Wichita Art Museum shows " Across America'

Sunday, 19 August 2007 10:53

WICHITA, KS - The Wichita Art Museum announces its permanent collection exhibition Across America: Selections from the Permanent Collection of the Wichita Art Museum will reopen the evening of Friday, September 28. The Museum will be open from 5 to 8 p.m. as part of the city wide Final Friday Gallery Crawl.

Across America features landscapes and scenes from rural America, urban America and the American Southwest. It unites some of the strongest works in the Museum's collection and explores a collective image of America based on its diverse physical spaces. September 28 also serves as the unveiling of the important new acquisition Wichita, a painting by internationally acclaimed photorealist Robert Cottingham (b. 1935). The painting depicts the top of the tower at Mid-Continent Airport as it appeared from its construction in 1953 until the airport renovations of the 1980s. Cottingham featured the neon letters "WICHITA" against the green Teco ceramic tiles that once adorned the tower. Painted in 1985, Wichita was first shown in an exhibition of American Realism organized by the Wichita Art Museum that same year.

The galleries that housed the Museum's permanent collection and the additional second floor galleries were closed in early May in order for a roof repair to be completed. The galleries housing the permanent collection will reopen on September 28 at 5:00 p.m., another section of galleries will open October 14, 2007 and house Art of the Needle: Masterpiece Quilts from the Shelburne Museum, and the remainder core galleries will reopen October 21, 2007 and feature Kansas Quilts from the Prairie Quilt Guild.

The Wichita Art Museum opened in 1935. It is home to The Roland P. Murdock Collection, one of the premier collections of American Art in the country. The Museum is proud to be supported through public and private funds, owned by the City of Wichita and managed by a private entity, Wichita Art Museum, Inc. Located at 1400 West Museum Boulevard, the Museum and Museum store are open Sunday noon – 5 p.m., and Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visit : www.wichitaartmuseum.org