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Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art

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Posted on by Jui Mhatre

Return to Prairie: Textiles for Green Burial Awareness
September 3–December 21, 2024

This exhibition of fiber art encourages visitors to consider the environmental impact of end-of-life decisions. Sherry Haar, a fashion studies professor at Kansas State University known for her expertise of natural dyes, co-curated the installation, which includes wearable art, quilts, and a felted coffin designed to stimulate discussion about preparations for death and sustainable burial.

Clothing and textiles are integral to our daily lives, yet the fashion industry is a significant contributor to overconsumption, waste and pollution. Haar’s fiber art highlights one response to this problem: natural or green burial. Haar transforms undyed fiber and fabrics using prairie and local plants such as big bluestem, coreopsis, goldenrod, Osage orange, sumac, sunflower, switch grass, and walnut. She employs sustainable strategies in her designed, patterned, felted, sewn and machine-quilted works.

Through the lens of natural dyes and prints from the tall grass prairie, Haar’s work invites reflection on our choices and their implications for human and environmental well-being. Return to Prairie aims to inspire conversations about sustainable end-of-life practices and showcase the beauty and utility of local color and print.

Guest artist Kelsie Doty, an assistant professor of fashion studies at K-State, collaborated with Haar on a memory quilt honoring their grandmothers included in the exhibition.

Major Sponsor: Greater Manhattan Community Foundation’s Lincoln & Dorothy I. Deihl Community Grants Program

"Return to Prairie: Textiles for Green Burial Awareness" exhibition publicity image

Related events at the Beach Museum of Art

Artist Talk: Natural Color and Print from the Prairie  
Thursday, October 10, 5:30-6:30 p.m.
A conversation with fiber artist Sherry Haar as she takes us through methods of dyeing and printing with local plants on textiles.
Free and open to all

Natural Burial at Kansas Heart Land Prairie Cemetery  
Thursday, November 7, 5:30-6:30 p.m. 
A conversation about green burial and personal experiences with Sarah Crews, Director of Heart Land, and Kelly Parker who buried her spouse at the cemetery. Free and open to all

Spring 2023 Exhibition Preview: “Unspoken Bonds”

Posted on by Jui Mhatre

Unspoken Bonds
January 24 – July 29, 2023

Why do people come together? This exhibition organized in conjunction with the American Library Association’s 2023 summer reading slogan, “All Together Now,” is a visual survey of human relationships and how they form. Unspoken Bonds will serve as the basis for the museum’s summer ARTSmart classes and tours in conjunction with the Manhattan Public Library’s summer reading program.

Photograph entitled "Protesting Police Brutality" by artist Luke B. Townsend in the collection of the Beach Museum of Art.
Peaceful protesters gather in Heritage Park in Junction City, Kansas on Friday in response to the death of George Floyd by Minneapolis police earlier this week. The peaceful protesters met in Heritage Park and marched to the Geary County Sheriffs Department.

Platinum Major Sponsor: Greater Manhattan Community Foundation’s Lincoln & Dorothy I. Deihl Community Grants Program
Bronze Sponsors: Steven L. Bernasek, Chuck and Sandy Bussing, Kathleen and Roger Lanksbury

Image: Luke B. Townsend, Protesting Police Brutality, 2020, inkjet print on paper, 16 3/4 x 30 in., Kansas State University, Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, 2020.25

Gallery conversation with artist Doug Barrett

Posted on by Jui Mhatre

Thursday, September 16, 2021, 5:30 p.m.
Join the free program in-person at the museum or via Zoom. Click here to register. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with information about how to join the program.

Doug BarrettDoug Barrett is a photographer and videographer based in Manhattan, Kansas. His work demonstrates how Gordon Parks continues to inspire contemporary artists. Barrett’s projects include interviewing, photographing, and telling the stories of homeless veterans, creating a collective portrait of the Yuma Street community of Manhattan, Kansas, and documenting the Black Lives Matter movement in Kansas.

Offered in conjunction with the artist’s first museum solo exhibition Doug Barrett: Find Your Voice, September 7, 2021 – May 28, 2022 at the Beach Museum of Art.

This event is part of the Beach Museum of Art’s ‘Art in Motion’ annual program series. Limited occupancy in the galleries to allow social distancing. Limited seating will be provided in the UMB theatre to view the event livestreamed. The Beach Museum of Art follows Kansas State University guidelines for COVID-19 health and safety procedures. For more information visit k-state.edu/covid-19.

Support provided by

Art Bridges Foundation logo

First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare on view until Feb. 28

Posted on by Abby Howard

Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night. These famous plays and 15 others by Shakespeare would probably have been lost to us without the First Folio. Published in 1623, the First Folio is the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, and only 233 copies are known today.Shakespeare in the Little Apple

To mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the Folger Shakespeare Library is sending a First Folio to every state in the United States; the Beach Museum of Art was selected as the venue for the Folio’s display in Kansas. Join us through Feb. 28 in celebrating all things Shakespeare!

Shakespeare in the Little Apple

The First Folio’s visit is accompanied by a series of campus and community events celebrating the First Folio and Shakespeare.

Visit k-state.edu/shakespeare400 for a full list of spring events.  Upcoming Shakespeare events at the Beach Museum of Art: Continue reading “First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare on view until Feb. 28” →