Visitor viewing Renoir: A Luminous Evolution. (Courtesy Photo | Museum of Art & Light)
“Manhattan, Kansas is a valuable place and a space of progress and innovation and art,“ Riley Holland, the Museum of Art + Light’s marketing, communications and membership manager said. “I just think Manhattan is a great place for art and culture. I think the museum fits in with that really well.”
Opening its gallery doors to locals Nov. 8, 2024, the museum was proud to add its own mark in the art world after curating the idea six years ago.
“We are the first museum to blend all of these different things — the fine art, the digital art and the immersive art — from its inception, because the founders knew it would be a meaningful experience,” Holland said. “It’s the first of its kind and it’s in Manhattan, Kansas.”
Founding the museum, Tracey and Robert DeBruyn, Ronald Bowman and Stanley Zukowfsky came together to do something for the community.
Holland said sharing art in its fullest form was the founders’ goal. One of the ways the museum is able to do this is through offering five galleries.
“Obviously, we have the general fine art you would think of — painting, sculptures, sketches, etcetera,” Holland said. “We have that displayed as well as digital art. We also have an immersive experience which is an animated exhibition.”
Set to music with images displayed on the floor, all surrounding as well as interior walls, this immersive experience is multisensory.
“It’s just something that is very novel, especially when you look at the immersive experience,” Holland said. “There are not a lot of them [immersive exhibitions], especially at our size.”
Since the opening of the museum, the immersive exhibition shared with visitors has been Mezmereyz — Renoir: A Luminous Evolution. This exhibition will be changed Sept. 4 to share a new experience.
Describing the space as innovative, inspiring and progressive, Holland said she feels there is something for everyone.
“I have found that a lot of people enjoy it as a place to take their family, or a place to go on a date night or a place to spend their weekend,” Holland said. “I feel like there is something for everyone here and I feel that when people come once, they tend to come again.”
The museum creates all of its art in-house, which means the Museum of Art + Light showcases art that can only be admired in Manhattan.
Holland said some art pieces can only be understood in person.
“We have partnered with a digital artist that does digital sculptures,” Holland said. “He is a software engineer and he makes moving-light sculptures. It is really difficult because a lot of these are moving pieces, you can’t just take a picture for people to understand.”
Working to be a safe space for everyone, including students, the museum offers a year-long student membership program which costs $40.
“I found that [The Museum of Art + Light] started out as a space for people I feel were a little older, because when you hear art museum you are like ‘Oh, it’s a very prestigious place,’ but it is a space — especially for younger people — there are [interactive] elements at the museum and it’s supposed to be a little less formal than the traditional art museum,” Holland said. “It’s meant to be a safe space to really make it your own.”