In retirement Tom Hinson never bragged about his high-powered career shuttling photography into fine art

Tom Hinson was a reserved man who during his decade in Truth or Consequences seldom talked about his career acquiring contemporary art for the prestigious Cleveland Museum of Art and developing its collection of photography.

Hinson, 80, died May 29 from cancer in Tucson where he and his spouse, Diana Tittle, moved after selling their Truth or Consequences home in 2023. 

“He loved to help people understand art and expose them to great works of art. That was his bliss,” Tittle said. “He would say, ‘The world doesn’t need another bad artist. It needs good art appreciation.’”

Hinson grew up in the small east Texas town of Henderson thinking he would become an architect, but after studying architecture and art history at the University of Texas at Austin, decided he would look into a career in museums instead.

In an interview published in Cleveland Art in 2011, Hinson talked about taking his first a museum job in Toledo, Ohio, then getting a master’s degree at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. After becoming assistant to the curator of modern art at the Cleveland Museum of Art and being assigned to manage the May Show, an annual exhibit of works by Ohio artists, the museum director asked him, “Do you know what you’re getting into?”

Apparently, he did. Hinson rose quickly through the ranks. As acting head of the modern art department and curator for contemporary art, he helped the museum acquire works by Anselm Kiefer, Andy Warhol and Arthur Dove. Hinson also began to work on bringing photography into the museum’s collection, which began with works by Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Curtis. Photos by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Margaret Bourke-White, Walker Evans, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Minor White and Paul Strand are among the 3,000 added to the museum’s holdings during his watch. Hinson became the museum’s first curator of photography in 2000.

“We wanted to show the span of a career,” Hinson said in an interview published by cleveland.com.  “You’d have six, 10, 20 things by a given artist, so the audience would get some sense of what a given photographer was up to,”

Hinson was wary of Tittle when they first met while she researched a story for Cleveland Magazine on the museum’s director. The museum’s PR director had warned him not to be candid with “the hatchet lady of Cleveland journalism.” A few years later, they met again when Tittle was starting a new magazine on arts and culture. They married in 1980. For much of their life together, they lived in Chesterland near Cleveland. Tittle wrote books about history and urban issues from her home office. Hinson commuted into the city until retiring at the end of 2010. 

They initially thought about moving to Las Cruces, but after finding a property along the Rio Grande in Truth or Consequences to rent for a month one winter, then two months the next, they bought a place in the hot springs district and began fixing it up. After 40 years in a big city, they appreciated living in a small, walkable, friendly town where they could walk their Golden Retriever Allie around town. Hinson served as treasurer of the Sierra County Democrats. He occasionally wrote about photography in the Sierra County Sun, edited by Tittle and published by the Sierra County Public-Interest Journalism Project. She later served on the board of the project which now publishes the Sierra County Citizen. 

Hinson was never happier than when he was preparing a good meal at home, often while listening to jazz or blues. His favorite dishes were Texas chili without beans and gumbo with shrimp and sausage. Tittle would copy recipes from the New York Times for Hinson to try. If they liked it, it went into their folder of “keepers.” The couple traveled widely, both domestically and to other countries. Their last trip was in April to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.