Author: Theresa Mott

Visit the Reuben Saunders Gallery, 3215 E. Douglas Ave., in October to experience a thoughtful variety of built and thrown clay works juried by ceramicist Chotsani Elaine Dean in support of the Empty Bowls fundraiser to benefit HumanKind Ministries and the ICT Community Fridge Project.

The Empty Bowls Chili Cook-Off fundraiser, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 21 in Woolsey Hall, is presented by Empty Bowls Wichita with support from the Ulrich Museum of Art, WSU School of Art, Design and Creative Industries, and the WSU Ceramics Guild.

Join a talk from Chotsani Elaine Dean, ceramicist, for the Empty Bowls visiting artist lecture at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5 in the Beren Gallery of the Ulrich Museum of Art. A reception will be held at 5:30 p.m.

The talk is presented in conjunction with the Empty Bowls Chili Cook-Off fundraiser Oct. 21 to benefit HumanKind Ministries and ICT Community Fridge Project.

A significant part of Dean’s research is rooted in quilts from slavery (chattel enslavement) through the Antebellum period, made on and off cotton plantations by enslaved and free African Americans through the mid-20th century. The quilts and the material that give them life, cotton, serve as a historical source and point of departure for her to explore and comprehend this dreadful time in America’s history. The visual and historical synthesis of various craft traditions, historical events and commodities, quilts, the cotton trade, the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement, and the vast realm of textiles inform and shape her visual ideas and approach to the spectrum of ceramic materials and mixed media.

Join the Ulrich Museum of Art for a screening of “Miro” at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 8 in the CAC Theater.

Learn about the life of artist Joan Miró from the 2022 biopic by Oriol Ferrer. The event is presented by the Ulrich Museum in partnership with the Tallgrass Film Festival. On the way to the film, check out the largest mosaic created by Joan Miró in the US, “Les Personnage Oiseau,” on the face of the Ulrich Museum.

Joan Miró was born with a future already defined by his father. The stern and authoritarian character of his father quickly marked the introverted and weak character of a young Miró obsessed with painting. Miró despairs because of the incomprehension and conservative thinking of his hometown, Barcelona. With hopes of change, he decides to go to try his luck in the effervescent Paris.

Join the Ulrich Museum of Art for a talk by Chaz Guest, an American painter and sculptor of profound inventiveness known for capturing the raw essence of the universal human spirit, at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 28 in the Beren Gallery. A reception will be held at 5:30 p.m.

Voices from the Vault is a series of artist talks to celebrate the Ulrich Museum’s 50th anniversary. Guest’s vivid painting, “The Tenth,” was acquired by the Ulrich in 2022 and featured in the recent exhibition, “Myths of the West: Narrating Stories of the Land and People Through Wichita Art Collections.”

Join a celebration of the 45th anniversary of Wichita State’s MFA program as Kerry Jones, MFA 2000, reads from “The Last Innocent Year,” winner of Southeast Missouri State University’s Nilsen Prize at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 27 in the Beren Gallery at the Ulrich Museum of Art. A reception will be held at 5:30 p.m.

Jones’s fiction has won the Richard Yates Short Story Award and appeared in “Sycamore Review,” “Alaska Quarterly Review” and “Bryant Literary Review Quarterly.”

Writing Now/Reading Now is cosponsored by the Department of English, Fairmount College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Watermark Books & Café and the Ulrich Museum of Art.

Haley Kottler, Thriving and Integrated Voter Engagement Director at Kansas Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, will talk about the organization’s work and community impact at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 26 in the Beren Gallery at the Ulrich Museum of Art. A reception will be held at 5:30 p.m.

Kansas Appleseed works with community partners to understand the root causes of problems, supports strong grassroots coalitions and advocates for comprehensive solutions so all Kansans can reach their full potential. When necessary, Kansas Appleseed pursues impact litigation to protect Kansans’ rights and well being.

The talk is presented in conjunction with the exhibition, “Lesley Dill | Wilderness: Light Sizzles Around Me,” on display in the Polk/Wilson Gallery August 5 through December 2.

In conjunction with ”Where We Belong: Refugee Stories from Wichita,” Mythili Menon, co-curator and Center for Educational Technologies to Assist Refugee Learners (CETARL) director, will speak about the work she’s leading to help refugee learners integrate and thrive in Wichita schools.

The program, “Bringing Research into the Community: the Work of the Center for Educational Technologies to Assist Refugee Learners” is open to everyone at no additional charge and starts at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21 in the Beren Gallery at the Ulrich Museum of Art. A reception will start at 5:30 p.m.

Join the Ulrich Museum of Art for a talk “Social Justice in Our Community: Pauline Sharp,” at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 19 in the Beren Gallery of the Ulrich Museum. A reception starts at 5:30 p.m.

Pauline Sharp, a citizen of the Kaw Nation and past vice-president of the Kaw Nation Cultural Committee, will discuss the Iⁿ‘zhúje‘waxóbe/Sacred Red Rock Project, focused on the return and relocation of Iⁿ‘zhúje‘waxóbe, the red Siouxan quartzite boulder currently located in Robinson Park in Lawrence to the Kaw Nation.

The talk is presented in conjunction with the exhibition, Lesley Dill | Wilderness: Light Sizzles Around Me, on display in the Polk/Wilson Gallery Aug. 5 through Dec. 2.

Join ceramic artist Brenda Lichman at 10:30 a.m. Wendesday, Sept. 20 in 106 Henrion Hall in the fight against hunger in the community and glaze the ceramic bowls that were made in August.

The bowls made will be donated to the Empty Bowls Chili Cook-off fundraiser Oct. 21 to benefit HumanKind Ministries and ICT Community Fridge Project.

Visit the Ulrich Museum crew during Open Streets ICT from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 17 at their booth at Chainlink Gallery Place, 121 E. Douglas, for make-it-take-it art projects and to build a bowl for the Empty Bowls Fundraiser.

Open Streets ICT gives the community a chance to enjoy entertainment, explore businesses and organizations, and check out fun vendors and food trucks along Douglas Avenue from Bluff to Glenn Streets.