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K-State Today

September 19, 2016

Flint Hills Art Show to benefit Konza Prairie

Submitted by Jill Haukos

Fire on the prairie

Meet participating artists during the opening reception of the eighth annual Visions of the Flint Hills Benefit and Sale from 6-9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7, at the Buttonwood Art Space, 3013 Main, Kansas City, Missouri.

Gallery hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday or by appointment, 816-285-9040.

The exhibition includes more than 100 artworks by artists throughout the U.S. that are inspired by the Flint Hills of Kansas. Once covering more than 750 million acres, the Flint Hills represent the last expanse of intact tallgrass prairie in the nation and the best opportunity for sustained preservation of this unique habitat that once covered the Great Plains. Purchases of art during this exhibit will further the research, education and preservation of this unique ecosystem.  

The sale runs through Nov. 25 and net proceeds from the event will benefit the Friends of the Konza Prairie, a nonprofit organization.  

Konza Prairie is dedicated to a three-fold mission of long-term ecological research, education and prairie conservation.

"That three-fold mission of research, education, and conservation is vitally important, but you can't really understand the passion that drives those activities until you see the art the Flint Hills inspires. When an artist hauls canvas, paint and an easel out to paint a stretch of grass and sky, an intimacy is created that takes on a life of its own. When a photographer chases a fire at night to catch the bright necklace circling a hill, that devotion to capturing how people relate to their land enriches our understanding," said Diane Barker, past president of Friends of Konza Prairie. "This is a great show because it celebrates not only beauty but an enduring dependence all people have on the place that shelters and feeds them. A similar passion for the natural world brings both scientists and artists to the prairie."

"Come celebrate this unique landscape and help us protect it for future generations," she said.