FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 1, 2000

The Prairie Print Makers Exhibition Scheduled for National Tour

KANSAS CITY, MO -- ExhibitsUSA, Mid-America Arts Alliance's national traveling exhibition program, has announced Phillips Petroleum Company as the official sponsor of The Prairie Print Makers exhibition and its four-year national tour. In addition to the development and touring of the exhibition, Phillips Petroleum Company support includes the development of comprehensive educational materials and publication of an exhibition catalogue. In order to increase access to the exhibition in the heartland region, Phillips Petroleum Company will also provide special subsidy opportunities for small and mid-sized museum institutions throughout the region.

The Prairie Print Makers, a Kansas-based print organization founded in 1930 to promote the interest of printmakers and print collectors, was composed of the foremost printmakers in American during the middle part of the 20th century including John Steuart Curry, Birger Sandzen, John Taylor Arms, Gustave Baumann, Peter Hurd, Clare Leighton, Maynard Dixon and Stow Wengenroth.

During the Depression, the Prairie Print Makers sponsored inexpensive traveling sales exhibitions of new work by its active members. In addition, every year the organization commissioned a print to be created by one of its members. The Prairie Print Makers brings together a complete set of the gift prints issued by this pioneering graphics society and presents a distinguished chapter in the history of art making in the Midwest to museum visitors nationwide.

The 34 gift prints in ExhibitsUSA's The Prairie Print Makers exhibition were issued during the life of the organization (1931-1965) and run the gamut of traditional printmaking techniques: lithographs, etchings, drypoints, aquatints, wood engravings, and color woodblocks.

These "gift prints" were published in limited editions and distributed strictly to the group's membership. Thanks to a generous gift from a Mid-America Arts Alliance director, ExhibitsUSA has been able to purchase a complete set of these prints and in association with Phillips Petroleum Company, can now provide the public an opportunity to see all of the group's gift prints exclusively.

In addition to providing vital underwriting support for the development of the exhibition and related educational materials, including programming guides and teacher/docent packets, Mid-America Arts Alliance's relationship with Phillips Petroleum Company provides ExhibitsUSA the opportunity to reduce exhibition costs and subsidize outreach activities for local organizations in underserved communities throughout the Midwest.

Mid-America Arts Alliance Executive Director, Henry Moran states, "In the spirit of the Prairie Print Makers, ExhibitsUSA has a longstanding record and an overwhelming interest in making high-quality exhibition experiences available to communities of all sizes and characteristics throughout the country. Similarly, Phillips Petroleum Company has a long history of giving to the communities in which it operates and working to improve the quality of life in the region. With this sponsorship, they are taking an active role in providing small and mid-size institutions in the heartland an otherwise unavailable opportunity to bring The Prairie Print Makers to their communities."

The Prairie Print Makers is scheduled to open in May, 2001 at the Price Tower Arts Center in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, where Phillips Petroleum Company is headquartered.

Mid-America Arts Alliance, founded in 1972, is a private, nonprofit arts organization. Today, its activities encompass regional, national, and international performing arts touring programs, traveling exhibitions, and related services. ExhibitsUSA, a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance, was founded in 1988 to create access to an array of arts and humanities exhibitions, nurture the development and understanding of diverse art forms and cultures, and encourage the expanding depth and breadth of cultural life in local communities. Over the past twelve years, more than 12 million visitors in 786 communities in all 50 states and abroad have viewed an ExhibitsUSA exhibition.

Phillips Petroleum Company is a fully integrated worldwide petroleum company with approximately 14,800 employees, $20 billion in assets, and $20 billion of annualized revenues.

For information on scheduling The Prairie Print Makers, contact ExhibitsUSA at 1-800-473-3872 or visit the ExhibitsUSA website at www.eusa.org.

For information regarding exhibition sponsorship opportunities, contact Lisa Cordes at Mid-America Arts Alliance at (816) 421-1388.