Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art
The Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art is K-State’s art museum. Its permanent collection of over 8,500 objects focuses on regional artists, subjects, and concerns. Classes and individuals can make appointments to view artworks not currently on display. Artists and topics represented in the museum’s temporary exhibitions are not limited to this area, but instead range widely and aim to bring new art experiences to our community.
The museum is home to the Prairie Studies Initiative, an umbrella for bringing together experts from many disciplines to better understand the prairie and high plains of Kansas and the region. The initiative organizes exhibitions, long-term projects, film screenings, panel discussions, and more, often in collaboration with other units and community partners.
The museum’s staff includes several experienced Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) facilitators and trainers. VTS discussions of art images can be used to strengthen viewing, critical thinking, and communication skills. Around the U.S., VTS is becoming an increasingly popular tool for helping people in medicine and other scientific fields hone observation and evidence-based reasoning skills and become more effective communicators.
Although many people think of exhibitions as the main way to collaborate with the campus art museum, there are many other ways to work with the staff and audiences of the museum that are programmatic and more easily scheduled. Director Linda Duke (lduke@ksu.edu) will be happy to discuss ideas for outreach and research collaborations and, when appropriate, to connect you with staff members most aligned with your ideas.
