Kansas State University

search

Beach Blog

Author: Kelsey Longpine

Friends of the Beach Museum of Art

Posted on by Kelsey Longpine

The annual greeting to the Friends of the Beach Museum of Art from that year’s President traditionally notes the excitement and resurgence of energy that fall brings to both town and gown in a university community.  The community itself is renewed and charged with excitement and activity as students return to make their lives here in Manhattan.

Getting to know and work together with the lively, engaged, talented people who are the Friends of the Beach Museum Board has been a pleasure and an education to me in the last couple of years, and I encourage everyone who receives this letter to join in more active participation in the work of the Friends. This past year’s organization into subcommittees affords ample scope for many talents—hosting visitors at talks, openings, and performances, participating in educational initiatives and public outreach, engaging in research on how the public uses our galleries, and helping maintain The Meadow. Well-organized, enthusiastic people are always needed for carrying out these activities.

In this era of persistent emphasis on STEM disciplines, it is well to remember that more and more recent research is providing scientific evidence of the central importance and manifold implications of arts education and experience for human development.  Matthew Arnold was not wrong to include among “the powers which go to the building up of human life” the power of beauty, which answers to a profound need in human nature.  In the Beach Museum, we have a unique resource for the cultivation of that aesthetic–and I think I might say psychological– development.  Your ideas, enthusiasm, engagement and support can help us to reach new audiences with all that the Beach Museum has to offer, enhancing its value to clients from the schoolchildren of USD 383 who participate in the now annual Early Expressions art show, to retirees who enjoy recharging their sensibilities at our shows, or on our sponsored trips to other museums and exhibits in the region.

Look forward to a new year of imaginative, intriguing, thought-provoking experiences with the arts, and keep October 7th on your calendar for our Art in Motion Festival.  Quoting our former president, Sarah Hancock,

Invite a friend to join us! Like our college town on move-in day, the Friends experience a jolt of energy when new people arrive. New members keep our perspectives fresh and maintain our role as a strong financial contributor to the museum. Success builds on success. Look for people who feel the same spark you do, and help them grow and connect through the transformation art offers.

– Michael L. Donnelly, president

WHAT’S HAPPENING…BEHIND THE SCENES

Posted on by Kelsey Longpine

Museum Collaborates with Local Programs to Inspire ARTFul Living

Current research shows that participation in the arts can help people develop and retain skills and live happier lives. From improving memory and cognition to stimulating our brains to produce the “reward” hormone dopamine, arts activities can enhance well-being. Under the heading Artful Living, educators at the Beach Museum of Art lead a number of arts activities tailored to adult audiences, including those with special needs. They collaborate with local organizations to provide to senior living facilities and the following programs:

  • The museum provides space and programs serving senior facilities for OSHER, a nation-wide life-long learning program for those aged 55 and older, and participates in K-State’s Center on Aging Lecture Series at Meadowlark Hills Retirement Community.
  • SPEEDY PD Art is part of the community-wide Parkinson’s Support Group program which meets at Meadowlark Hills. The Museum provides an annual art talk and weekly art classes during the summer. One benefit of making art for those with Parkinson’s is the production of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that becomes depleted in Parkinson’s patients.  Many of the artworks produced over the summer serve as prizes for the Speedy PD benefit race held in August.
  • ARTFul Memories at Meadowlark Hills Retirement Community is a Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) based program.  On the fourth Wednesday of the month persons with dementia and their care partners are invited to attend an interactive facilitated discussion of art images.  The Meadowlark Memory Program is free and open to the public.
  • Museum educators provide outreach and tours for Big Lakes Developmental Center.

Please contact Kathrine Schlageck or Kim Richards at the museum for more information at 785-532-7718. If you are interested in learning more about Meadowlark Hills public programs for memory and Parkinson’s support contact Michelle Haub at 785-323-3899.

WHAT’S HAPPENING…BEHIND THE SCENES

Posted on by Kelsey Longpine

Prairie Studies Initiative

During fiscal year 2017 the Prairie Studies Initiative (PSI) has continued on-going projects such as the Meadow and the hosting of the annual Tall Grass Artist Symposium, and undertaken new ones as well. Touch the Prairie, an interactive touch screen that links prairie-related artworks in the museum’s collection with natural science information about the prairie ecosystem, has taken on a double life. Programmer/artists Rose Marshack and Rick Valentin were able to further develop Touch the Prairie for installation on a large upright mobile touch screen. The creative work and equipment purchase were made possible by a gift from Jackie Hartman Borck and Lee Borck. The mobile touch screen was unveiled April 1, 2017 on the occasion of K-State Open House, and is now available to visitors in the museum’s galleries. We hope you will check it out on your next visit to the museum.

The touch table, its original platform, will ultimately return to the Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning. Before that, the interactive table will spend the academic year 2017-18 at the offices of the Kansas Board of Regents in Topeka as part of a display titled “Artistry and Innovation” representing the creative cross-disciplinary work of Kansas State University.

A suite of six high resolution photographs of prairie plants with their exceptionally long roots by Lindsborg-based photographer Jim Richardson has become part of the museum’s permanent collection. Two of these prints were part of the reinstallation of the permanent collection, opened last fall as part of a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art.

In May the museum took the lead role in submitting a proposal to the National Endowment for the Arts titled, “What can the arts teach us about communicating STEM content?” Associate Professor Shreepad Joglekar of the department of Art and I serve as co-principle investigators. The Salina-based Land Institute is our required non-arts partner organization; key support for the proposal comes from Todd Holmberg, executive director of McCain Performing Arts, and Dean of Libraries Lori Goetsch. The strong place-based and cross disciplinary focus of proposal activities make it an exciting next step for PSI. Fingers crossed!

– Linda Duke, Director