Author: Ranjit Arab

The Writing Now, Reading Now series returns this Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 19 at the Ulrich Museum. For this edition, award-winning poet and member of the Wichita State Creative Writing Faculty Sam Taylor will read from his latest book “The Book of Fools: An Essay in Memoir and Verse.”

The program begins at 5:30 p.m. with a reception followed by the poetry reading at 6:00 p.m. The event is free to the campus community. Taylor has requested that guests wear masks.

“The Book of Fools” is a sweeping elegy about Earth—and our plastic-choked oceans. Visually arresting and formally innovative, it marries global, ecological themes of loss, centered around the Great Pacific Garbage Gyre, to personal, confessional ones, surrounding a mother’s early death to cancer.

Writing Now, Reading Now is a series curated by the Wichita State Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program that brings celebrated poets and writers from around the country to read in the Ulrich Museum. Recent readings have been given by such noteworthy writers as Jericho Brown, Ilya Kaminsky, Samantha and Lee Chang. Writing Now, Reading Now is sponsored by the Department of English and the Ulrich Museum.

An Ulrich Museum of Art public art project created at the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic has been honored with a Special Project-Group Award by The Arts Council. The Ulrich was named among 12 outstanding local individuals, cultural organizations and businesses that were recognized for their roles in furthering the growth and development of arts in Wichita. The award will be presented to the Ulrich staff at the 2021 Art Awards ceremony in November.

The Ulrich + Artists + You Community Billboard Project took place from July to November 2020 and consisted of 20 billboards featuring prominent pieces from the museum’s permanent collection. The billboards were placed in various locations throughout Wichita and the surrounding area, from busy intersections to typically overlooked neighborhoods. The result was a public art project that made art accessible to Wichitans at a time when the museums were closed to the public.

Ulrich Director Leslie Brothers, who created the concept for the unique project, said it was a way to transcend the challenges imposed by COVID-19.

“We are thankful for the nomination and thrilled to receive the award,” Brothers said. “The billboard project was a way to stay connected to our patrons while reaching out to all our communities. We anticipated that many might not know of the Ulrich as an educational resource with an amazing collection open to everyone, so, for six months, we placed billboards in neighborhoods all over the city to send a message that they matter.”

In selecting works, the Ulrich focused on three categories: pieces by established and highly respected Wichita or Kansas artists whose works are in the museum’s collection, including Patrick Duegaw, Terry Evans, Ann Resnick and Larry Schwarm; works by artists in the collection with strong Wichita or Kansas ties such as Kevin Mullins and Gordon Parks; and works by a culturally- and racially-diverse array of both American and international artists from the collection, including Benny Andrews, Alice Aycock, Luis Cruz Azaceta, Romare Bearden, Gajin Fujita, Robert Indiana, Zhang Huan, Louise Nevelson, Alan Rath, Faith Ringgold, Hank Willis Thomas, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Matika Wilbur and JeongMee Yoon.

Along with placing the billboards around Wichita, the project also partnered with the popular museum app Smartify to give visitors in-depth information about the billboards at the location and curated Spotify playlists to listen to while driving to the billboards. The project also featured an online programming series, called Ulrich Virtual, which provided free Zoom talks by many of the billboard artists that viewers could watch from the comfort of their own homes. Those talks are now available on the Ulrich Museum’s YouTube channel.

The shutdown has been lifted and the billboards are no longer up, but their popularity remains. Given their effectiveness in reaching new audiences and generating excitement about art, the museum isn’t ruling out the possibility of creating another billboard project sometime in the near future.

“It’s something we’ll definitely consider,” Brothers said. “It would have to be something slightly different, a new angle, but now we know it’s a great way to represent the museum among our community.”

The Ulrich Museum invites you to a discussion with “Love in the Time of the Anthropocene” exhibition artists, photographers Terry Evans and Philip Heying, and painter A. Mary Kay at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5 at the museum. There will be a reception at 5:30 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.

Evans, Heying and Kay will be joined by Ulrich curator Ksenya Gurshtein. The group will discuss their diverse approaches to understanding the complexity of the Flint Hills’ unique and dwindling ecosystem, as well as reflecting on their deep and enduring love for the prairie environments that surround them

“The Voices from the Vault” series is back at 6 p.m. tonight, Sept. 28, at the Ulrich Museum of Art. The event will discuss the art of the 1990s as examined by artist Nancy Davidson. There will also be a live stream of the program.
 
Davidson is a sculptor, installation artist and photographer who uses inflated weather balloons to challenge the notions of contemporary monumental sculpture while simultaneously repurposing comedic tropes of bodily mass, fleshiness, and beauty. Her piece, Buttress (pictured above), in the Ulrich’s permanent collection, will be temporarily displayed at the museum during the event and shortly thereafter.

Davidson will examine the social and political reverberations of important topics in the 1990s, namely third-wave feminism, which continues to resonate today. Her work has been exhibited at the Krannert Art Museum, Illinois; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Pennsylvania; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

Funding for “Voices from the Vault” is provided by Humanities Kansas, a nonprofit organization that connects communities with history, traditions and ideas to strengthen civic life.

It’s time again for another Family Fun Day at the Ulrich Museum of Art, 1-3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 25. The event is free and open to the public.

The theme for this year’s event will be Around the Neighborhood: Feathers, Blocks, and Tweets, which connects to the Ulrich’s current bird-themed exhibition, “Look, it’s daybreak, dear, time to sing.” Bring the family for an afternoon of hands-on art-making, stories and discoveries about the treasures in our neighborhoods, the birds that live amongst us and the shapes found in our environment. Masks are strongly recommended.

The Ulrich Museum at Wichita State University is hosting Dr. Eva Gartnerová, a scholar from the Czech Republic, for the 2021-2022 academic year as a Fulbright visiting scholar. While here, Gartnerová will study the university art museum and learn how it engages with its various communities, including people on campus, local school children, and the public at-large.

Gartnerová hopes to apply what she learns here back in the Czech Republic, where universities are just now looking into setting up art museums. Though the Czech Republic does have galleries, none of them host permanent collections, nor do they typically host programs. She said she chose to observe the Ulrich because it excels in both of those areas.

“You have a wonderful collection and a large schedule of programs, working with the community,” said Gartnerová. “Your museum is part of the national networks.”

Along with taking field notes at Museum programs, Gartnerová will develop a questionnaire she hopes to share with visitors, and she also has plans to conduct focus groups.

Ulrich Director Leslie Brothers said she was excited to have the Fulbright scholar at the museum.

“We are thrilled to be hosting Dr. Gartnerová as she researches how American university art museums are valued, and the role they play on college campuses and in their communities,” Brothers said. “We look forward to working with her.”

Although Wichita and the Ulrich will serve as Gartnerová’s base location throughout the year, she will also spend time observing other art museums, including the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas and the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma.

Gartnerová says she’s happy to get settled in Wichita and begin observing the museum’s practices. She also believes there is a potential to develop an art tourism market in the Midwest for Europeans interested in getting off the beaten path of the usual museums on both U.S. coasts.

“It’s a huge campus and everyone has been so nice, so hospitable,” Gartnerová said.

Wichita State’s Ulrich Museum of Art will host a celebration for its fall 2021 exhibitions 5-8 p.m., today, Aug. 26.

The two new exhibitions — “Love in the Time of the Anthropocene” and “Look, it’s daybreak, dear, time to sing” — both address pressing environmental themes.

The celebration is free and open to the public. Masks are strongly recommended. For more information, contact 316-978-3664 or ulrich@wichita.edu.

Looking to spruce up your walls? The Ulrich Museum of Art is giving away free wall posters of the Romare Bearden print “Tidings,” which is part of the museum’s permanent collection.

Attend the at discussion at 6 p.m.on Aug. 19 with Curator Sylvie Fortin and artists Richard Ibghy and Marilou Lemmens and pick up a free 18-by-24-inch wall poster. On the backside, you’ll find a handy calendar of our upcoming programs and events.

The talk with Ibghy, Lemmens, and Fortin is related to the Ulrich’s exhibition, “Look, it’s daybreak, dear, time to sing,” which is on display at the museum from Aug. 19 through Dec. 4. The exhibition features the works of Canadian artists Richard Ibghy and Marilou Lemmens as they explore points of contact between birds and humans in an effort to expand the meaning of hospitality, care, communication, and attentiveness between species.

Come check out this interesting talk and pick up a lovely wall poster while you’re there.

Wichita State’s Ulrich Museum of Art is now hiring for both part-time gallery guards and event staff. Applicants will need to work Monday and Wednesday mornings and Saturdays, in addition to afternoons, evenings and weekend events as needed.

Students interested in the position should complete this application form (PDF) and submit it to Carolyn Copple no later than Friday, Aug. 27.

Rethinking our relationship with the natural world is the common thread between the two new fall exhibitions 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday Aug.19-Dec. 4. at the WSU’s Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University. The exhibitions are as follows:

Love in the Time of the Anthropocene: Terry Evans, Philip Heying, and A. Mary Kay — The term Anthropocene refers to the concept that humans are the most powerful force shaping living conditions on Earth right now. Working from this perspective are three artists with deep connections to Kansas. Terry Evans and Phillip Heying, both photographers, and A. Mary Kay, a painter, turn their gazes on the prairie environment emblematic of the Great Plains. Although they work in diverse and divergent ways, all three artists expose the beauty of this ecosystem, the wide array of human and non-human creatures that share it and the complexity of the ties that connect us. The works in this exhibition form an expansive and profound tribute to their subjects and remind us of the emotional rewards of a close connection to the land at hand.

Look, it’s daybreak, dear, time to sing: Richard Ibghy and Marilou Lemmens — Canadian artist duo Richard Ibghy and Marilou Lemmens present works that explore points of contact between birds and humans in an effort to expand the meaning of hospitality, care, communication and attentiveness between species. The exhibit is comprised of interrelated bodies of sculptural and video work and pays particular attention to human coexistence with nature in the Great Plains. In Wichita, the exhibition will be accompanied by several exciting programs created in partnership with local organizations that promote care for the environment and the animal.

Admission to the Ulrich is free. For more information, visit the museum’s official website.