Chamber welcomes Art Appreciation

Last Wednesday, Dec. 13, the Marshfield Area Chamber of Commerce officially welcomed The Marshfield Art Group with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

This organization has a deep history dating back to 1944. When a group of women from Marshfield wanted to affiliate with the Southwest Missouri Museum Associates, they wanted Marshfield to have access to the Springfield Art Museum (SMMA) and what it was bringing to the southwest Missouri area during a time in our nation's history was deep in war efforts.

The cultural benefits of such an association were great for everyone involved. Those forward-thinking women wanted the visual arts experiences to be available for their families and the community of Marshfield. At the same time, several other small towns in rural areas were also affiliating with SMMA.

For many years, the Marshfield Art Group, with financial help from SMMA, has been sending all of the 5th-grade students from Marshfield to the Springfield Art Museum each year. The group believed in the trips for the 5th graders so much that funding from SMMA was not needed, and the local group fully funded the trip to the museum. That was until COVID concerns curtailed the 5th-grade museum trips, but they resumed. Recently, SMMA has adopted a new policy of paying for the Marshfield 5th Graders to go to the museum each year. This is all because Marshfield has a local art group that helps support SMMA financially through its various fundraisers.

When the Marshfield Art Group was organized in 1944, it held meetings twice monthly, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. The members often held meetings about famous artists using materials they had or borrowed from the local library, or sometimes, a speaker was invited to share with the group. Regardless of the subject, every member went home knowing they learned something new. To this day, the Marshfield Art Group continues this same meeting format, although it is more relaxed.

As the years passed, Marshfield Art Group dropped the afternoon meeting, moving to an evening-only format, while taking a break in July and August.

In addition to the museum trips Each year, Marshfield Art Group awards high school students for pursuing their artistic aspirations. They visit the Marshfield High School Art Department in May to view the recipient's work. In June, they also go to the Springfield Art Museum to see the winners of Watercolor USA. This annual juried exhibition started in the 1960s.