On April 13th and 14th, 2012, Mrs. Clark will bring her expertise in historic clothing construction to the Historic Woods Chapel Church  in Lee’s Summit MO for a workshop that will focus on women’s clothing in the 1850-1860 time frame.  This will be a great workshop for re-enactors, historic interpreters, historic clothing enthusiasts, costume designers, museum curators or anyone else with an interest in historic clothing.  Come learn the ‘why’ as well as the ‘how’ of historic dressing.

Elizabeth Stewart Clark is an historic clothing enthusiast, designer, author, and instructor, specializing in American clothing for women and children in the mid-19th century.  She began sewing early in life, and discovered a facility for design and construction, in addition to the ability to ‘translate’ period instructions for modern use.  She is quick to reassure the beginner, and adds depth to the knowledge of experienced students, and enjoys working with sewists and enthusiasts of all ages.

Please share the attached flyer that details the contents of this workshop and registration information with your staff, volunteers and any other historic clothing enthusiasts you know.

The Kansas Museums Association invites you to submit session proposals that explore the successes, challenges and opportunities available to Kansas museums.  We are seeking sessions related to collaboration, marketing and public relations, collections care, exhibits, education, volunteer management and any other topic related to the diverse and dynamic work of museums.

Deadline – April 15, 2012

Sessions_RFP_ 2012

Exhibit Opens February 3rd and continues through March 10th at The Butler County History Center, Home of the Kansas Oil Museum.

Red Desert, Green Prairie, Blue Sky: Photographing the West opens this week at The Butler County History Center, 383 E. Central, El Dorado, KS.  This striking photography exhibition documents the cultural landscape of the Great Plains, featuring the Red Desert of Wyoming, the prairie of Central Kansas, and the Llano Estacado of northwest Texas and eastern New Mexico.

These three regions belong to the arid expanse of the United States between the Missouri River and Rocky Mountains that was known as the Great American Desert in the 1800s because of the fragile, hostile character of the land. Perceived as an inhospitable wasteland, the High Plains did not attract European American settlers until the 1860s.

George Jerkovich’s panoramic scenes memorialize the diversity of the Kansas prairie—from the rolling hills of the Dakota Sandstone region to the flat, semi-arid plains. Alternatively his photographs capture the evolution of Kansas agriculture from family farms to agribusiness as reflected in images of sunflower-dotted green prairies, expansive wheat fields, and dying small towns.

The Butler County History Center is hosting a variety of events throughout the month of February.  An opening reception will be held on Friday, February 3rd, from 5-6 pm for members only, and 6-8 pm for the public.  The opening will feature Flint Hills poetry and light refreshments.  Celebrate Kansas! Family Day, will be held on Saturday, February 4th, from 1-3 pm.  Children’s activities, demonstrations, and history interpreters will be featured throughout the day.  Additionally, on Thursday, February 23rd, from 6:30-8:30, the museum is presenting another exhibit, Flint Hills Artist Showcase, in which there will be guest speakers, live music, cider and cookies.  All events are free and held at BCHC, 383 E. Central, El Dorado, KS 67042.  For additional information, please call 316.321.9333. Also visit www.kansasoilmuseum.org.

The exhibition is organized and toured by ExhibitsUSA, a national program of Mid-America Arts Alliance. ExhibitsUSA sends more than 20 exhibitions on tour to more than 100 small- and mid-sized communities every year. Mid-America is the oldest nonprofit regional arts organization in the United States. More information is available at www.maaa.org and www.eusa.org.

Red Desert, Green Prairie, Blue Sky: Photographing the West Flyer

The area surrounding the Kansas Wetlands & Wildlife National Scenic Byway is internationally recognized for its abundance of wildlife.  However, it is also a land rich in history and culture.  The seven communities linked along the byway corridor, Stafford, St. John, Hudson, Great Bend, Elinwood, Claflin and Hoisington – each contain fascinating stories about the people who settled here.

One of the stories that binds all these communities together is the mass immigration of the African Americans following the Civil War. It was called the Kansas Fever  Exodus, a name taken from the Bible, as in “the flight of the Israelities from Egypt.”  Theirs marked one of the most remarkable migrations in the United States, following the Civil War.  Those who participated were called Exodusters.

To find out more about this remarkable time in history, receive a brochure, or schedule a group tour please contact our office by calling (620)792-2750.

The Exoduster brochure is also available as a download at our websites www.visitgreatbend.com and www.kansasbyway.com. Also see http://byways.org/stories/81685

A Discussion with Artist Samella Lewis and Collectors Harmon and Harriet Kelley

Presented by the Friends of Wichita Art Museum (WAM) and The Kansas African American Museum (TKAAM)

Please join us on Saturday, February 18 for an afternoon with artist, art historian, curator and professor, Dr. Samella Lewis.  Lewis has spent her life in the pursuit of and the promotion of African American art and artists. She has completed four degrees, five films and seven books all while creating a substantial body of her own art. Joining her will be distinguished collectors of African American art, Harmon and Harriet Kelley.

Begin with appetizers and a wine social at The Kansas African American Museum. While there, enjoy TKAAM’s Samella Lewis Collection. Then travel to WAM to enjoy a tour of WAM’s exhibition entitled The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art, and a discussion with Dr. Lewis and the Kelleys, followed by a short reception in the S. Jim and Darla Farha Great Hall. The discussion will touch on a variety of topics including the role African American art has played in shaping the American identity. The lecture and receptions are free and open to the public.

Dinner will be available in the Muse, by reservation only; call 316.268.4973.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

• Appetizers and Wine Social at TKAAM at 2 pm
• Tour WAM’s exhibition at 4 pm
• Round Table Discussion in WAM’S Howard E. Wooden Lecture Hall at 4:30 pm
• Dinner is available at WAM’s Muse Cafe at 6 pm

Lecture provided by the  Friends of the Wichita Art Museum Endowment – Howard E. Wooden Lecture Series

TKAAM is located at 601 North Water Street. Free parking is available in the parking garage directly across from the Museum. For more information about The Kansas African American Museum visit tkaamuseum.org.

The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art is on view at the Wichita Art Museum from February 19 through May 13, 2012. For more information about the Wichita Art Museum visit wichitaartmuseum.org.

Buenos Aires, Argentina artist, Miguel Angel Giovanetti will show works from his “Open Shapes and Ovals” series. The “Open Shapes” pieces are geometric interpretations of a vest as homage to the futurist vests that were designed by the artist Fortunato Depero in the 1920′s. Because of the strong colors that contrasted with the gray of the suits worn at the time, they were very imposing. The oval is an ideal reference to the vest and the straight lines he includes complete the composition. Along with the “Open Shapes” series, Giovanetti is working in parallel with his “Ovals” series where he eliminates all the figurative references and uses a great number of ovals that are superimpose and integrated with each other.

Giovanetti’s recent exhibitions include: “Pearl and Stanley Goodman Latin Collection and Recent Acquisitions” from The Latin American Art Collection at The Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL and “Los límites de la Geometría” at the Espacio Cultural Nuestros Hijos, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Fernando Pezzino, instructor in the Department of Modern Languages at Washburn University since 2008, will display works from his “Cultural Fragments Series” which is based on the concept of communication. His work uses a figurative element as a platform to arrive at a geometric abstraction. Fragments of different cultures provide clues and it it up to the viewer to interpret the cultural hints.

Pezzino received his BA degree in Theatre at the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. After moving to the United States, he studied at Arizona State University where he earned his Masters of Arts in Spanish Literature. He recently exhibited his work at the 2011 Miami International Art Fair.

The Opening Reception is scheduled for Friday, February 3 from 5-8 pm.Giovanetti and Pezzino will discuss their works on Thursday, February 9 at 5:30pm in the first floor galleries of the Museum.

The Mulvane Art Museum is located at 17th and Jewell Streets on the campus of Washburn University.Museum, ArtLab and Gift Shop hours are Tuesday 10-7, Wednesday-Friday 10-5, Saturday and Sunday 1-4.

Admission to the Museum and the ArtLab are free and open to the public. Free parking is conveniently located to the west of the Museum. For more information call 785.670.1124 or check the web site at www.washburn.edu/mulvane.

Kansas City (MO)… The National Archives at Kansas City will host Diane Mutti Burke on Wednesday, February 22 at 6:30 p.m. for a discussion of her book On Slavery’s Border: Missouri’s Small Slave-holding Households, 1815-1865. Mutti Burke will be available to sign copies of the book after the discussion.  A 6:00 p.m. reception will precede the event.

Mutti Burke focuses on the Missouri counties located along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers to investigate small-scale slavery at the level of the household and neighborhood. She examines such topics as small slaveholders’ child-rearing and fiscal strategies, the economics of slavery, relations between slaves and owners, the challenges faced by slave families, sociability among enslaved and free Missourians within rural neighborhoods, and the disintegration of slavery during the Civil War. Mutti Burke argues that economic and social factors gave Missouri slavery an especially intimate quality. Owners directly oversaw their slaves and lived in close proximity with them, sometimes in the same building. White Missourians believed this made for a milder version of bondage. Some slaves, who expressed fear of being sold further south, seemed to agree.

Mutti Burke reveals, however, that while small slave-holding created some advantages for slaves, it also made them more vulnerable to abuse and interference in their personal lives. In a region with easy access to the free states, the perception that slavery was threatened spawned white anxiety, which frequently led to violent reassertion of supremacy.

Copies of On Slavery’s Border: Missouri’s Small Slave-holding Households, 1815-1865 will be available for purchase via The Kansas City Store onsite.  For more information or to make a reservation for this free event call 816.268.8010.

About the author:

Diane Mutti Burke is an associate professor of History at the University of Missouri- Kansas City.  Currently she is editing and annotating the diary of a 19th century Missouri woman named Paulina Stratton for publication, as well as co-editing, with Jonathan Earle from the University of Kansas, a collection of scholarly essays on this region’s history during the era of the Civil War. Mutti Burke was born and raised in Kansas City and earned a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and her master’s and doctorate from Emory University.

The National Archives at Kansas City is one of 13 facilities nationwide where the public has access to Federal archival records. It is home to historical records dating from the 1820s to the 1990s created or received by Federal agencies in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.  For more information, call 816.268.8000 or visit
www.archives.gov/central-plains/kansas-city.

National Archives at Kansas City
Serving the Central Plains Region
400 West Pershing Road
Kansas City, Missouri 64108

For More Information:  Kimberlee Ried, 816.268.8072

You have heard of a flash mob, during which a group of individuals suddenly begin singing the Hallelujah Chorus in the middle of a shopping mall?  Well the Kansas Aviation Museum is slated to hold the first ever, world-debut of the flash exhibit.  It is believed that nothing of this nature has ever been done anywhere on the planet before now.

On Saturday, February 18th and 19th, the KAM will feature a two day exhibition of items from the personal collection of Olive Ann Beech of Beechcraft fame.  That morning, a host of the artifacts will be placed on temporary exhibit in the KAM conference room and exhibit area.  At 1pm, the room will be closed for one half hour while all new artifacts are put in place: an entirely new exhibit.  Then at 5pm, the second round of artifacts will be replaced once again for the Sunday exhibition.  Hence, visitors would have a chance to see three, separate exhibits over the course of two days.

Artifacts to be displayed include the personal suitcase of Mrs. Beech, private letters, photographs, wall-hangings, newspaper clippings and the like.

Regular admission applies although anyone with a receipt from Saturday will be admitted on Sunday for two dollars off each ticket when they return.

Regular admission is:

• $8.00 Adults
• $7.00 65+
• $6.00 Ages 4-12
• 3 and under free

Hours of operation are 10am to 5pm Saturday and noon to 5pm on Sunday.

For more information on this exhibit, call 316.683.9242 or toll free 877.683.9242.

Kansas Aviation Museum
3350 S. George Washington Blvd.
Wichita, KS  67210

www.kansasaviationmuseum.org

Position Description

Butler County History Center and Kansas Oil Museum is seeking a well-qualified and dynamic individual who will lead the organization in the next stage of its development.  This individual will be expected to expand community participation, enhance visitor experience, and grow resource capabilities all in accordance with the museum’s strategic plan.