Now Showing: Newest Exhibits At Wichita Museums

From Visit Wichita:

November 4, 2020

Winter in Wichita means more time inside, fortunately we have a variety of museums to explore year-round.

Wichita museums are affordable and some are even free (as noted below). They offer ever-changing exhibits and displays, including national traveling exhibitions and temporary displays of featured works from their impressive permanent collections.

While our museums have reopened with COVID-19 protocols, many also offer online tours and resources for those who aren’t yet ready to explore in person. Remember, it’s always a good idea to call in advance or check online to confirm hours. Visit museum websites for details on each site’s safety protocols and any requirements of visitors (such as required masks or advance reservations and ticket purchases).

Here’s a look at current exhibitions as of November 2020 and a few that are opening soon:

Frank Lloyd Wright's Allen House

The annual Holiday Wright Style at Frank Lloyd Wright's Allen House is Nov. 13-14, extending to two days in order to space out attendance and allow for distancing. This is your chance to step back to 1918 and celebrate the holidays as a guest of Henry and Elsie Allen, for whom Frank Lloyd Wright built the prairie style house.

The home is decked with seasonal trimmings of the era, music is playing and a signature drink is served on the terrace. Holiday shopping is located in the Gilded Garage Gift Shop, which also offers hot chocolate.

This special walk-through, self-guided experience includes access to the main floor, gardens and garden house only to avoid cross traffic on the second floor. Tickets are $20 per person and must be purchased online in advance and each entry time is limited to 10 guests.

The Allen House also continues to offer standard and grand tours Wednesday through Saturday. Each tour is limited to four guests and reservations are available online. Groups of up to eight guests from the same household can book a private tour on the days the house is normally open. Call 316-687-1027 to schedule. Also visit the website to see safety precautions being implemented at the house.

CityArts

“A Celebration of Mixed Media” is an exhibition at CityArts through Nov. 25 that features work by Michelle Nooney, a self-taught Wichita artist who uses different mediums and techniques to capture the spirit of her subjects on canvas, watercolor paper and drawing paper. Her artwork is part of private collections all over the country, including that of actress Selma Blair.

“334 Invitational” is a group exhibition on display through Nov. 25 and featuring work by 17 local and regional artists, each priced at $334 or less. The number 334 is a reference to CityArts’ Old Town Square address of 334 N. Mead. Artists include: Zach Arroyo, Kayann Ausherman, Charles Baughman, Barbara Behrend, Marc Bosworth, Janet Butler, Elizabeth Corbett, Daniel Gegen, Bill Goffrier, Mark Hennick, Jordan Kirtley, Jan Klassen, Matthew Miller, Tina Thomas, Greg Turner and Ranal Harrell Young.

Visit the CityArts website (under Galleries) to tour these exhibitions online.

B-29 Doc Hangar, Education & Visitors Center

B-29 Doc will fly for the final time in 2020 on Veterans Day (Nov. 11) in Wichita before entering the scheduled winter maintenance season. Doc is a historic World War II bomber originally built in Wichita; it is one of only two B-29 aircraft still flying today. Beginning Nov. 14, Doc volunteers will shift to winter maintenance mode, performing annual inspections, engine and full systems checks, as well as other maintenance items that need to be covered during the annual inspections.

Visitors to the center may catch volunteers as they carry out annual inspections and work on Doc’s engines and flight systems in November and December. Doc will be in the hangar and on display for visitors 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. each Tuesday and Thursday (except Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Eve) and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays. New to the hangar this year is a Beechcraft Staggerwing, which is the last serial number Staggerwing built by Beech in Wichita in 1946. Additionally, a Boeing-Stearman Model 75 will be on display at the B-29 Doc Hangar, Education & Visitors Center through December.

Kansas Aviation Museum

The Kansas Aviation Museum, housed in Wichita’s historic airport terminal building, has several new areas for visitors to explore.

The Boeing: Science, Math and History Center reopened this fall after a major update to technology and activities. The museum’s Little Aviator program is free to guests the rest of 2020 thanks to sponsorship from Wells Aircraft. This program is from 10 a.m. to noon on Fridays and allows adult and tots ages 1 to 5 years old to see the museum’s aircraft on the ramp, experience a computer simulator and take part in STEAM activities.

A new Bank of America Air Capital Theater area is near the base of the control tower. Here you can sit down and watch “Wichita: The Air Capital” on a new 84-inch flat screen. The documentary was produced by KPTS-Channel 8, Wichita’s PBS affiliate.

Watch the museum’s social media in the next few weeks for an announcement on two recently restored aircraft that will go on public display.

Exploration Place

Ongoing through Jan. 10, 2021: “Rock U: The Institute of Rock ‘N’ Roll” is the newest national traveling exhibit that is included with general admission at Exploration Place. It’ll be hard to not sing along – or play guitar – while exploring music that changed the world, from Elvis Presley to the Beach Boys and the Beatles.

Ongoing: “Moshe Safdie Study Drawings – Design in Evolution” traces a timeline back to the inception of Exploration Place with sketches and drawings from world-renowned architect Moshe Safdie. Study these never-seen-before sketches of the building’s groundbreaking design by Safdie and breathtaking angles that help you understand how the final structure took shape.

Ongoing: “Bridging Art and Science: Color Out Loud” features art by Mark Arts students inspired by the graphic design culture surrounding rock ‘n’ roll music. Youth and teen painters explored visual interpretations of music ranging from classical to grunge, in dynamic artworks from representational to abstract.

Ongoing: “Sun, Earth, Universe” has returned indefinitely to its home in the Grand Hall at Exploration Place after being on loan to other museums. The exhibit introduces current NASA science research and allows visitors to take off on a journey to investigate the universe.

The Kansas African American Museum

Ongoing through Dec. 23: “Defining Black Wichita Part 2: Heart of the Community 1940s-1970s” continues the first installation of “Defining Black Wichita.” In this exhibition, the museum explores the community’s shift from “The Black Belt” downtown to the “Heart of the Community,” the Historic McAdams/Dunbar neighborhood, beginning at 9th and Cleveland streets and extending to North Grove and Hillside. This migration ushered in a strong sense of solidarity amongst African Americans that bled over into all aspects of life. During this era, residents faced racial inequality head on with the creation of inclusive businesses, pioneering protests and boycotts, and the establishment of community traditions that drew our neighborhoods closer together.

The The Kansas African American Museum will open “Through Our Eyes: Perspectives of African American Art in the 20th Century” on Jan. 4 and it will be on display through March 27.

Mid-America All-Indian Museum

“Unbreakable Code” is on display at the Mid-America All-Indian Museum starting Nov. 7. This exhibition examines the policy developed in the 1940s by the United States military to draft, recruit and train American Indian speakers to become code talkers for WWII.

Mark Arts

Mark Arts’ galleries are open by appointment only 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; admission is free. Call 316-634-ARTS to schedule. Drop-ins can usually be accommodated, but gallery attendance is limited because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Kansas Watercolor Society National Exhibition opens Nov. 20 and runs through Jan. 16 in the Gladys and Karl T. Wiedemann Gallery. Juror David Smith of Minnesota has selected more than 70 works created in this challenging and fluid medium.

Centennial Celebration: The opening of the Kansas Watercolor Society National Exhibition coincides with the 100th anniversary of the arts organization. Twenty four Wichitans gathered on Nov. 20, 1920, for a dinner party where they decided to start the Wichita Art Association, the city’s oldest cultural institution. In celebration of 100 years of tenacity and transformation as an artistic hub, Mark Arts invites visitors to make a reservation to tour the building that day and take home a complimentary commemorative historical booklet. Tune into Facebook Live at 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 20 for the sealing of a time capsule.

“Study Collection: Bruce Moore” is in the School of Creativity Commons through Nov. 27. Moore was an internationally acclaimed sculptor and native Kansan who initiated the sculpture department at the Wichita Art Association (which later became the Wichita Center for the Arts and today is Mark Arts). He taught there from 1932-34. This exhibit includes works from the art center’s study collection.

An exhibition featuring the work of Mark Arts instructors Babs Mellor (sculpture) and James Gross (abstract) will appear Dec. 4-Jan. 22 in the School of Creativity Commons

The Oil Painting National Exhibition is scheduled for Jan. 29-March 27 in the Gladys and Karl T. Wiedemann Gallery.

Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum

Seasonal exhibitions: Several exhibitions in the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum are relevant to this time of year, and the museum also brings out additional seasonal artifacts, from the immersive Victorian Cottage exhibit to Sylvia Jackson’s miniature Christmas trees on display in the 2nd floor West Gallery. Select pieces from the extensive Moore Family collection of vintage plush Santa Clauses return to the Main Street case where they are exhibited in an environment of jewel-like holiday trees created by Felicia Serrioz. The automatronic “Macy’s Santa” who waved to passersby from the downtown store window during the 1960s also are featured.

Ongoing through June 30, 2021: “Metal to the Pedal” is on exhibit in the Slawson Gallery on the museum’s fourth floor. The exhibition showcases a nearly 50-year span of pedal vehicle manufacturing, from a 1924 fire truck to a 1967 cherry red Ford Mustang. There are 45 vehicles in the exhibition, all from the collection of Wichitan Bob Guenthner. In addition to automobiles and fire trucks there are ambulances, trains, dump trucks, airplanes and boats.

Ongoing through July 2021: “The Artistic Life & Work of Genevieve Frickle” is on display in the Walls Visual Arts Gallery. The exhibit chronicles Frickle’s impact as an independent visual artist, teacher and remarkable figure in the local art and culture scene of midcentury Wichita.

Wichita Art Museum

The Wichita Art Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, and admission is always free on Saturday.

“Foot in the Door: Wichita Artists Make Their Mark” is a whirlwind of images and ideas in one gallery. The exhibition features 570 12-inch by 12-inch artworks, each made by a local Wichita artist eager to get their “foot in the door” at the Wichita Art Museum. Artworks were accepted on a first-come-first-serve basis and admitted based only on their adherence to one major guideline—works must not exceed a square inch in size. With a huge range of artists—young and old, professional and emerging—submitting works in a variety of media, the resulting exhibition is an eclectic, visual feast that testifies to the depth and diversity of Wichita’s artistic talent. Staged in conjunction with the Wichita Art Museum’s 85th anniversary and the 150th anniversary of the City of Wichita, “Foot in the Door” is an unjuried, community wide exhibition that celebrates all artists who call Wichita home.

Ongoing through Jan. 17, 2021: “Preston Singletary: Raven and the Box of Daylight” features one of America’s premiere glass artists in a dynamic, theatrical gallery experience that combines glass art—more than 50 glass sculptures including a monumental glass canoe, glass paddles and glass river—film projection, sound and storytelling. The artist draws heavily on Native American art and themes in his work.

Ongoing through Feb. 14, 2021: “Frances H. Gearhart: Color Block Prints in Wichita” surveys the work of one of the leading color woodcut artists of the early 20th century.

Ongoing through Feb. 28, 2021: “A Tale of Two Women: Louise Caldwell Murdock and Elizabeth Navas” celebrates the two female visionaries responsible for the formation of the Wichita Art Museum. In 1915, Murdock made it her mission to ensure that her hometown would have an art museum, donating her family fortune to the purchase of a “significant collection” of American art. Murdock entrusted Elizabeth Navas, her friend and professional colleague, with the task of assembling the art collection. Together, the two women made an unsurpassable impact on Wichita and the surrounding region that continues today. Commemorating WAM’s 85th anniversary and the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote, the exhibition combines photographs, objects belonging to Murdock and Navas and key Murdock Collection paintings.

“American Art in the 20th Century: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era and Beyond” opens Feb. 6, 2021. This exhibition explores everyday American themes as well as those specific to the African American experience. Created in moments of significant social and political change—from the 1920s jazz age to the 1960s civil rights movement and beyond—each work dazzles visually while also shedding light on the complex American story. “African American Art in the 20th Century” is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University

The galleries at the Ulrich will remain closed until 2021, however there are still ways to enjoy this free museum on the campus of Wichita State University.

Continuing: “10 X 10: Ten Women/Ten Prints” is an online-only exhibition that presents the portfolio published by the Berkeley Art Center in 1995 to commemorate that year’s International Women’s Day and the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the 19thamendment giving women in the U.S. the right to vote (hitting the 100th anniversary milestone in 2020). Each of the portfolio’s ten prints was created by a different artist. All are women, and as a group, they represent the racial and ethnic diversity of the United States. The portfolio was given to the Ulrich in 1996 by WSU’s Center for Women’s Studies, allowing the museum to continue to participate in larger national conversations about the role of feminism and women’s political and social concerns in our culture.

Continuing through Nov. 29: “Alice Aycock in the Studio” can be seen in the museum’s Grafly Gallery by appointment only. Call 316-978-3664 to schedule. The exhibition is a collection of drawings and photographs illuminating the sculptor’s career-long fascinations with capturing the movements of a world in ever-changing motion, understanding the relationship between order and chaos, and identifying the forms, patterns and metaphors that span nature and technology alike. The timing coincides with the Aug. 4 installation of Aycock’s large-scale outdoor sculpture Twister Grande (tall) as the 81st work in the Martin H. Bush Outdoor Sculpture Collection.

Ongoing through November: Ulrich + Artists + You Community Billboard Project is an effort to bring the Ulrich to the community while the museum’s galleries are closed. Through November, 28 works from the Ulrich collection will appear on 20 billboards throughout Wichita. The works chosen evoke themes of heroism and leadership, identity and family, politics and religion, and the precious routines of everyday life. View a map of the billboards and details on additional programming.

Museum of World Treasures

Ongoing: “History from Home” is a new virtual exhibit at Museum of World Treasures curated in May 2020 with the help of Humanities Kansas and community members who submitted their stories, historic photographs and images of artifacts. Three categories are currently available: Military Histories, Family Stories and Creative Collections.

Check out more Wichita area museums and galleries.

This press release was produced by Visit Wichita. The views expressed here are the author’s own.