News bites: Art and basketball
plus an arts funding update + exhibition crash course
Photo of the week: "A Game of Growth,"
Artist and art teacher Taylor McQueary poses with "A Game of Growth," on view at 509 E. Douglas Ave. McQueary created the installation with her students at West High School as part of Downtown Wichita's "Bouncing through Downtown: Art and Basketball" project. Funded by a grant from the City of Wichita, the downtown organization commissioned three local artists to create storefront art in celebration of the 2025 NCAA Men's Basketball Championships' first- and second-round games recently hosted at Intrust Bank Arena. Check out the other artists and installations, which are on view from downtown sidewalks through April 7.
Trace Salzbrenner explains the most recent threat to Kansas' already meager arts funding. In this breakdown, learn what the Kansas Arts Commission does and why advocates lobbied to save it.
Trace Salzbrenner
A $1 million KAC budget is $500,000 less than the previous year's instead of the $1 million cut passed by the Kansas Senate.
ICYMI: WAM director talks free admission on NPR
"Going to free admission was the right thing for us to do — it serves our mission to connect people and art. It's a signal to our community that we are here for them, that we are a resource, that they are not only welcome to visit, but encouraged to visit, and that we have removed barriers that may have stood in place of that."
— Molly McFerson, director and CEO of the Wichita Art Museum, as quoted on All Things Considered. WAM began offering free general admission in 2023.
Learn the ins and outs of exhibiting your work with a free 'crash course'
Teri Mott and I founded the SHOUT in part because we want to make it easier for both artists and audiences to navigate the arts and culture landscape. So I was thrilled to participate in Mark Arts’ first Artist Bootcamp earlier this month. I presented about how to write an artist bio and exhibition statement, Phillip Frangenberg of Wichita Frameworks discussed how to display and print work, and Angie Evans of Art House 310 talked about how to navigate the world of exhibitions. Over the course of two sessions, we shared with more than 75 artists.
Evans turned her presentation into a free PDF download you can snag from the Art House 310 online shop. The 11-page document covers the difference between juried and non-juried exhibitions, researching galleries, keeping an inventory, navigating contracts, and much more. If you want to begin exhibiting your work, this is a great place to start — and Art House 310 is currently reviewing applications for 2026 exhibitions. —Emily Christensen
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