2026 William T. Turman Plein Air Competition & Exhibition

Competition Dates: June 25-28, 2026 Exhibition Dates: July 6 - September 6, 2026

Reception: June 28, 4-6 PM at The Gallery at Arts Illiana - 23 North 6th Street, Terre Haute, Indiana 47807

ABOUT THE WILLIAM T. TURMAN SWOPE PLEIN AIR COMPETITION AND EXHIBITION

The 2026 Swope Art Museum William T. Turman Plein Air competition is open to all painters. All works must be painted during the event period, June 25-28, and must be created in Terre Haute and Vigo County, Indiana. This outdoor painting event is a tribute to William Turman, a preeminent plein air painter from Graysville, Indiana. Turman was the second director of the Swope Art Museum, and Chairman of the Indiana State University Art Department for 40 years. Turman was part of the rich history of Indiana landscape painters including T.C. Steele, William Merritt Chase, and William Forsyth.

Meet Our Juror

Our juror for the Plein Air Competition and Swope exhibition is Efram Burk, Professor of Art History, Curry College, Milton, Mass.

Both of Efram Burk’s parents were artists and educators, and Efram continues the tradition. For the past twenty-eight years, he has taught Art History full-time, first at the University of South Carolina at Beaufort and since 2006, at Curry College in Milton, Mass. Efram focuses his activities on scholarship and making art. In terms of research, he has focused on early twentieth-century American modernism—his articles include: "Printmaking as Autobiography: The Graphic Art of Marguerite

Zorach," Woman's Art Journal, May 2004; "Assembling the 'Primitive': Max Weber's Artist Book Primitives (1926)," SECAC Review, Fall 2003; "The Prints of William Zorach," Print Quarterly, December 2002; "'Sketch[ing] and Paint[ing] in Ecstasy'-William and Marguerite Zorach in Yosemite Valley, Summer 1920," SECAC Review, Fall 2014. His book, Clever Fresno Girl: The Travel Writings of Marguerite Thompson Zorach (1908-1915), was published by the University of Delaware Press (2009).

In 2012, he was accepted as a member of the Ogunquit Art Association, the oldest artists' organization in Maine, where he shows his photos, drawings, and paintings. Efram enjoys marveling at nature's beauty and majesty through long walks and hikes. He is proud that his father's work is

showing at the Swope this year.

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