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Category: Friends of the Beach Museum of Art

Friends of the Beach Museum of Art Updates

Posted on by Kelsey Longpine

The holidays are over, and we find ourselves in the season of self-examination. According to Statistic Brain, the top three New Year’s resolutions for 2014 were losing weight, getting organized, and spending less, followed by enjoying life to the fullest, staying fit and healthy, and learning something exciting. So how did everyone do? Are you making the same resolutions for 2015, or have you conquered weight loss and moved on to something else?

If you attended exhibitions and programs at the Beach Museum of Art last year, you certainly worked toward enjoying life to the fullest and learning something exciting. Think back: You gazed at photography and wood sculpture, you attended the Friends gala, you voted on a Friends acquisition, you admired the new John Steuart Curry painting, you saw a film, you watched a performance, you reaquainted yourself with the permanent collection, you attended an opening reception, you stretched your senses. What will this year bring? I hope as you plan your new year and re-establish your priorities that attending, appreciating, and advocating for activities at the Beach are near the top of your list.

As you’re revisiting your personal priorities, think about our Friends organization, too. At our first meeting back in August, I said we all should be thankful for this group’s wonderful heritage and growth and for the museum it helped build. The best way to honor everyone who worked to build this beautiful institution is to take steps to ensure that it not only survives, but thrives. The Friends thrive when we come to events, help raise funds, and recruit new Friends members. Thriving also requires asking difficult questions with complex answers: What does the Friends need to do to best support the museum? How do we compete or cooperate with other groups to identify those in the community who would like to contribute to the arts?How do we align ourselves with changes that have occurred on our campus and in our community in the last few years? What do we want our group and our institution to be in 5 years? In 10 years?

Kudos to all of you who are working to ask and answer these questions. Thank you for renewing your membership in the Friends of the Beach Museum of Art for another year and for giving your time and resources to support the arts. If you neglected to renew your membership before the holidays, you can still join for calendar year 2015. Put it at the top of your list of resolutions and call the museum to request a KSU Foundation contribution card.

Here’s to a fabulous 2015!

Sarah Hancock, President

[1] www.statisticbrain.com/new-years-resolution-statistics

A Truly Wonderful Night

Posted on by Adrianne Russell

Night of Wonder is a wrap! The Friends of the Beach Museum of Art fundraiser, inspired by the “Museum of Wonder” exhibition, drew nearly 200 guests to the Beach Museum of Art on September 20, 2013.

Art was brought to life as performances, digital media, and sculpture filled the museum’s galleries and grounds. It was especially gratifying to see Kansas State University students and graduates of dance, music, art, and architecture featured so prominently. Their hard work (and that of their instructors) culminated in a fantastic interactive display of creativity.

K-State students & graduates share their talents during Night of Wonder. Photos by Adrianne Russell.

Large-scale events like Night of Wonder couldn’t happen without support. Thanks to the Friends of the Beach Museum of Art, sponsors, vendors, performers, staff, and guests for making it such a magical evening.

A Tale of Wonder

Posted on by Adrianne Russell
Plaster cast of Lorenzo de Medici Sculpture, C. Henneke Co., c.1882 on loan from K-State College of Architecture, Planning & Design. Photo courtesy of Beach Museum of Art.

Today’s post by Sarah Caldwell Hancock is inspired by the upcoming Night of Wonder fundraising gala for the Beach Museum of Art. Sarah grew up in Western Kansas, graduated from K-State in 1994 (B.A., English and Economics) and 1996 (M.A., English), spent a few years on the West Coast, then returned to the Manhattan area in 2004. She works as a technical editor in the Department of Communications and Agricultural Education and lives in the wilds of Pottawatomie County with her husband and two sons. She served the Friends of the Beach Museum of Art as vice president. She enjoys reading, gardening, knitting, cooking, basketball, playing piano, and, of course, the visual and performing arts.

In February of this year, the Beach Museum of Art unveiled an exhibition called “Museum of Wonder” to celebrate K-State’s sesquicentennial. Odd and ends, some beautiful, some just weird, were culled from classrooms, offices, and musty storage closets all around campus, each one a witness to a moment of campus life over the span of 150 years.

The collection was inspired by cabinets of curiosities, or “curios,” amassed by wealthy Europeans beginning in the 16th century. I hope you saw it and that the exhibition did more than just pique your curiosity: To move beyond mere curiosity is to enter the magical realm of wonder.

"Museum of Wonder" exhibition. Personal photo by Adrianne Russell

Lawrence Weschler, author of Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder, an odd book about the Museum of Jurassic Technology, a peculiar collection in East L.A., writes of something called the “Wunderkammer sensibility.” He describes it as “wonder or marvel as upon one of the essential components of the study of nature and the unraveling of its secrets … wonder defined [as it was up to the end of the eighteenth century] as a form of learning—an intermediate, highly particular state akin to a sort of suspension of the mind between ignorance and enlightenment that marks the end of unknowing and the beginning of knowing.”

I can put Wunderkammer in simpler terms. For me, art is a great source of wonder. Art is a beacon that helps me navigate the sometimes-dark passages between unknowing and knowing.

Cow Skeleton on loan from K-State College of Agriculture. Photo courtesy of Beach Museum of Art.

After blue-sky sessions to discuss the type of event we wanted to attend (formal or informal? sit-down or buffet? serious or comic? what type of entertainment? what location?), we settled on a magical circus theme. But when we listened to museum staff discuss the upcoming “Museum of Wonder” exhibition, the Night of Wonder emerged.

We planned an evening that’s a live Wunderkammer: a new curiosity around every corner.

We also found inspiration in local artist Jim Munce’s piece, “The Queen of the Night Makes a Formal Appearance,” which conveys the mysterious rhythm of wonder through its hazy view of a queen, her sceptre, her gazing owl, and references to the wonders of the moon and nature. The Queen watches you from inside our Night of Wonder invitations, and we are so grateful to Jim for his permission to reproduce her.

We knew we needed to look no further than our own campus to find entertainment to provide wonder and sophistication. Kurt Gartner and Laura Donnelly from the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance were enthusiastic collaborators; when we came together, ideas flowed. After 45 minutes of energetic brainstorming, Kurt said, “We have talked all this time and no one has said what we can’t do.”

Kurt and Laura recruited musicians and dancers. Laura then mentioned our project to Vibha Jani in the College of Architecture, Planning & Design. Vibha caught the inspiration and offered her class to provide a signature sculpture for the event. Spark led to spark, and students presented ideas to a subset of our fundraising committee, and we told them what moved us. They refined the project and the results will be on display as an interactive sculpture outdoors on the north side of the museum.

More is in store, but you will need to attend to see.

As I write, my email folder for this event contains 911 messages, and I have spent many hours working on details both alone and with the indefatigable members of the fundraising committee. Details are falling into place. Around every corner will be a new curiosity, a refreshing experience, something to see or hear and plant a seed of wonder. We will have drinks and conversation and fine dining and surprises. We’ll think about art and about the Beach Museum, a gem of our campus and community.

We hope you feel wonder.

The Night of Wonder is September 20, 2013. To purchase tickets call 785-532-7718 or email longpine@ksu.edu.