The Arts

It was a painting of a bird hanging in the old C&W Cafe on the square in Carthage, Missouri that caused today's burgeoning Carthage arts scene to take flight. That painting caught the eye of Carthage-area businessman and future County Commissioner Danny Hensley. The artist- Carthage's own Lowell Davis- soon caught Hensley's attention as well.

Their friendship, which evolved naturally from Hensley's growing and continuing interest in the arts, ignited the spark that eventually led to the founding of the Midwest Gathering of the Artists.

Soon Davis' good friend and prominent Texas-based artist Bob Tommey was to move to Carthage and together these three men founded the MGA and continue to operate it today, along with MGA Director Sandy Higgins.

The first show in what was to become the Midwest Gathering was held on a cold December night in 1978.
It involved three artists, Tommey, Davis and Californian Ron Crooks. Crooks was to return to the MGA many times over the succeeding years -and he was not alone.

From that relatively modest beginning on Dec. 8, 1978, the MGA has grown in stature and in numbers. The second show featured 20 artists. In 1981 an honorary chairman was named, Judge (and future Mayor) Herbert Casteel.

That 1981 show also was the first MGA for a South Carolina-based artist named Chris Leiter. Leiter, of course, later joined the artistic pilgramage to Carthage where he and his artist wife April Davis Leiter continue their involvement in the arts and in the MGA.

The development of Carthage as a major center for the arts took another major step forward in 1984 when famed Precious Moments creator Sam butcher moved here. The importance of that move was underscored at the 1985 MGA show which featured Butcher as guest speaker.

By 1988's show there were 29 artists involved in the MGA. The following year's event again spotlighted Butcher's work and its dynamic relationship to the overall Carthage arts scene, it was held just two months after the June opening of the Precious Moments Chapel.

Meanwhile, the development of the arts had produced a need for a more formal community support mechanism, a need that was filled through creation and development of the organization now known as art Central. Memorial Hall and artCentral were co-hosts of that 1989 MGA.

In 1991 the MGA broadened its scope to include poetry along with paintings and sculpture. Prominent Carthage banker and civic leader James R. Bracht was honorary chairman of that event.

The 1992 Midwest Gathering again honored artist Sam Butcher as part of a community-wide tribute which included formal acknowledgement of the growth of the Precious Moments Complex.

Now one of the region's foremost art shows, the MGA literally attracts exhibitors from all over the country.

However, the show has managed to maintain that level of direct personal involvement with the arts and with artists that was expressed some 20 years ago when Danny Hensley first noticed that Lowell Davis bird painting in the old C&W cafe.