Mulvane ArtLab Reopens August 6, 202

Starting Saturday, August 6, 2022, the Mulvane Art Museum’s ArtLab will reopen with new hours.

Public Hours:

ArtLab will be open to the public on Tuesday evenings from 4 pm – 7 pm and Saturday afternoons from 12 (noon) – 4 pm. 

Scheduled Group Tours:

ArtLab will be open for private educational group tours on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Tours must be scheduled in advance and are limited to 30 participants. Groups may schedule a morning (starting 10 am) or afternoon (starting 1 pm) session. 

To schedule a private group tour in advance, please email the Mulvane Art Museum’s Education Curator, Jonathan Matteson, or call the museum office at 785-670-1124. Please include the ages and number of participants with your information (minors must be accompanied by an adult).

Donna Ferrato, Margo Left her abusive husband with her daughters so they wouldn't grow up thinking abuse was normal. Marin County, CA, 2011; archival pigment print. Gift of Cory Herrick, Mulvane Art Museum permanent collection.

Donna Ferrato’s Camera Is a Weapon for Women (The New York Times)

A Curator Has Been Charged With Giving False Provenance Information Amid a Major Probe Into Louvre Abu Dhabi Antiquities Trafficking (artnet news)

New Book Celebrates Accomplishments of Kansas City Artist Ross Eugene Braugh (KC Studio)

Remembering Claes Oldenburg

Pop Artist Made the Everyday Monumental

Claes Oldenburg (Swedish-born American b. 1929 - d. 2022) first came to prominence as a Pop artist in the early 1960s. Throughout his career, Oldenburg worked in partnership with his wife Coosje van Bruggen to conceptualize and create his iconic sculptures.

The lithograph, Bat Spinning at the Speed of Light, 1975, in the Mulvane's permanent collection, is based on a 1967 drawing for a colossal baseball bat sculpture, which Oldenburg proposed for a street corner in Chicago. It was never built, but the bat concept came to fruition in his 101 feet tall, Batcolumn in Chicago in 1977.

You likely know Oldenburg's monumental sculpture by the large-scale shuttlecock birdies featured throughout the lawn of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City. These beloved sculptures have become an icon of that museum and Kansas City, more broadly. However, the community initially met the sculptures with criticism and controversy. This video from 1994 discusses the public reception and the artists' response.

If education is the heart of the Mulvane Art Museum, exhibitions are its life-blood. They challenge, inspire, open minds, ignite ideas, and speak to us about the human endeavor. Select exhibitions and museum programs are supported by a National Endowment For The Humanities (NEH) #SHARP Grant.