PANDEMIC PORTFOLIO
KIM CURRY PROJECTS FEBRUARY 2020 THROUGH FEBRUARY 2021
WICHITA ART MUSEUM
Preston Singletary: Raven and the Box of Daylight Sponsor appeal, direct mail, pole banners, sinage, rack card, slides, email, website, special events, activities, newspaper inserts, ads, billboard, teacher’s guide
STORYTELLING
GLASS
IMMERSIVE
STORYTELLING
IMMERSIVE
TLINGIT
Preston Singletary TLINGIT
GLASS
Raven and the Box of Daylight
Preston Singletary Raven and the Box of Daylight A dynamic combination of artwork, storytelling, and encounter On view through Sunday, January 17, 2021
February 1 through August 30, 2020
Preston Singletary FORMLINE ART ACTIVITY The exhibition Preston Singletary: Raven and the Box of Daylight features formline design that is carved into glass. Formline art is the foundation of several Alaska Native tribal designs, including the Tlingit tribe.
at the Wichita Art Museum
Try making your own formline feather.
Through
August 3
COVID closing and reopening
TO KEEP YOU SAFE, PLEASE STAND HERE
WHILE INSIDE THE MUSEUM
Facial covering required.
Social distancing 6 feet required.
24 x 36 sandwich board outside
Wash hands often!
Respect gallery capacities and staff.
HELP KEEP EVERYONE SAFE
Children in strollers or who are carried at all times by an adult are not required to wear facial coverings.
DETOUR Admission Members Adult Admission Seniors 60+ Students with ID Youth ages 5–17 Children under 5
FREE
$10 $5 $3 $3 FREE
Saturday FREE FOR EVERYONE thanks to Colby Sandlian, Sandlian Realty
24 x 36 sandwich board outside
Stay Social
Visit our website wichitaartmuseum.org for updates.
Living Room and Art Studio renovation, walls and windows
Muse Cafe and Museum Store rebrand
the
SPECIALS the
DESSERTS the
COCKTAILS
LITTLE DRINKS
Milk 1.20 Chocolate Milk 1.50 Hot Chocolate 1.75
LITTLE ENTREES QUESADILLA
chicken, cheese, or both + fruit 5
CLASSIC PB&J + fruit 5
BURGER + taters 6
PASTA
buttered with parmesan + buttered toast 5
LITTLE DESSERTS
Chocolate Chip Cookie 1.50
add roasted veggies or fruit to any entree 2
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream single scoop 2
Create your own gallery of masterpieces.
Development
ART ACCESS PEOPLE FOCUSED
WICHITA ART MUSEUM ATTENDANCE
WAM BY THE NUMBERS 81,000+ attend annually
2019 ➔ 2020
The Wichita Art Museum is an important ingredient of Wichita’s vibrant art scene, which helps attract and retain the talented workforce so crucial for the city’s prosperity. Statistics reflect increases from 2012 through 2019 and our momentum toward an even more dynamic art museum and gathering place for Wichita.
MUSEUM ATTENDANCE
MEMBERSHIP has grown at every level
has increased by
TOTAL ATTENDANCE OF 2020 WAS 1/3 OF ATTENDANCE IN 2019
up by
62%
171%
PROGRAM ATTENDANCE has doubled GALLERY-GOING ATTENDANCE IN 2020 WAS 2/3 OF GALLERY-GOING ATTENDANCE IN 2019
THE TAKEAWAY
WAM didn’t offer in-person lectures, films, parties, weddings, holiday celebrations for most of the year in 2020. Focusing on the daily visitor count, museum attendance was down only 1/3 last year.
now up by
79%
YOUTH EDUCATION currently up
100%
FREE SATURDAY ATTENDANCE has steadily grown
Saturday attendance is 40% of total
has seen a participation increase of
69% FACILITY RENTAL income has increased
366%
Rental events motivate later museum visits
WE WELCOME YOUR SUPPORT
A SAFE PLACE TO BE INSPIRED
CULTURE CAN BRING YOU COMFORT
Porogramming
THE KANSAS CHAPTER OF THE
LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS developed these panels to celebrate the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote. They are at WAM from June 16 to June 20 before continuing their 14-month tour through Kansas.
CHARLES M. RUSSELL AND THE AMERICAN WEST The American West has special majesty in its expansive landscape and many cultures. Among legions, Charles Marion Russell (1864–1926) is one of the premier artists of the historic American West.
YOU ARE INVITED Murdock Mixology at the Wichita Country Club
Thursday, February 13 5:30–7:30 pm with optional dinner following
Stories and images of the American West of the 19th- and early 20th-century reflect a fascinating combination of fact and fiction—in the visual arts as well as popular culture. In fact, as Russell painted the West, historians already acknowledged its end. Frederick Jackson famously noted the closing of the frontier and Old West in 1893. In books published from 1907 to 1930, photographer Edward Curtis recorded Native American cultures as they disappeared. Russell’s depictions of the Old West, therefore, weave nostalgia with the artist’s focused storytelling. Viewers see traditions and virtues of the West as Russell envisioned them. Charles Russell grew up in St. Louis and first traveled west in 1880. He lived as a ranch hand and only committed himself fulltime to his art in 1893. He settled in Great Falls, Montana, in 1897. Russell depicted the romance and allure of life in the Wild West, and his scenes of cowboy adventures and American Indian hunting are captivating. They reveal an idealized even glorified slice of the Old West, while this chapter of American history is nuanced, complicated, and was at times lawless and dishonorable. Russell’s firsthand experience outdoors as a ranch hand and with Native Americans lends important authenticity to his distinctive realism, and it contributed to his strong reputation for careful accuracy. As noted historian Barrie Dippie explained, Russell “personified what he portrayed.”
The Wichita Art Museum holds a prized collection by Charles Russell, thanks to the generosity of passionate collector and museum leader M.C. Naftzger (1884–1972) and his family. In Wichita, Naftzger Memorial Park on Douglas Avenue is named for M.C. Naftzger.
Charles M. Russell painting inside the studio, 1910 Image courtesy of the Gilcrease Museum. Tulsa, Oklahoma
Frances H. Gearhart: Color Block Prints in Wichita
YOU ARE INVITED TO A
Lecture and Dinner Thursday, July 23, 2020
COMMUNITY
CREATIVITY
RENOVATION OPENING DAY
EXTRAVAGANZA
SATURDAY APRIL 25 11 AM TO 3 PM Drop by anytime for free admission and activities all day to celebrate a new more welcoming face in our public areas at WAM.
FLEXIBILITY
WE CALL IT THE
EXTRA EXTRAVAGANZA— quite the tongue twister! WAM proudly presents our newly reimagined Living Room along with the newly remodeled main entrance, Boeing Foyer and S. Jim and Darla Farha Great Hall.
FUNCTIONALITY
ART
Complimentary Coffee Break and Live Music 11 am to 3 pm Muse Cafe plus food trucks too!
Film Screening: Museum Hours 1 pm Indie film directOr Jem Cohen crafted a story about art museums’ impact in his critically acclaimed 2012 documentary.
Family ArtVenture 11 am to 3 pm Make-it/take-its for kids and their families
Jay and Leslie: Juggling and Other Nonsense 2 pm Festivities for all ages!
Youth and family events
Alpacas
Line Starts Here Meet Oakley and Victoria, two alpacas from Flatland Ranch. They love to meet new friends! They like being touched gently! Please do not touch their faces or heads.
ARTMAKING THIS WAY “Artmaking This Way” posterboard / cardboard? {up arrow}
22 x 28”
1
OUR SPONSORS
Anniversary Gala
Late Night Snacks: $2,500
Nothing hits the spot like a late-night savory bite or sweet delight. Help keep the party going and the hunger at bay! Your brand will be incorporated in the design for this unique cuisine hot spot. BENEFITS INCLUDED
2 Designer tickets—$500 value Join the dazzling red carpet entry, followed by fashion surprises and entertainment as the night progresses. Company logo included on all printed materials including 3,500+ invitations, marketing materials, museum newsmagazine WAMViews.
Company logo on 25,000 printed inserts in Wichita Business Journal. Company name included on the WAM website with nearly 200,000 annual unique page views. Your company name on the museum’s Annual Donor Wall. Inclusion in Murdock Society activities for one year.
Gloved YOU HAVE OPTIONS
Ga a
On September 26,
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art throws an annual Met Gala that grabs headlines internationally for its fashion and star-power guests. WAM has a vision for a night of haute couture, verve, spectacle, illustrious Wichita party-goers, and all the fine cuisine-and-music accoutrements a party of this import compels.
we’re taking a leaf out of the Met Gala playbook. A night of moxie, savvy, and enterprise.
WAM GALA 2020 will garner essential museum support. In raising funds, the event helps WAM raise the bar for a dynamic, ever prosperous Wichita with a creative community unrivaled in Kansas.
LIFE IS A PARTY, DRESS LIKE IT
Gloved
TICKET LEVELS
Haute Couture Enjoy an early, exclusive dinner with WAM’s leading patrons enchanted, cloistered, and designed to celebrate. This highest ticket level also gives you a front row seat for the evening as the events unfold. $500 DINNER AND SWAG BAG INCLUDED
——AUDREY HEPBURN
Designer | Tickets for the big show! Get a view of the dazzling red carpet up close, followed by surprises and entertainment as the night progresses with an elegant dinner with plenty of room to spread out. $250 DINNER INCLUDED
Fashionista | The party really begins when the Fashionistas arrive. Watch the red carpet from the Circle Drive Grand Entrance marquee space, followed by surprises and entertainment as the evening progresses. $150 DINNER NOT INCLUDED WITH THIS OPTION
Virtual | Attend the gala from the comfort of a private room at the Ambassador Hotel! Enjoy the dazzling red carpet up close, with a videographer as your guide, including Zoom encounters and Instagram stories as the night progresses. $200 ROOM SERVICE PRESENTATIONS INCLUDED
Surveys
Implement Informed Delivery for direct mail
Holiday card, email, signage and digital animation
TODAY
11 toAM 3 PM S E AT I N G C A PAC I T Y
25
ENTRANCE
African American Art in the 20th Century: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond from the Smithsonian American Art Museum Printed materials: Sponsor appeal, invitations, newsletters, programming
African American Art in the 20th Century Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond from the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Wichita Art Museum
February 6 through May 23, 2021
African American Art in the 20th Century Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond from the Smithsonian American Art Museum
February 6 through May 23, 2021
Romare Bearden, Bopping at Birdland (Stomp Time), from the Jazz Series, 1979. Color lithograph on paper, 24 x 33 1/4 inches. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., Gift of Eugene I. Schuster © 2020 Romare Bearden Foundation/ Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
“My purpose is to paint the life of my people as I know it.” —Artist Romare Bearden The Smithsonian American Art Museum holds one of the premier collections of African American art, and the best of the best of this collection will appear at the Wichita Art Museum in winter-spring 2021. The exhibition includes nearly 50 paintings and sculptures by 34 leading artists across seven decades.
Artists Benny Andrews and William H. Johnson speak to the dignity and resilience of people who work the land. Jacob Lawrence and Thornton Dial Sr. acknowledge the struggle for economic justice and civil rights. Sargent Johnson and Loïs Mailou Jones address the heritage of Africa in the United States, and Romare Bearden celebrates jazz and the birth of the blues on American soil. Sam Gilliam and Alma Thomas innovate with color and form to create compelling abstractions. Wichita Art Museum galleries will bristle with powerful works by many luminaries including those named above as well as as Beauford Delaney, Frederick Brown, Palmer Hayden, Norman Lewis, Hale Woodruff, Whitfield Lowell, Renée Stout, Bob Thompson, and others.
The exhibition will pair with strong adult, school, and family programming with many collaborators to deepen community access and impact. The Wichita Art Museum is partnering on coordinated exhibitions and public programs with Arts Partners, The Kansas African American Museum, and the Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University. See program details at wichitaartmuseum.org/africanamericanart.
As a warm welcome to all in Wichita, WAM will offer free admission Saturdays and Sundays throughout the month of February! Weekends will also feature a music compilation of performances by African-Americans Renewing Interest In Spirituals Ensemble (ARISE) with video composition and production by BIGMENTION.
African American Art in the 20th Century is organized by the Smithsonian The combined artworks reveal a sweep of American cultural history from a conscious vantage point of the African American experience. Artists in the show came to prominence from the Harlem Renaissance starting in the 1920s when southern blacks migrated to this urban center and flourished artistically. Sequential chapters follow the 1960s civil-rights era as well as self-taught expression in the rural south and contemporary commentary. Along the way, the beauty as well as hardship of the African American experience are creatively and authentically explored.
“My pictures express my life and experience . . . the things I have experienced extend to my national, racial, and class group. I paint the American scene.” —Artist Jacob Lawrence
American Art Museum. The C.F. Foundation in Atlanta supports the museum’s traveling exhibition program, Treasures to Go. The William R. Kenan Jr. Endowment Fund provided financial support. The Wichita presentation of this exhibition has been generously underwritten by presenting sponsor Emprise Bank. Generous support has been provided by Louise Beren, Berry Foundation, DeVore Foundation, Sharon and Alan Fearey, Sonia Greteman and Chris Brunner, Gridley Family Foundation, and Julie and Bill Nicholson. 2021 exhibitions and public programs are generously supported by the Downing Foundation. All museum exhibitions receive generous sponsorship from the Friends of the Wichita Art Museum and the City of Wichita. Friends of the Wichita Art Museum
African American Art in the 20th Century A Wichita Collaboration Launching in January 2021, Arts Partners, The Kansas African American Museum, Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University, and Wichita Art Museum are excited to announce their citywide partnership, African American Art in the 20th Century: A Wichita Collaboration. Each museum will feature exhibitions that recognize and honor the work of African American artists, including Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, and Kansas native Gordon Parks. With the museums, Arts Partners has developed classroom learning opportunities for students of all ages in concert with these art exhibitions. Each organization will also present a broad range of public programs. For more information on programs organized by community partners, please check their websites listed here.
The Kansas African American Museum
Wichita Art Museum
Through Our Eyes: Perspectives of African American Life in the 20th Century January 5 through April 24, 2021
African American Art in the 20th Century: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond February 6 through May 23, 2021
Derived from The Kansas African American Museum’s permanent collection, Through Our Eyes: Perspectives of African American Life in the 20th Century explores how African American artists experienced shifts in culture, social interaction, and everyday life throughout the 20th century. The 1900s ushered in the greatest social, technological, and industrial changes, and African American artists often served as reporters that documented shifts in our culture and way of life. Through Our Eyes navigates the Harlem Renaissance, the civil-rights movement, life in the south, and beyond. The exhibition includes works by artists such as Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Lois Mailou Jones, as well as Kansas-based artists.
The Smithsonian American Art Museum holds one of the premier collections of African American art, and the best of the best of this collection will appear at the Wichita Art Museum in winter-spring 2021. Nearly 50 paintings and sculptures by 34 African American artists in this exhibition explore everyday American themes as well as those specific to the African American experience, including the struggle for economic and civil rights, the beauties and hardships of life in rural and urban America, and the power of art and music. Featuring artworks by leading 20th-century artists Romare Bearden, Sam Gilliam, Jacob Lawrence, Lois Mailou Jones, Hale Woodruff, and others. African American Art in the 20th Century is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The C.F. Foundation in Atlanta supports the museum’s traveling exhibition program, Treasures to Go. The William R. Kenan Jr. Endowment Fund provided financial support.
tkaamuseum.org
wichitaartmuseum.org/africanamericanart
Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University Renée Stout | Ghosts January 21 through May 8, 2021 Renée Stout (born 1958) is a contemporary American artist whose work is renowned for its thought-provoking and emotionally charged reflections on African American heritage and the broader visual culture of the African diaspora. Through these haunting unique prints, Stout explores the spiritual and medical practices associated with voodoo and hoodoo syncretic holistic belief systems that have been a part of African American life and worldview for centuries and remain an important cultural touchstone to this day.
ulrich.wichita.edu
Arts Partners For more than 20 years, Arts Partners has inspired creativity and learning by using the arts to enhance the classroom experience of Pre-K to 12th-grade students and their teachers in collaboration with visual and performing artists and community cultural organizations. Arts Partners provides learning opportunities for young people through workshops, mini-lessons, performances, and virtual tours that foster authentic connections to African American art forms including visual art, dance, music, storytelling, and academic content. This dynamic slate of activities brings a mix of art and ideas to life. Join us in celebrating Black History and Culture with engaging programs coordinated with schools and cultural organizations across Wichita.
artspartnerswichita.org/blackhistory
PICTURED ON COVER, LEFT TO RIGHT
Frederick Brown, John Henry, 1979. Oil on canvas, 84 x 60 1/8 inches. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., Gift of Gerald L. Pearson
Gordon Parks, Outside Looking In, Mobile, Alabama, Segregation Story, 1956. Photograph; paper, 20 x 16 inches. Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Museum Purchase. © and courtesy of The Gordon Parks Foundation Romare Bearden, Falling Star, 1980. Lithograph, 18/175, 23 x 18 1/4 inches. The Kansas African American Museum, Wichita, Samella S. Lewis Collection
African American Art in the 20th Century: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond from the Smithsonian American Art Museum Slide presentations for Zoom and on-site
African American Art in the 20th Century
African American Art in the 20th Century A Wichita Collaboration
A Wichita Collaboration
African American Art in the 20th Century: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond February 6 through May 23, 2021 The Smithsonian American Art Museum holds one of the premier collections of African American art, and the best of the best of this collection will appear at the Wichita Art Museum.
I, Too, Sing America: African American Art from the Wichita Art Museum Collection March 13 through August 1, 2021 To provide another lens to explore these collection treasures, Wichita's arts and culture leaders will share their insights as African Americans into the art on view in gallery wall text.
I, Too, Sing America: African American Art from the Wichita Art Museum Collection
Through Our Eyes: Perspectives of African American Life in the 20th Century January 5 through April 24, 2021
WICHITA ARTISTS AND CREATIVES
respond in wall texts with contributors
ROMARE BEARDEN Bopping at Birdland (Stomp Time), from the Jazz Series, 1979. Color lithograph on paper, 24 x 33 1/4 inches. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., Gift of Eugene I. Schuster © 2020 Romare Bearden Foundation/ Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Gordon Parks | I, too, am America
Renée Stout | Ghosts
January 21 through May 8, 2021
January 21 through May 8, 2021
Paris Cunningham Anthony Joiner Janice Thacker
Timothy Jones Carla Eckels Ellamonique Bacchus
African American Art in the 20th Century Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond African American Art in the 20th Century is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The C.F. Foundation in Atlanta supports the museum’s traveling exhibition program, Treasures to Go. The William R. Kenan Jr. Endowment Fund provided financial support. The Wichita presentation of this exhibition has been generously underwritten by presenting sponsors Koch Family Foundation and Emprise Bank. Generous support has been provided by Louise Beren, Berry Foundation, DeVore Foundation, Sharon and Alan Fearey, Sonia Greteman and Chris Brunner, Gridley Family Foundation, Kristin and Will Price, and Julie and Bill Nicholson. 2021 exhibitions and public programs are generously supported by the Downing Foundation. All museum exhibitions receive generous sponsorship from the Friends of the Wichita Art Museum and the City of Wichita.
Friends of the Wichita Art Museum
SARGENT JOHNSON Mask, about 1930–35. Copper on wood base, 15 1/2 x 13 1/2 x 6 inches. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Gift of International Business Machines Corporation
SPEAKER PROGRAMS
African American Art in the 20th Century Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond
COMMUNITY OUTREACH Educators’ Guide
+
Virtual Tours
Dr. Kevin Harrison Artist Talk: The Breathe Project Tuesday, February 23
Connie Choi Curator Talk: Benny Andrews— Art and Activism Thursday, February 25
John Edwin Mason The Sounds They Saw: Artists, Photographers, and Jazz in the Harlem Renaissance and Beyond Thursday, March 11
Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw Curator Talk: Sargent Johnson's Invisible Woman Thursday, March 25
BENNY ANDREWS Left: Viola Andrews, 1986. Oil and collage on linen, 68 x 48 inches. Wichita Art Museum, Museum purchase, Burneta Adair Endowment Fund Right: Portrait of the Black Madonna, 1987. Oil and collage on canvas, 36 x 48 inches. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., Gift of the Andrews Humphrey Family Foundation
African American Art in the 20th Century: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond from the Smithsonian American Art Museum In gallery timeline
African American Art in the 20th Century: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond from the Smithsonian American Art Museum Exhibition signage
CROW MUSEUM OF ASIAN ART
Kim Curry 1031 North Yale Avenue Wichita, Kansas 67208 316-688-1844 kimcurry@aol.com