Retired Northeastern, college art teacher gets solo show

Art teachers widely share their students’ works with their school communities and cheer them on. 

Unfortunately, some teachers never get the chance to have their own solo show in a professional museum.  

However, Ed Thornburg, who inspired many local students to pursue their artistic dreams, now gets the opportunity to fill a Richmond Art Museum gallery with his original works.

RAM staff say in addition to being a beloved art teacher at Northeastern Wayne School Corp., Indiana University East and Earlham College, Thornburg is a multitalented artist across many mediums.

“This, That and the Other: Works by Ed Thornburg” will be open from Aug. 8-Sept. 28.

An opening reception and artist talk is planned from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 8, at the museum, 350 Hub Etchison Parkway, Richmond. 

Thornburg, a Muncie native, attended Burris School and Ball State University in his hometown.

At Ball State, he met his future wife, Judy. After their graduation in 1967, Northeastern Wayne School Corp. hired both as classroom elementary teachers. 

Eventually the pair became art teachers, Ed in Northeastern’s elementary and Judy at its junior/senior high, until their retirements in the early 2000s.

Ed followed his passions of wood carving, blacksmithing, sign painting, cartooning, screen printing and other practices in efforts to augment their family income. 

After her retirement, Judy focused on pastels and dabbled in silversmithing and other art activities. She died in 2018.

From 1981 until 2004, Ed was adjunct professor at IU East and Earlham. 

He started working full-time at IUE and serving as its art gallery director in 2004. At the time of his second retirement, Ed was campus art director.

All the while, he continued to create art.

The solo exhibit will feature Ed’s original paintings, sculpture and carvings, including many works spanning the course of his creative career. Most reflect sentimentality, nostalgia and/or humor.

Like many other artists, Thornburg often intends to treat a common subject in a different and artistic way that surprises the viewer. 

Some of his favorite influential artists include Robert Rauschenberg, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Marc Chagall, Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, Joseph Cornell and Thomas Nast.