By COLE REIF Great Bend Post

GREAT BEND — The Shafer Art Gallery on the campus of Barton Community College opened in 1992 as a way to permanently display an art collection and present exhibits from all over the world. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Shafer Gallery Director David Barnes said the gallery is just starting to reemerge with displays and folks visiting to see the exhibits. Over the course of 30 years, the gallery has made an impact on numerous artists, students and spectators.

An artist by the name of Scott Thein, who lived primarily in New York, had drawings featured in the Great Bend gallery in 2016. “Scott was a colorful character,” said Barnes. “We found out he was incredibly talented and one of the most intelligent artists I’ve ever met.” Thein passed away in June 2022 from complications with cancer. Before Thein passed away, he asked Barnes if he could find a home in the gallery for a “special” painting.

“The painting was done by a relative of Scott’s, by the name of Miksa Timar-Thein,” said Barnes. “Miksa was a very well-known Hungarian painter. The story is, this individual left Poland and sought refuge in Paris, France right before World War II.” Miksa died in the Holocaust. Several of his paintings were passed down to his relatives. Scott Thein received one of his works and then gifted the oil painting to the gallery. “Scott wanted this painting to be kept in a place that he trusted and valued,” said Barnes. “On one of his trips from New York, he rolled up the painting and stuck it in his suitcase. It’s an oil painting and the oil painting cracked. When he brought it to me, it was a disaster.” Along with the painting, Scott Thein gave the Shafer Art Gallery at Barton the finances to send the painting to the Western Center for the Conservation of Fine Arts in Colorado to have it restored.

Thein also gave the gallery a generous legacy with a fund that can be used for restoration and preservation of any other works in the gallery’s collection. “I think this donation is a testament to the way that we can provide a place for people to trust,” said Barnes. “That’s what was heartwarming to me. Trust ran through the story so deeply. Scott really trusted us to be able to take care of this and he knew that we would do it right.” Barnes referred to Miksa Timar-Thein as a significant artist of the period between 1874 and 1940.    

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