Thomas Coates

Thomas B. Coates was a painter and visual artist who helped shape Ann Arbor’s art scene in the mid- to late-20th century. He and his wife, painter Jane Leininger Coates, maintained a shared studio for decades; Jane later wrote that Tom was her principal teacher. The pair were active with the Ann Arbor Art Association—appearing in association materials and showing work through its Gallery Shop at 117 W. Liberty—tying their studio practice to the city’s oldest arts nonprofit (now the Ann Arbor Art Center). Beyond the studio, Tom’s eye for image-making carried into educational media: contemporaneous accounts place him at the University of Michigan’s Michigan Media/Television Center, part of the university’s film and video production unit. His impact endured after his death; by 1995 the Ann Arbor Art Center was presenting a “Tom Coates Memorial Award” in local exhibitions, reflecting the esteem with which fellow artists remembered him.