Source: Martha Scott, 785-532-7718, marthas@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Beth Buchanan, 785-532-7718, bethb@k-state.edu
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
At K-State's Beach Museum of Art
ART HAS HELPED COUPLE FIND THEIR PLACE IN KANSAS
MANHATTAN -- If home is where the heart is, for this couple, it's also where the art is.
Collecting artworks of the Great Plains has helped Marjorie Swann and Bill Tsutsui feel at home in their adopted state of Kansas. To share this with others, part of their personal collection will be on view at Kansas State University's Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art through Aug. 26.
When the University of Kansas professors came to Lawrence in 1993, they felt like outsiders, or "sojourners," as Tsutsui puts it. He's from Texas; she's from Ontario. It wasn't until the couple started collecting pieces by Kansas artists in 1999 that they developed a passion for the local culture.
"Discovering Kansas artistic heritage was a real revelation for us," Tsutsui said. "It turned us on to the Kansas landscape, it ignited a desire to learn more about Kansas history and art, and it made us feel more rooted here in Kansas to the extent that we frankly can't imagine living anywhere else now."
Tsutsui and Swann's collecting has extended from paintings and prints by studio artists to traditional art by American Indians and Kansas crafts such as art pottery, Marlow woodcuts from Americus and Works Progress Administration dolls.
"We love the fact that collecting has allowed us to get to know people whom we otherwise never would have met: artists and their families, fellow collectors, curators and gallery owners, conservators, other scholars doing research, and the diverse community of 'pickers' that frequent estate sales and auctions," Tsutsui said.
"Making Kansas Home: Selections from the Marjorie Swann and Bill Tsutsui Collection" will be displayed in the Beach Museum's Helm Gallery. Consisting of about 40 paintings, prints and ceramic works, the selections provide a storyline of the couple's collecting and research. The exhibition is partially funded by the Kansas Arts Commission.
For more information, call the Beach Museum of Art at 785-532-7718 or drop by the museum on the southeast corner of the K-State campus at 14th Street and Anderson Avenue. Admission is free, and complimentary visitor parking is available adjacent to the facility. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, and 1-5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The museum is closed Mondays.