By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays Arts Council will feature two exhibits by Topeka artist Cally Krallman during the Summer Art Walk, which will be 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday.
“Waterways & Byways of the Prairie” will be featured in the main gallery with “Along the Santa Fe Trail” in the Founder’s Gallery through Aug. 10. Krallman works primarily in oil and acrylic.
“It is all these incredible prairie scenes from different parts of the state,” Brenda Meder, HAC executive director, said of “Waterways & Byways of the Prairie.” “They are not of one particular place or representing one particular moment on the Kansas prairie or representing one particular season.”
For “Along the Santa Fe Trail,” Krallman visited locations along the historic Santa Fe Trail, including locations in Kansas. She created paintings depicting how those places look today. Visitors will be able to locate the scenes on a trail map that will be displayed with the exhibit.
Brief descriptions of the locations and their history associated with the trail will accompany the paintings as well.
The Santa Fe Trail was founded in 1822 and was an important north/south trade route between Franklin, Mo., and what would become Santa Fe, N.M. The trail came nearest to this area at Larned.
Visitors to the exhibit can see the topography change as they move from one painting to the next.
“If people want to take the time, they can follow that line. They can literally walk the Santa Fe Trail through the art in this room,” Meder said.
Brian Hutchinson, a member of the FHSU art faculty, guided an alternative-methods printmaking workshop this summer. Prints from that class will be on display in the Hays Arts Center Annex, 1010 Main St. Hutchinson also taught FHSU Secondary Art Education students this spring who worked with Hays High School students to create an installation project that will be in the annex.
Also in the annex will be photographs from the 16 HAC Summer Youth Photography class students and paintings and photography by Bruce Burkholder.
Although the spring and fall art walks are usually twice as large as the summer walk, Meder said the Summer Art Walk is still worth the time.
“Even though there are just 13 sites … it is the most delightful array of things to see and do — all focused on creativity, originality and the arts and design, but probably one of the most diverse and unique collectively that we have ever had,” she said.
John Makings, a psychotherapist from Great Bend, will bring his handcrafted drums for an impromptu drum circle at the Union Pacific Park and Pavilion. He is not a music therapist, but has used music therapy in his work.
“Drum circles are a very wonderful, creative, inclusionary kind of experience and something that is fun to engage in because of the simple rhythms and how [easy] it is to do. Music therapy is a wonderful,” Meder said. “So children or adults come and look at John’s drums and bang around a little bit and engage in a drum circle experience, but it is not something formal. It is not a concert. It is an interactive engagement experience in a collective community drum circle.”
Frank Werth will have Elvis Presley replica costumes on display at Couture for Men, 1111 Main.
“He is bringing in an array of his outfits, which are reproductions down to details of Elvis Presley costumes,” Meder said. “Costume design is an incredible art form whether it is for theater or movies or various stage shows.”
Mary Kay Schippers will be at Regeena’s, 1013 Main, to sign copies of her book, “A Year on the Family Farm.”
“I love it when we can incorporate the literary arts in some capacity,” Meder said. “We do recognize it as an awesome art form. The literary arts, the performing arts, the visual arts — they are all central to who and what the arts represent in our community.”
The Hays Community Theatre will feature five different artists (see the complete schedule below) as well as mermaid face painting by Alexandra Herrman to promote the HCT’s summer performances of “The Little Mermaid.” Meder described it as a mini art walk of its own.
eyeSMILE Vision and Dental, 1300 Main, will be a stop on the walk for the first time this summer. Visitors will be able to get a glimpse of the renovations that have been completed to that historic downtown Hays building that was once a service station.
The art walk will be extended into Saturday with a Summer Polka Party from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Hays Public Library. The Hot Shots polka band will play followed by the showing of the documentary “Herman Dinges: Colorado’s King of Christmas and Polka.” Dinges is originally from Schoenchen.
“He was also incredibly well known in Denver for his incredible, huge Christmas displays,” Meder said. “Before there was a Clark Griswold and ‘Christmas Vacation,’ there was Herman Dinges, and he is very proud of that.”
See a complete schedule below:
