KANSAS CITY, MO.- The Thomas Hart Benton painting that once hung on the library wall at Shawnee Mission North High School will be on view in late April at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO. Utah Highlands, with vivid yellow trees spread across rolling green hills, was purchased from Benton in 1957 by students as a class gift for their school.

After an appraisal in 2008, the Benton painting was removed to storage due to safety and security concerns, and a digital replica was placed on view. Recognizing a need to provide high-quality care for this important gift along with an interest in identifying a solution for securely displaying the painting for public view, Shawnee Mission School District officials contacted representatives with the Nelson-Atkins.

Now the painting is on long-term loan to the Nelson-Atkins, which has 130 Benton paintings, drawings, and prints in its permanent collection, the largest public collection of Benton’s work.

“It is fitting that this painting has found a home in the Nelson-Atkins, since the museum has such a strong history with Benton,” said Julián Zugazagoitia, Menefee D. and Mary Louise Blackwell CEO & Director of the Nelson-Atkins. “We are delighted the students who purchased the painting will be able to come and see it. And the timing is perfect, because we have a major Thomas Hart Benton exhibition coming in the fall.”

The school district is delighted as well.

“We are pleased to partner with the Nelson-Atkins to ensure the Benton painting, a treasured class gift, will be displayed publicly and enjoyed by past, present, and future students, along with the many visitors to the museum,” said Dr. Jim Hinson, Shawnee Mission School District Superintendent. “The museum’s reputation for excellence in curation and the strong ties that the Nelson-Atkins has to Thomas Hart Benton are the perfect option to ensure Utah Highlands will be displayed with the utmost care.”

The painting will be on view in late April in the Enid and Crosby Kemper Rotunda in the museum’s American Wing.

“What forethought the class of 1957 had nearly sixty years ago in their gift of this painting,” said Stephanie Knappe, Samuel Sosland curator of American Art at the Nelson-Atkins. “Thomas Hart Benton, an artist who casts a long shadow in this area, is currently receiving renewed national attention, which makes this timing of this arrangement quite fortuitous. Furthermore, the long-term loan of Benton’s Utah Highlands from the Shawnee Mission School District to the Nelson-Atkins underscores the museum’s mission to be a site where the power of art engages with the spirit of community.”

On Oct. 10, the first major exhibition on Thomas Hart Benton in more than 25 years, American Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood, will open at the Nelson-Atkins. The exhibition will reveal the fascinating but overlooked relationship between Benton's art, movie making and visual storytelling in 20th-century America.