{"id":51536,"date":"2016-10-25T12:08:42","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T17:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/?p=51536"},"modified":"2016-10-24T16:18:52","modified_gmt":"2016-10-24T21:18:52","slug":"spencers-grand-reopening-reconnects-the-lawrence-community-with-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/2016\/10\/25\/spencers-grand-reopening-reconnects-the-lawrence-community-with-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Spencer’s Grand Reopening Reconnects the Lawrence Community with Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Oct.15, Spencer Museum of Art re-opened to the public after 18 months of renovation with a series of activities for KU students and Lawrence community to engage in. <\/span><\/p>\n

The grand reopening day started at 10 am all the way through to 7 pm, ending with the concert \u201cResonant Vessels\u201d by the KU Choirs. The director of the museum Saralyn Reece Hardy said they put together\u00a0the grand reopening with various activities because the museum has missed the people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a meeting pl\"img_1854\"ace for the community and the university,\u201d Hardy said. \u201cIt\u2019s a meeting place for art across the globe. We missed our friends. We missed all the people and the energy that people bring in to a space\u2026 This is really a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beginning with the African Drum Ensemble, Saralyn said it in some way symbolized the wish for the museum to reverberate. The museum invited many artists to the reopening to put on face painting, kite making, material painting and drawing exchange which attracted many families and little children.<\/p>\n

On\u00a0campus, Saralyn said they also want KU students to see the museum as a place they can go to.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we want is the KU students to feel like this is their place\u2026\u201d Hardy said. \u201cWe really want this to feel like home, like a place for the mind and for the imagination.\u201d
\n\"img_1756\"<\/p>\n

The Brodys came back to the museum with their two little girls after a long wait due to the renovation, and Simon Brody said the museum is a place to cultivate their daughters\u2019 interests in art, who have both been in the art school.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came here a while ago for the art cart, and she was probably two years old, and it was kind of lost on her,\u201d Simon said. \u201cIt\u2019s really good timing for us that this is available because she\u2019s always been wanting to do art projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like the Brodys, Saras Wati brought her daughter here to appreciate the art and learn about the past in a visual way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe museum has a lot of historical knowledge, and I want my kids to know history,\u201d Wati said. \u201cThere are other events\u2026 like drawing and painting, so it\u2019s a great time to know history as well as to have a good afternoon here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doug Bergston, who works\u00a0at the museum, said he came from big cities like New York with large amount of fine art and accidentally ended up in Kansas. He said visiting the museum made him feel like he can settle in Kansas because of the depth of the collection at the Spencer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really grounded me here,\u201d Bergston said, \u201clike \u2018Ok, I\u2019m going to be ok here, it at least has the right kind of civilization. It\u2019s got these kind of work here.\u2019 I feel much more at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Specifically for the reopening, Bergston was working with material painting, which attracted many kids and their families to participate in. He said quilter Marla Jackson, an artist the museum works close with, cut many pieces of different fabrics with different colors for people to glue on a replica separated into big color fields with no color. The original art they chose is <\/span>Landscape<\/span><\/i> by Birger Sandz\u00e9n.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"img_1761\"Dance, a form of moving art, is also incorporated into the reopening. Students and faculty from the Department of Dance performed improvised modern dance. Dancer Sabrina Castillo said sometimes people can forget that there is more art than still paintings. Junior\u00a0Kayla Wegley said she appreciates that the museum invited moving arts to be a part of the reopening.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s such a big part of us as dancers, like how can we incorporate other forms of art into how we move, into how we use choreography,\u201d Wegley said.<\/span><\/p>\n

They are both glad that another art venue is open to the public and KU students.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really neat that they bring the community on to the campus,\u201d Castillo said. \u201cWe have this amazing facility now that\u2019s open to anybody. I think sometimes colleges can miss that aspect of it. It\u2019s not just an academic learning place, it\u2019s something that everybody can come to.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

If you want to learn more about\u00a0the renovation, click here<\/a>\u00a0for a piece written by KJHK’s own Jordan Winter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of The Spencer Museum.<\/p>\n