delaware Street as the new location for its year-round gallery.
[30][34] By 1978 the Bals-Wocher mansion proved too costly for the group to maintain, so the Salon sold it and moved its gallery to the Morrison Opera building on Indianapolis's South Meridian Street, where it had been renting office space.
[35] In March 1991 the Association relocated its offices to North College Avenue in Indianapolis's Broad Ripple Village,[36] where it had previously established a year-round gallery.
New York City-based Wayman Adams, born near Muncie, Indiana, exhibited his artwork at the Salon for thirty-five years.
Past Salon works have included Kanwal Prakash (K. P.) Singh's architectural renderings, lithographs from Garo Z. Antreasian, watercolors from Floyd Hopper, portraits by Nancy Noel, the acrylics of James Lee Cunningham, and abstract art from Martha Slaymaker.