Philanthropy Today
Philanthropy Today
Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art on the GMCF Community Hour Show Episode - 234
Kent Michael Smith, director of the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, introduces the inaugural Kansas Triennial, a new exhibition showcasing contemporary artists living and working in Kansas that will occur every three years.
• Beach Museum is the only major museum with a focus specifically on Kansas art and the region
• The Triennial emerged from Smith's desire to highlight this focus and connect with artists across Kansas
• Unlike typical exhibitions, the Triennial uses an artist-centered approach rather than starting with a predetermined theme
• Four diverse artists featured: Mona Cliff (indigenous beadwork), Mark Cowardin (sculpture/ceramics), Poppy Delta Dawn (fiber arts), and Ann Resnick (intricate paper works)
• Exhibition will run through May 31, 2026
• Kansas has a vibrant arts scene outside the pressures of major art hubs like New York and LA
• The exhibition demonstrates that Kansas art "can hold its own anywhere"
Philanthropy Today is brought to you by the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. In this episode we feature a recently broadcast segment of the GMCF Community Hour, as heard on NewsRadio KMAN, and we are back with the GMCF Community Hour here on this Monday. It's the 11th day of August and we're delighted to have joining us, via Zoom, kent Michael Smith, who is the director of the Mariana Kessler Beach Museum of Art on the K-State campus. Kent, welcome back to the show Is this are you past your one-year stage now? Are you two years into this gig?
Speaker 2:Yeah, believe it or not, I am about two and a half years now.
Speaker 1:Really now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how about that? Time flies.
Speaker 1:That's got to be just a fun gig to be a part of, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Oh, it's a fantastic place and you know I'm from Emporia originally, so this was a coming home for me. I was in Wisconsin and this opportunity arose and you know I couldn't apply fast enough and get myself here, so it's been fantastic.
Speaker 1:I bet you and that Schlagich gal talk a lot about Emporia, don't you?
Speaker 2:We have a lot of ties to Emporia here yeah. And all throughout the community. You know, I mean that's. It's strange to hear people talk about wanting to go to you know. Oh, we go to Emporia for dinner and you know, when it's your hometown you're like, really you go to. You know. So Emporia is great, but it's always that weird place for me because it's where you grew up and you think of it differently than others might.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, at the beach, you have an effort coming underway that I've got to learn more about, because I don't know that I have ever seen or heard the term or the word triennial. What does triennial?
Speaker 2:mean? Well, it implies so we have a biannual, that's every two years, a triennial is every three years. So from the Office of the Department of Redundancy, this will be exhibited every three years.
Speaker 1:Every three years and this is the Kansas triennial and tell us about what this is all about and how this thing got started.
Speaker 2:So yeah, as we just said, it's an exhibition that we'll show every three years here at the Beach Museum of Art, obviously changing it up, bringing in different artists every three years. It's a show that I am personally curating. I'm giving a little break to my two curators here on staff but with my background, as somebody that was trained as an artist, had a practice here in Kansas, it's a passion project for me. But it goes and looks at artists. You know contemporary artists living and working producing art in Kansas today. So you know it's a direct extension of our mission, which is to exhibit, preserve and interpret art of Kansas in the region. I think you know I've been inspired by the K-State 105, where President Linton traveled to all 105 counties around the state. You know I mean it's very much a direct connection to K-State's role as a land grant university serving the entire state. So you know it rose really out of. You know, like we said, I've been here two and a half years.
Speaker 2:When I arrived here I learned pretty quickly that most many, if not most, people don't realize that we are the only major museum with a focus on Kansas art and the region. Other museums have that segment of their collection but we really are the only ones that focus on that. So, which I think makes again a lot of sense with K-State's position, I wanted to create an exhibition that would highlight that focus with a contemporary approach. Every three years again would bring attention back to the artists working in our state today and just embrace the collective Kansas artist community in a meaningful way. I also was really interested in having been away, having been in Texas, wisconsin. I wanted something that would keep my ear to the ground and my feet moving across the state to see what artists are engaging. It's far too easy to stay in your office or in the museum and it risks me kind of losing touch with what the art or what the artists are producing and kind of grappling with. And I have an opportunity to support and amplify it. So that was important.
Speaker 2:I think I do recall a very specific moment when this sort of happened. You know we all have heard a very common phrase. Somebody said preaching to the choir. Of course we've heard that a hundred times, but in the right moments those phrases you hear all the time take on a little different meaning and it sort of made me question like, okay, who is our choir? And for me it has to be the artists in this state, given that we collect, you know we focus on the art of Kansas. So if they don't know that we're here for them, if artists don't realize this, then it's it's hard for me to imagine, you know, the wider public realizing it. So the Triennial is just one way to make that connection clear, to say to the artists we see you, we value your work and this is your museum too.
Speaker 1:So how does you know the exhibitions that you will have on display during the Triennial and you might just touch base on some of the highlights of it, but how is that compared to some of the other exhibits that you've had in the Well, that's yeah, it is interesting, I would say.
Speaker 2:you know, most exhibitions often start with a single theme or a curatorial idea. The Kansas Triennial kind of works in the opposite direction. It's artist-centered Rather than asking artists to fit into a predetermined concept. I've built the exhibition largely from the work they're making right now. I've built the exhibition largely from the work they're making right now. That means the exhibition grows out of what's truly happening in studios across Kansas at this moment. This changes really everything about the curatorial process.
Speaker 2:Instead of beginning with a written concept and then going out to find art that fits, I start by visiting artists, seeing their work in progress, having conversations about their ideas and motivations, and these conversations are what shape the exhibition's direction.
Speaker 2:It also means that every three years, the triennial is kind of a snapshot of what the state's creative pulse, or you might see works that are deeply personal next to works that are large scale social or environmental issues. They don't have to be unified in style or message. In fact, I think the range and contrast are part of what makes the show so compelling. It's also worth noting and you hinted at this at the start. You know that you hadn't heard about this or a triennial. It's unique and it's the only major reoccurring exhibition of its kind in this state. It's devoted directly to artists you know living here and working here, and that commitment matters to me. It tells artists that their works don't need to leave the state to be seen in a major museum context and it tells our audiences that vital, relevant art is being created right here, often in our own communities.
Speaker 1:Let's talk a bit about some of the artists in particular that you're going to be showcasing here during your triennial exhibit, and I'm sure that there's all kinds of different. You know your museum of art. There's all types of different arts that you'll have on display at the beach.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course, this being the inaugural, the first triennial, it's featuring four artists, a lot of triennials. I tend to use the phrase more potpourri. You may get 30, 40 artists in such shows. I wanted this to be a little more curated, a little more breadth of work from these four artists. They get to tell a little bit more about their practice. Like when there's 30 artists, you get one piece per artist often.
Speaker 2:So these artists are Mona Cliff, mark Cowardin, poppy Delta, dawn and Ann Resnick. They come from very different generations, different backgrounds, different parts of Kansas, different disciplines. So it means the visitors really encounter an extraordinary range of media, approaches, ideas. Mona Cliff, for example, has indigenous traditions and materials but really speaks to today. She does these beadwork, very intricate beadwork pieces, some of which are I mean, actually both of them are pretty new one of which we picked up as she was placing the last bead on the canvas and she had never done these on canvas before, she had done them on paper and other things. So we've got some really great examples of really fresh work coming out of the studio.
Speaker 2:Mark Cowardin is more known as a sculptor, but he's been really exploring ceramics lately, which is adjacent to sculpture, but his work has a sort of a balance of nature and industrial materials. His large-scale sculptures are made of common conduit, two-by-fours fluorescent lights, all exposed materials, and I think you know he really questions the sort of fragility of ecological vulnerability and things like that. Poppy Delta Dawn, the third artist, works with the labor and lineage of fiber arts. She uses the weave and the fabric manipulation to explore themes of transformation, resilience and personal narratives to explore themes of transformation, resilience and personal narratives.
Speaker 2:Ann Resnick, the last artist, involves these really intricate paper works that are cut, layered, burned. She's actually using the very edge of the cutouts are burned and in trying to figure out how she did that, she shared with me that she uses a wood burning tool to actually burn the shapes into the paper. Through the paper she deals a lot with elements of grief and and memory loss, renewal, and in that process of using that tool she's burning, literally creating you. The phrase ashes to ashes comes to mind. So there are some fascinating works in the exhibition. I think there's a dialogue between the works, even if it seems very different. I think it's in those differences where there's actually more to be said sometimes than our commonalities. So I think people will be, you know, they'll see a very powerful, multifaceted, probably surprising view of art in Kansas right now.
Speaker 1:I think one of the things you know, it's just, you know, you think about some of the things that have happened here in the last several years. You know, and especially with the beach. The beach has been up what 25, 30 years now.
Speaker 1:We're coming up on 30 years and about a year and a half, yeah, and and what things have materialized, or how things have materialized now with, you know, Flint Hills Discovery Center, which really isn't necessarily artistically based, but there's a lot there, but the Museum of Art and Light and all of these things, I think, say a lot about the enhancement and the promotion of arts, not just within our community but across the state of Kansas, and there seems to be, you know this. I think one of the most sensational things I love seeing is, you know, the mural movement across the state. It seems to me that there has just been a significant transition to enhance arts in communities across the state.
Speaker 2:Oh for sure, and I think this triennial just affirms that. You know that the Kansas has a vibrant, ambitious and deeply engaged community of artists. And then the institutions continue to arise, like the Museum of Art and Light. I think it's a great moment to be an artist in Kansas. You know we're outside of the pressures. I think that I was going to say the geography of Kansas comes into play because we are so removed from major art hubs LA, new York, chicago. You know, I think there's an opportunity for more exploration with artists here that they don't have that gallery hovering right over them that is pushing them to do this or that or meet a quota. And I also think the work you know here can hold its own anywhere. And I believe that if you come see the Triennial, I think you'll walk away wondering if you're in Manhattan, kansas or the Big Apple. You know it is remarkable.
Speaker 1:Kent. How long is the exhibit up?
Speaker 2:So it is up through. It's going to be through the full school year, so it'll be up through May 31st of 2026.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, if you have not been to the Beach Museum recently, here's another reason to go. Stop by and visit the beach. On the K-State campus, kent Michael Smith is the director of the Beach Museum of Art. Thanks for joining us, sir, and good luck. I'll have to. I don't know when, but I'll be stopping by. I know a lot of our friends here in the community will be too.
Speaker 2:Please do, thank you.
Speaker 1:Girls on the run of the Flint Hills. Candice and Melissa are going to be stepping.