Author: Theresa Mott

Come celebrate the 2024 graduates of the MFA program in creative writing as they share selections from their literary works at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 27 in the Ulrich Museum of Art.

A reception will be at 2 p.m. Everyone is welcome to attend the free event.

Visit the Ulrich Museum starting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 25 for an evening with Marianne Marti, founding partner of Russell-Marti Conservation Services, in connection with Fully Dimensional: Artists of the Outdoor Sculpture Collection.

Marti is a sculpture conservator who specializes in working with bronze, stone, terracotta, plaster and wood, with an expertise in outdoor public art. For more than 25 years, she has performed biannual maintenance treatments and major conservation work on sculptures at WSU, and she will speak about her experiences, including the conservation of the Ulrich’s Joan Miró mosaic (2011-2017).

Reception at 5:30 p.m. is in the upstairs Ulrich Gallery lobby, with the program following at 6 p.m. in 210 McKnight Art Center. Everyone is welcome to attend this free talk.

An art market inspired by the artists of the Ulrich Museum’s “Urban Canvas: Exploring Muralism in Wichita” exhibition will pop up in the circle drive just south of the Ulrich from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, April 14 at Open Streets ICT on 17th Street between Hillside and Grove. 

Seven featured artists, each of whom has work represented in the “Urban Canvas” show, will be the focus of the market: GLeo, Connie Fiorella, Domesick Creationz, Del Norte, Quintis Pinkston, Ric Dunwoody, and Heather Byers. An additional 45 local and regional artists will set up booths, some offering their work for sale and some doing demonstrations. Our inaugural Urban Canvas Art Market is free and open to the public.

Open Streets gives Wichitans a chance to enjoy entertainment, explore businesses and organizations, and check out fun vendors and food trucks. The street will be blocked off so get ready to walk, bike, jog, or skateboard, and bring out the strollers and wagons.

Join a community discussion with Colombian muralist Nathalia Gallego, or GLeo; and Armando Minjarez, artist, designer, and community organizer on Thursday, April 11 at 210 McKnight Art Center. GLeo and Minjarez will speak about their experiences working collaboratively to create the “Horizontes Project” on Wichita’s north end, as well as the “Adelante Juntos/Forward Together,” which GLeo will create at the Duerksen Amphitheater project.

Spanish to English translation will be available. A reception will begin at 5:30 p.m. with the discussion beginning at 6 p.m. Everyone is welcome to attend this free event.

In 2018, WSU students and alums contributed research and volunteer time to the Horizontes Project. “El Sueño Original – The Original Dream,” located at 519 E. 20th St. N. on the Beachner Grain Elevator, was a major part of that project. GLeo painted this massive mural, which was the largest of its kind in the United States at the time of its creation. The artist returned to Wichita in late March and has been designing a mural for the WSU campus, “Adelante Juntos /Forward Together,” which she will begin painting on the walls of Duerksen Amphitheater this week.

Local artist Armando Minjárez originally brought GLeo to Wichita as a Knight Cities Challenge winner with the Horizontes Project. He is also producing this new amphitheater mural for the Ulrich Museum of Art with support from Wichita State University’s Office of Hispanic Initiatives; Student Government Association; Hispanic American Leadership Organization (HALO); Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives; the Office of Diversity and Inclusion; the Office of the President; and the Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing. A public unveiling of the mural is scheduled for May 3.

National Walking Day takes place the first Wednesday in April, but the Ulrich Museum of Art wanted to make sure everyone could take part, so it’s holding its walking event Saturday, April 6.

Explore the Martin H. Bush Outdoor Sculpture Collection in a docent-led tour, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., or self-guided tour, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and learn tips for staying mentally and physically healthy from partners onsite. A food truck will offer snacks and beverages.

Special activities, including a Powerwalk Outdoor Sculpture tour with Ulrich Curator of Education Brenda Lichman, and Yoga by the Wichita Arch with Molly McPherson, director of learning engagement and partnerships at Wichita Art Museum, are planned. Enjoy a pop-up exhibition of seascapes by Frederick J. Waugh in the Dr. Sam and Jacqui Kouri Collection Study Center.

Everyone is welcome to attend the free event.

Come to the Ulrich Museum of Art for a happy hour and become a co-curator from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 3 in the Grafly Gallery.

Bring friends and enjoy a beverage (attendees must be 21 years old or older to drink alcohol), meet some fellow art fans and give provide feedback via the activity walls of Co-Lab. Help the Ulrich Museum create an exhibition that will debut in 2026.

From selection of objects to writing text and wall labels, curators and community members will interpret the Ulrich’s collection through local and contemporary lenses. The interactive community event is hosted by the Ulrich Alliance, a growing group of museum volunteers comprised of art enthusiasts, students, and professionals.

Art historian and curator Marin R. Sullivan will discuss the history of outdoor sculpture collections on museum and university campuses at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 28 in 210 McKnight Art Center, in conjunction with the current Ulrich Museum exhibition “Fully Dimensional: Artists of the Outdoor Sculpture Collection.”

Sullivan specializes in the history of sculpture and its relationship to photography, design and the built environment, and she is the founding principal of Sculptural Things, a consulting and research service for museums, galleries and arts organizations, and is currently the director of the Harry Bertoia Catalogue Raisonné Project.

A reception will take place from 5:30-6 p.m. in the lobby of the Ulrich Musuem galleries. Everyone is welcome to attend the event.

Join the Ulrich Museum of Art for a fiction reading by author Bee Sacks at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 21 in the Dr. Sam & Jacqui Kouri Collection Study Center in the Ulrich Museum. A reception will start at 5:30 p.m.

Bee holds an MFA from the Programs in Writing at the University of Irvine, California. Their debut novel, “City of a Thousand Gates,” published under the name Rebecca Sacks, was awarded the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for fiction. Their second novel, “The Lover,” was published in 2023. A former journalist, Bee worked at Vanity Fair for several years before moving to Israel-Palestine to study sacred Jewish texts. They live in Los Angeles with their dog, Pupik.

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. The event is open to everyone.

Visiting Author Brian Turner will present a reading from his memoir, “My Life as a Foreign Country,” at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 29 at the Dr. Sam & Jacqui Kouri Collection Study Center in the Ulrich Museum.

Turner is the editor of The Kiss and co-edited “The Strangest of Theatres.” He lives in Florida with his dog, Dene.

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.

In connection with “Fully Dimensional: Artists of the Outdoor Sculpture Collection,” art historian, curator and art writer, David J. Getsy, will speak about the career of artist Scott Burton and discuss his award-winning book, “Queer Behavior: Scott Burton and Performance Art,” at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 22 in 210C McKnight Art Center.

Getsy’s current projects address queer methodologies, links between transgender studies and art history, and recoveries of suppressed or lost histories of queer and genderqueer performance. Sponsored by Clayton Staples Gallery as well as the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.