How many times have you been traveling, even out of the country, and had an amazing small-world moment when someone asks you where you’re from, then surprises you by mentioning a friend, relative or other connection to your hometown?
One time I was wearing a PowerCat sweatshirt while walking my dog in San Mateo, California, and a woman in a passing car pulled over to tell me her son was a professor of agricultural economics at K-State. She told me about his career and how she hoped I would look him up next time I was in Manhattan. Similarly, a woman from my hometown recently told me that a Guatamalan exchange student she had hosted many years ago recently emailed her from his native country to say he had met some people from Kansas who knew his former host. I can’t even count the number of times someone has said, “Oh, you’re from Hoxie? Do you know …” The conversation always proceeds from there as we explore our connections.
We are wired to explore these connections. Conversations with people we encounter are one way to explore our world and experiences. The same should be understood of art. Dean Mitchell’s works in the exhibition titled “A Place, A Mental Space” give us a glimpse into the lives of the Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community. Conversation with Mitchell’s art helps us think about how the places we know or remember that may be similar — or very different. Sean Starowitz’s D-LAB project enticed us to explore food production and consumption and other topics related to food as we converse with artists, participants, bakers, farmers and others. The Prairie Studies Initiative brings arts leaders, natural and social scientists, and humanities scholars together to stimulate research and to explore the wild and managed landscapes, human culture and creativity of the Great Plains.
I am proud of the role the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art plays in these interdisciplinary projects. Like conversations with strangers that lead to unexpected connections, museum’s exhibitions and activities that explore interrelationships through art are energizing. Our museum has become a force on campus and in the community: It’s known as a place where curiosity and inquiry are welcome, where true collaboration happens.
Members of the Friends of the Beach Museum of Art are prime candidates to maintain such conversations. Our organization was instrumental in building the museum, and it can continue to be a vital source of the energizing collaboration the arts deliver. Thanks for all you’ve done this year to help the Beach thrive. I have been honored to serve as president.
My parting words are these: Arts institutions and higher education need to continue to foster dialog to survive and thrive in an increasingly complex funding environment. Given the budget situation in Kansas, institutions like the Beach Museum of Art and Kansas State University are unlikely to receive the support we think we deserve, and we’ll have to demonstrate our value to keep what we have. The only way to do this is to reach as many people as possible, through many avenues and approaches. The only way is to build those connections, to have those conversations. People will respond.
Sarah Hancock, President
For more information about the Friends of the Beach Museum of Art please visit our website, learn more here.