By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
This year’s Winter Art Walk will be anchored by the 35th annual 5 State Photography Exhibition at the Hays Arts Center.
The art walk will be 7 to 9 p.m. Friday.
One hundred sixty-one photographs were selected out of 325 entries for the photography exhibit.
“The beauty of it is the numbers fluctuate a little bit, but the caliber stays really, really strong,” said Brenda Meder, director of the Hays Arts Council. “I am very, very pleased again with the show and the diversity of the subject matter and the processes and the sizes and the ages and the experiencial ranges of the artists who submitted them.”
Artists competed for honors in three categories: nature, people and open. In each category $500 was divided among four winners. The contest also awards eight to 12 jurors recognition honorable mention awards.
This is the largest Winter Art Walk staged by the Hays Arts Council, Meder said. Twenty-three sites are showcasing 30 artists or groups.
“It is very diverse,” she said. “I also feel this is probably the most diverse art walk that I think I have ever put together. I say that because we have art work on display from elementary, middle and secondary arts students in USD 489. Elementary work is at the library. Middle school is at A2Z Escape. High school art is at Breathe Coffee House. They are all exemplary. We have amazing art teachers, who are really getting some really amazing things from their art students.”
Two exhibits feature artists who have intellectual disabilities. This will include paintings and drawings by Michael Leiker at the Downtown Visitor’s Center, 1200 Main, and the holiday creations of the men of Bethesda Place, which will be at the Artists@Work Studio, 717 Main.
Two local businessmen will be featured in the art walk as well, Tim Chapman and Randy Schlitter.
The Hays Arts Center Annex will feature Tim Chapman and Bruce Burkholder. Chapman recently took a seat on the Hays Arts Council board, but people in the community may know him better for his work with Fort Hays State University Foundation.
Chapman does both 2-D art in acrylic and oil as well a bronze sculpture. Meder said Chapman has a certain amount of whimsy as well as movement in his art.
Schlitter, founder and CEO of the Rans Corporation, will exhibit the “1,000 Cards Project” in acrylic, pencil and mixed media at L&M, 113 W. 11th.
“First and foremost, the first parts of their lives they were driven by a passion for art,” Meder said of these men.
Although the art walk will open in all locations at 7 p.m., some locations will be open early. See the schedule below for details.
One of the sites that will be open early is the Sternberg Museum. Free admission will be offered between 4 and 6 p.m. Friday to view “Botswana and the Okavango Delta: A Photographic Safari to Wild Africa” by Marilyn Wasinger.
All three locations on the FHSU campus: the Moss Thorns Gallery, FHSU painting lab and Center for Applied Technology and Sculpture will also open early 6 p.m.
Styles Dance Centre, 1501 Main St., will present an arts showcase for Jana’s Campaign, which will start at 6 p.m. Jana’s Campaign seeks to increase awareness of gender and relationship violence
“[This is] another unique and wonderful statement about the arts,” Meder said. “That is a performing, literary and visual arts showcase, but it is not the arts for the art’s sake. It is utilizing and showcasing and bringing the arts to the forefront as a an incredible tool for awareness of a very important issue.”
Johnny and Sherri Matlock will open their new 809 Studio for the Hays High Chamber Singers, 809 studio performances, piano by Jaewon Sohn and Peter Lee as well as art from the FHSU Kansas Academy of Mathematics & Science students.
“Again an incredible rich diversity of the arts community, the business community, the education community and awareness of causes in the community and service all coming together in a cohesive fashion for a night where arts is central to any and all of these things,” Meder said.
