The Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art has been a free art museum located on North Manhattan and Anderson Ave for the past 30 years. The museum enables the celebration of regional art and has helped artists worldwide find their love for the Kansas region. Kent Michael Smith is the director of the museum and finds it the place as an idea that art can sharpen our inner thoughts.
“Through exhibitions, stewardship of the collection and teaching across disciplines, the museum brings the art of Kansas and the region into active conversation with students, scholars, and the broader community,” Smith said. “It is also one of the campus’s most welcoming spaces, where students can study, slow down, meet friends, or simply spend time.”
As the museum grows through its 30 years of work, the exhibits change and reflect different parts of Kansas and the world. The Kansas Triennial is one of their major exhibits that features contemporary artists working in Kansas and includes the inaugural presentation of Mona Cliff, Mark Cowardin, Poppy DeltaDawn and Ann Resnick.
“We also have Rural America, which draws from the museum’s collection to consider life in rural communities. It highlights both the challenges and the sustaining qualities of rural life, and it gives visitors a way to think about those subjects through works of art, many of them historical,” he said. “Another exhibition on view is STE[A]M: Exploring Science and Math through Art, which was developed to help address a curriculum need within USD 383.”
These new exhibits are uniquely developed through the highly skilled curatorial team at the Beach Museum.
“Going to exhibitions at the Beach Museum matters because art has the power to teach us something about ourselves. A work of art may begin with the artist’s vision, but it often gathers meaning through the lived experience each visitor brings to it,” Smith said. “The exchange between artwork and viewer becomes a kind of conversation shaped by memory, perspective, emotion and reflection.”
Take the opportunity and visit the Beach Museum from Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. to learn more about yourself and the art that surrounds you.
