Annual Conference
Midwest Art History Society
March 29 – 31, 2012
Wichita, Kansas
The Midwest Art History Society will hold its 39th annual conference in Wichita, Kansas March 29-31, 2012. Host institutions will be Wichita State University and the Wichita Art Museum.
Conference sessions on Thursday, March 29 will be held on the Wichita State University campus. WSU’s Martin H. Bush Outdoor Sculpture Collection at the Ulrich Museum of Art, named one of the top ten university sculpture collections by Public Art Review, contains works by Andy Goldsworthy, Henry Moore, Claes Oldenburg, Auguste Rodin, Joan Miro and Salvador Dali. The Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology at Wichita State houses one of only three significant collections of Asmat art in the United States and Wichita State is the only university to have conducted extensive anthropological research in Southwestern New Guinea in the past 40 years. The Ablah Library Special Collections department at Wichita State University is the new home of the collected papers of LIFE photographer and filmmaker Gordon Parks.
Thursday evening's keynote address will be delivered by Marilyn Stokstad, Judith Harris Murphy Distinguished Professor Emerita of Art History at the University of Kansas. Dr. Stokstad's address is titled “Art Patronage in a Civil Society”. A panel discussion facilitated by Saralyn Reece Hardy, Director of the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas, will immediately follow Dr. Stokstad's address.
Conference sessions on Friday, March 30 will be held at the Wichita Art Museum. The Wichita Art Museum is the largest art museum in the state of Kansas and contains one of the nation’s finest collections of American art with works by Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer and Edward Hopper. The museum has recently focused on expanding its already impressive collection of works in glass through the acquisition of historic pieces by Steuben. In 2003 the museum completed an extensive remodeling and expansion project bringing its size to 115,000 square feet for the display of over 7,000 works of art. Dale Chihuly’s first Persian Seaform Ceiling was installed as part of this 2003 project.
Final Fridays are the hallmark of the Wichita area arts scene and conference attendees will have the opportunity to spend the evening of Friday, March 30 gallery-hopping throughout downtown Wichita. Wichita State University’s ShiftSpace student gallery is housed in the Old Town district amidst artisan shops and bistro-style eateries. The Commerce Street arts district houses artists’ co-operatives such as Fisch Haus Studios and The Fiber Studio dedicated to showcasing multi-media and multi-disciplinary arts. Final Fridays in Wichita traditionally mark the openings or closings of local, regional and national exhibitions and galleries provide food, drinks and musical entertainment as part of the festivities.
The Best Western Airport Inn and Conference Center will be the host hotel for the Wichita conference. Conference attendees will be pleasantly surprised to discover that this hotel boasts not only all of the traditional amenities expected of a conference hotel but also contains a collection of sculpture distributed throughout its common areas reflecting the franchise owner’s dedication to the visual arts.
Wichita is the largest city in the state of Kansas with a population of approximately 500,000. Blackbear Bosin’s monumental statue The Keeper of the Plains located on the banks of the Little Arkansas River overlooks the city’s museum district and arts and cultural institutions such as the Wichita Art Museum, the headquarters of the International Society of Decorative Painters, Exploration Place, Botanica, and the Old Cowtown Museum, the Mid-America All Indian Center and the Kansas African-American Museum.