Welcome back! The Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art re-opened its doors to public visitors August 24, 2021.
Join us during the 2021-2022 season to celebrate 25 years of the Beach Museum of Art at Kansas State University! Enjoy the exhibitions and programming in two ways: online and in person. The museum’s regular hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursdays; and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. Closed on Sundays, Mondays and holidays. Admission and parking are free.
New Exhibitions in September 2021:
Gordon Parks: “Homeward to the Prairie I Come”
Virtual exhibition launch: September 30, 2021
Gallery exhibition: September 7, 2021 – May 28, 2022
This exhibition features photographs donated by Parks to Kansas State University (K-State) in Manhattan, Kansas, in 1973. It was the first time that the artist personally curated a set of photographs to donate to a public institution, a kind of self-portrait directed towards the home crowd. The exhibition title includes the first line of a poem written by Parks in 1984, commissioned by and published in the Manhattan Mercury. K-State’s New Prairie Press will publish an accompanying open-access digital catalogue with new research on Parks and Kansas.
Related events:
Let’s Talk Art: Fort Scott’s Gordon Parks Museum and Gordon Parks Celebration.
Livestream conversation with Kirk Sharp, director, Gordon Parks Museum, Fort Scott Community College
Thursday, September 30, 5:30 p.m.
“Home, What Does It Look Like?: Gordon Parks Responds”
Livestream talk and conversation with Deborah Willis, chair, Tisch Department of Photography and Imaging, New York University
Thursday, November 4, 5:30 p.m.
Let’s Talk Art: Considering the Dance Film Martin by Gordon Parks.
Livestream Conversation: Curator Aileen June Wang discusses Parks’ 1990 ballet film honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., with Theresa Ruth
Howard, ballet dancer and founder-curator of MoBBallet.org (Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet).
Thursday, January 27, 2022, 5:30 p.m.
Beach Film Club: Virtual Discussion on African American Short Films.
February 2022, date TBD, 7:30 p.m.
Art for Social Good: A Conversation with Terence Blanchard, Andrew Scott, and Kevin Willmott.
Wednesday, April 6, 2022, 7 p.m., McCain Auditorium
Terence Blanchard and the E-Collective in Concert, with staging by K-State students under direction of Andrew Scott and Mathew Gaynor.
Thursday, April 7, 2022, 7 p.m., McCain Auditorium
Beach Film Club: Virtual Discussion of Shaft by Gordon Parks.
April 2022, date TBD, 7:30 p.m.
Image: Gordon Parks, Pool Hall (Fort Scott, Kansas), 1950, printed in 2017, gelatin silver print, gift of Gordon Parks and the Gordon Parks Foundation, 2017.445.
Gordon Parks images courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation.
Doug Barrett: Find Your Voice
Virtual exhibition launch: September 30, 2021
Gallery exhibition: September 7, 2021 – May 28, 2022
Doug Barrett is a photographer and videographer based in Manhattan, Kansas. His work demonstrates how Gordon Parks continues to inspire contemporary artists. Barrett’s projects include interviewing, photographing, and telling the stories of homeless veterans, creating a collective portrait of the Yuma Street community of Manhattan, Kansas, and documenting the Black Lives Matter movement in Kansas.
Image: Will the hate end? from the series George Floyd Protest, 2020, digital print, 32 x 22 in., 2020.20
45 Paleolithic Handaxes
from Transfigurations: Reanimating the Past | David Lebrun
Gallery exhibition: September 21, 2021 – July 16, 2022
Organized by the museum in collaboration with K-State’s Information Technology Services and Cytek Media Inc., this experimental multimedia installation is guaranteed to surprise and delight! It features the mysterious beauty of an ancient artifact through specially composed music and unique video animation. See the past differently!
Image: The Forms: Four Worlds. Simulation. © 2019 Night Fire Films
Click here for details and links to register for virtual events.
All events, which are free and open to the public, will be held in the museum’s UMB Theater and/or virtually. Limited occupancy in the galleries to allow social distancing. Limited seating will be provided in the UMB theatre to view livestreamed events. The Beach Museum of Art follows Kansas State University guidelines for COVID-19 health and safety procedures. For more information visit k-state.edu/covid-19.
We are pleased to announce that the museum has received a Bridge Ahead Initiative award from the Art Bridges Foundation to support the addition of a part-time teaching artist to assist with two new photography exhibitions at the museum.
