‘Come inside, be curious’ | Beach Museum opens new fall exhibition

Photo courtesy of Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art

Listen to the full interview with Kent SmithAnnalise Angell

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For K-State students who have walked past the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art without ever stepping inside, museum director Kent Smith has a simple message: “Come inside.”

Smith joined the Evening Drive on Wildcat 91.9 to talk about the museum’s newest exhibition, Home/Land: Wahzhazhe Artists Speak, and why students should take advantage of the museum sitting right on the edge of campus.

The exhibition brings together work from three contemporary Osage artists: Norman Akers, Anita Fields and Ryan Redcorn. Through their work, the exhibition explores ideas surrounding home, land, history, belonging, displacement and identity.

Smith said an important part of the exhibition is allowing viewers to explore those ideas through contemporary Osage voices.

“Indigenous people are still too often presented in museums primarily through their history and almost as though Native culture belongs in the past,” Smith said.

The Beach Museum will celebrate the exhibition with its fall opening Thursday from 5:30 to 7 p.m. The event is free and open to everyone and will include refreshments, art-making activities and the opportunity to explore the galleries.

The goal, Smith said, is not to create a formal event where visitors feel they have to quietly stand around and look at art.

“We want it to feel active, social and welcoming,” Smith said. “You can come with friends, make something in our art-making stations, have something to eat, explore the galleries and experience the exhibition at your own pace.”

The exhibition itself includes a wide variety of artwork. Redcorn’s photography is displayed in large formats, with some photographs reaching eight feet wide by 10 feet tall. Akers’ work includes works on paper and several large paintings, while Fields works across several mediums, including clay and sculpture.

While Home/Land may bring students through the museum’s doors this fall, Smith hopes they will continue coming back.

The Beach Museum holds more than 13,000 works of art and is the only major art museum focused specifically on Kansas and the surrounding region, Smith said. As a university museum, it also works with classes across disciplines including history, environmental science, agriculture and more.

“You don’t have to be studying art,” Smith said. “I want a student in engineering, agriculture, business, biology, education or any other field to feel every bit as comfortable within the walls of the museum as someone studying art history.”

Students can spend 15 or 20 minutes looking around, sit down with a laptop to work or simply take some time to be curious.

“I would hope students, after they’re done at K-State, would look back and think of the Beach Museum as a part of their K-State experience,” Smith said. “Don’t leave that door unopened.”

To top it all off, students on a college budget have another bonus: admission is free and so is parking.

The Beach Museum is located at 701 Beach Lane on the southeast corner of K-State’s campus, near Aggieville. Students can also keep up with the museum on Instagram at @BeachMuseum, on Facebook at Beach Museum of Art or through the museum’s website at beach.k-state.edu.

Home/Land: Wahzhazhe Artists Speak will remain on display throughout the school year, with the exhibition scheduled to close in June.

For Smith, though, students do not need to know everything about the exhibition, the artists or even art itself before visiting.

“Come inside, be curious,” Smith said. “That’s all you got to do.”