By cameron.conner@missourinet.com For Missourinet

Joplin, Missouri, served as the starting point for one of America's most illustrious painters of the 20th century.

We may not have known about Thomas Hart Benton if it weren't for a nearby newspaper that required a cartoonist.

Episode three of our 150th anniversary of Joplin features a conversation between Cameron Conner and Brad Belk on the artist's early life and how fate brought him back at the end of his life.

By Julie Denesha For KCUR

The leading art gallery in Kansas City opens its two-month exhibition of Thomas Eakins' oil painting "Sailing" on Thursday. The exhibition coincides with the city's first-ever hosting of the NFL Draft.

The most recent, unofficial Super Bowl trophy for the metro area is a brand-new painting on display at Kansas City's Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

By Mike Olmstead For Fourstates Homepage

It is a celebration that has been in the works for 150 years. JOPLIN, Mo. Yesterday afternoon, a celebration celebrating the City of Joplin's 150th birthday was held at Joplin City Hall.

The painting by Thomas Hart Benton that hangs in City Hall's lobby is one of the main points of interest. It was Thomas Hart Benton's final signature mural and was dedicated to the city 50 years ago.

By Debby Woodin For The Joplin Globe, Mo.

In what he would later refer to as a "quirk of fate," Missouri's celebrated 20th-century painter Thomas Hart Benton started his career as a professional artist in early Joplin.

His oddball career carried him from Southwest Missouri to the more romantic and artistic city of light, Paris, where he studied painting. He eventually painted and taught in New York before returning to Missouri decades later.

For Webbcity

The 150th birthday celebration for Joplin will take place on Thursday at 602 S. City Hall. Main Street.

The party will start at 2:30 p.m. on the fifth level of the City Council chambers.

The dedication of Thomas Hart Benton's mural, "Joplin at the Turn of the Century - 1896 to 1906," was the centerpiece of the 100th birthday celebration 50 years ago, in 1973.

By Connie Shakalis For Herald Times Online

In addition to railway stations, treehouses, zoos, and shopping centers, brides are also exchanging vows in the 1920s art deco lobby of Bloomington's Buskirk-Chumley Theater. While wedding ceremonies this spring can be quick, low-cost, and roaring 20s stunning, marriage may not be.

For California.com

California's San Jose, a thriving city in the center of Silicon Valley, is home to a thriving arts community and a variety of interesting institutions. These museums provide something for everyone, from history and art to technology and creativity. In this post, we'll lead you through the greatest museums in San Jose, highlighting their geo-locations, exhibit highlights, and parking and accessibility information. Get ready to be motivated and educated by the gems just waiting to be found.

By Richard Selden For The George Towner

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, established in 1805, is the country's oldest art museum and art school, dating back much further than both the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1876) and the Barnes Foundation (1922). There, many prominent figures from American art's 19th and early 20th centuries studied, taught, or did both, including Mary Cassatt, Thomas Eakins, Cecilia Beaux, Robert Henri, John Marin, John Sloan, Paul Manship, and Maxfield Parish.

For ArtfixDaily

America's rich cultural heritage includes both heroes and scalawags, blue-blooded businesspeople and immigrant achievers who rose from the lowest rungs. The history of our country is the backdrop for Blackwell Auctions' "The American Sale" event on March 18. This story includes everyone who has done so, whether they were honorable or malicious.

For The State Historical Society Of Missouri

Many of the animals we typically think of as being American are actually not. Most other domesticated livestock, including cows and horses, were brought to North America by European settlers. The second phase of Domestic Animals and American Identity, which is currently on display, features a variety of works by George Caleb Bingham and Thomas Hart Benton, including Benton drawings that illustrate Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Bingham's famous "Wilderness" painting.

By Andre Louque for Koam News Now

Joan Stack, the curator of Missouri's State History Society's art collection, today discussed art production at the Cornell Arts & Entertainment Complex with locals.

Authorities said this event is in line with its current exhibit, Thomas Hart Benton: The Complete Editioned Lithographs.

Benton collaborated with the New York-based company Associated American Artists from the 1930s until the 1970s to create and sell lithographs that the general public could buy for as little as $5 each.

By L. Kent Wolgamott For Lincoln Journal Star

What are the works "Turtle Island 1-22" by Aaron Holz, "Valley Power & Light" by Keith Jacobshagen, "Nebraska Landscape Tile" by Eddie Dominguez, and Jenny Kruger's "Solstice," which depicts a barn with a sky filled with flowers, birds, and vines, in common?

The response to that question begs the main query of the current exhibition at Kiechel Fine Art, "What is landscape," beyond the fact that they are all Nebraska-based artists.

For Artnet By Annikka Olsen

It's one thing to appreciate a significant piece of art in a gallery or museum, but what if you also want to learn more about the artist? Seeing the places where they worked and frequently also resided can provide unparalleled insight into their practice, lives, and the masterpieces they created. Happily, a lot of artists' houses and studios across the nation have been preserved and made accessible to the public, allowing art enthusiasts and history fans to travel back in time and discover how some of the most well-known artists of art history created.

By Peter Crimmins for Whyy

It's time for Philadelphia to pay off its gambling obligations after the Eagles lost the Super Bowl earlier this month.

According to the Museum Bowl bet made prior to the game, the Philadelphia Museum of Art has chosen the painting it will be sending to its counterpart in Kansas City, the Nelson-Atkins Museum: Thomas Eakins' "Sailing," an 1875 painting of a pair of men sailing a small boat on the Delaware River south of Philadelphia.

For The Joplin Globe

In this weekly segment, we ask a member of the neighborhood five questions. Patrick Tuttle, who works with the convention and visitors bureau in Joplin, joins us today.

1. Why is Joplin's 150th birthday this year a historic milestone?

Joplin will commemorate its 150th birthday on March 23. The city was officially founded on that date in 1873.

By Robert Miner for The Pitch

It's simple to miss unless you're looking for the Thomas Hart Benton House and Studio State Historic Site. It is the smallest state park in Missouri, at only 0.3 acres, and is tucked away in the Roanoke district of Kansas City. There isn't much to pull you in than a few tiny signs on the streets nearby. Indeed, there is a cardboard cutout of Benton on the front steps, but the man didn't exactly cut an imposing figure at just under five feet three inches.

By Kristina Webb for Palm Beach Daily News

Internationally known figurative artists have brought their creations to the Palm Beaches for a new show at the recently refurbished Norton House of the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens.