Something inspirational happened to Tanmaya Bingham just before she moved across the country to become the galleries director and an art instructor at Indiana State University this fall in Terre Haute.

Bingham discarded hundreds of pounds of her artwork, with the help of a friend. 不是全部, but a significant amount from an artistic career that began in the 1990s, 从创作自己的作品到策展, 管理, mentoring and teaching while based in multiple states and countries.

“扔掉这么多艺术品让人感到羞耻,宾厄姆上周在她阳光明媚的ISU办公室里说, adjacent to the university’s Turman 艺术画廊 inside the Landini Center for Performing and Fine Arts.

She paid attention to what was being tossed, and the volume of it.

“我认为这是一种错觉——一种好的错觉，”宾厄姆说. “你有梦想成为一名艺术家或在画廊工作, 你总是被撞个稀巴烂, 但你继续前进.”

事实上，宾厄姆一直在努力. 她的大胆的, 明亮的绘画-具有现实主义, figurative images placed in surrealistic settings — continue to earn awards at showings around the country and globe. 在过去的一年, those included awards from the Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle and the San Diego Museum of Art, and as a finalist for the prestigious Bennett Prize for women painters.

她给西雅图的Roq La Rue画廊留下了深刻的印象. 根据画廊的描述, “在每件作品中使用多种设计风格, 她的作品看起来是拼贴画, 或者数字化制作, 但都是手绘的. Her technical prowess and eye for composition creates an almost musical harmony out of what seems initially to be disjointed imagery.”

After arriving in Terre Haute to join the ISU Department of 艺术与设计 this fall, Bingham included her “Purple Angels” hexaptych — a six-panel, 宽20块, 用彩色铅笔创作, water-based paint and glitter — in the faculty exhibition from Oct. 3日至11月. 4.

《bc菠菜导航》中有很多戏剧性的场景, including Michelle Obama and Kamala Harris watching the clash of JFK’s Lincoln limo and the “General Lee” Dodge Charger. The painting frees the two women to observe and discuss the collision — exemplifying the extreme political divide in America — without being overshadowed by male political figures (represented by one dog). It captures the “socio-political mess that we have ourselves in right now,宾厄姆说.

The purple element represents a hoped-for compromise, between red and blue America. “Perhaps that’s me just being optimistic,” she said, with a grin.

作为一名艺术家和ISU画廊总监和讲师, 宾厄姆的目标是“做相关的事情”.” An important expression of that quest will come in early 2023 through the collaborative “Public Blackness” exhibition at all three ISU galleries — Turman Gallery, 杨大美术馆和Bare-Montgomery画廊. The exhibit will include digital video and virtual-reality works, 摄影, two-dimensional historical works and contemporary works by various contributors including an interactive mural by students, 戏剧和音乐.

“Public Blackness” is intended to increase awareness of ongoing and often unresolved local and national racial issues and “to transform unconscious biases we have, 尤其是在特雷霍特,宾厄姆说.

“It’s a conversation that needs to happen and issues that are still relevant,” she added.

She’s collaborating on the project with Adeyemi Doss, ISU assistant professor of sociology. “He brings an amazing amount of knowledge about these experiences,宾厄姆说.

It began with a conversation on campus between Bingham and Doss about his work and field of expertise. 他教授一系列新颖的课程, 包括一门关于嘻哈音乐和社会正义的课程, and another on the history and political background of graffiti art. The latter includes a student crafted mural of graffiti art at the ISU Art Annex. That talk led to plans for an expansion of Doss’ instruction and studies, as well as his photographic images — the “Public Blackness” exhibit.

“I wanted to examine this whole idea of how blackness is seen in public, 以及黑人如何应对这一切,多斯星期一说.

“The exhibit is going to create conversations that aren’t easy to have,” he added.

Nonetheless, those talks are important and can affect even more people, Doss explained. “I just want individuals who come in and look at this art to have these conversations with their loved ones and their friends.”

Bingham “is definitely providing the space for this exhibit to come about,” Doss said. “她很兴奋，我也很兴奋.”

The potential impact of the “Public Blackness” exhibit energizes her. “即使只有少数人对它感兴趣, 我想我们会做得很好,宾厄姆说.

The power of art to challenge thinking has been part of Bingham’s life since her childhood in Santa Fe, 新墨西哥. 她的母亲是一位艺术家和企业家, while her father worked as an in-house counsel (an “art lawyer,(宾厄姆这么说)，为圣达菲的一家大型画廊做准备. 她的父母也一起收藏艺术品. 宾汉的姑姑, 玛丽克莱默, is the former executive director of Wabash Valley Art Spaces, 宾厄姆的姑母在国家美术馆工作.

作为一个青少年, she studied under a “tough-love” Yale professor who started a graduate school of art in Santa Fe — a “very valuable experience.” Later she earned degrees at Antioch University in California and Australia National University in Canberra, 然后在意大利继续学习, 巴黎, 法国和伦敦.

“I was always privileged to have art around me,” said Bingham, now 44.

“我所做的一切都是艺术. 我做到了. 我把它拿给别人看. 我在这方面提供指导，”她补充道. “I’ve done a good job, I guess, in planning it out that way.”

Likewise, she wants to expose students at ISU to art and its related careers. The role at Indiana State appealed to Bingham because of the university’s reputation as a destination for first-generation college students.

“这对我来说是一个巨大的动力, and to engage students in something maybe they’ve not experienced,宾厄姆说.