Wichita Attraction
Events & Programs
Botanica, The Wichita Gardens
701 Amidon
Wichita, KS 67203
(316) 264-0448
www.botanica.org
Exploration Place
300 N. McLean Blvd.
Wichita, Ks 67203
(316) 263-3373
(316) 266-4274 (Liz Willis, Head of Development)
www.exploration.org
Regular Hours
Sunday & Monday: noon to 5:00 pm
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday: 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Thursday: 10:00 am to 8:00 pm
Final Friday at Exploration Place, July 25, 6 p.m. - 9 p.m., The Egret Dining Room
What: This month’s Final Friday features The Art of Paul Wingo. He believes that the figure, when used in painting, has a unique potential for expressing the human condition. In the 10 pieces that Wingo will display, he employed media including charcoal, pastel, acrylic, watercolor, and ink. His work here is focusing on the individual’s isolation in the urban setting.
Wingo says what drives his interest in the subject of isolation and emotive work generally is a belief that art offers the artist an opportunity to inspire interpretations of meaning rather than providing definitive answers.
He continues: “For the viewer, the meaning in this work comes from its iconography, as the work describes the shapes and light of a crowded city street. In such imagery, the viewer readily identifies images than imply a need for personal space and a minimum of interaction with other individuals. The view must describe the subject matter through interpretation and briefly experience the uneasiness of the situation.”
Wingo earned a bachelor of fine arts and masters of fine arts in painting from Wichita State University where he now teaches water media, drawing, oil painting, and printmaking. He also teaches at Butler Community College, Wichita Center for the Arts and City Arts of Wichita.
When: Friday, July 25, 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Where: The Egret Dining Room at Exploration Place, wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served.
Other info/Admission: The art showing is free – and no exhibit admission is ever required to visit or eat in The Egret. In addition, during each Final Friday all of EP’s exhibits will be open, including Our Body: The Universe Within, however, admission tickets are required for both.
PLUS: EP is now open late each Thursday and Friday until 9 p.m.
Our Body: The Universe Within
Opening Memorial Day Weekend 2008
Everyone has been waiting for this exhibition to arrive and we are getting closer everyday! Our Body literally goes “under the skin” to reveal the mysteries of the human anatomy through a riveting presentation of fascinating and actual human specimens. Although the exhibition opens Memorial Day Weekend 2008, it’s never too early to purchase your tickets starting Oct. 22 – beat the crowds and possibly even a ticket sell-out!
FINAL FRIDAY AT EXPLORATION PLACE SHOWCASES NEXT ARTIST IN BODY SERIES, SUSAN DE WIT
Friday, June 27, 6:00 - 9:00pm in The Egret Dining Room at Exploration Place, wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served.
Other info/Admission: EP is now open late each Thursday and Friday until 9 p.m. The showcase is free – and no exhibit admission is ever required to visit or eat in The Egret. In addition, during each Final Friday all of EP’s exhibits will be open, including Our Body: The Universe Within, however, admission tickets are required for both.
This month’s Final Friday features the show Reflective Compassion by Susan de Wit. She is a local artist who uses the sculpted, thrown, or molded form to create figurative work. The signature piece for this exhibit is a wall sculpture featuring 99 Buddha masks.
This piece reflects her desire for world peace and is based on Sheldrake’s idea of the 100 Monkeys theory: “When the 100th monkey learns a behavior then this behavior is supposed to manifest in all monkeys. If we could think of ourselves as a Buddha then when the 100th Buddha becomes enlightened will we all become enlightened?” The rest of the artwork in this show deals with the feminine as a form or reflection of compassion.
De Wit is an Arts Partners roster artist. She is taking a hiatus from Newman University where she has been teaching ceramics for the past five years to further her education. De Wit greatly enjoys working with large groups of people to create collaborative art. She also maintains a private studio here in Wichita and is a founding member of Works of HEaRT, Inc., a non-profit that works with local groups to create and preserve community art.
This exhibit is the second to be displayed in EP’s Egret Dining Room that relates to our current national traveling exhibition, Our Body: The Universe Within. Different shows will open each month throughout the exhibit’s run (Our Body ends Oct. 12), celebrating the various ways artists approach and interpret the human body.
Science in Motion Center (SIM Center)
Open daily, call for times.
Tickets are $2 and come in a book of 10 tickets.
This fun area (located next to the CyberDome Theater) includes a carousel, created by master carver Bruce White and the GyroExtreme – a two-person gyroscope, in which you can get buckled into your seat, then roll and tumble (even upside-down) for two minutes. The SIM Center is located in an area that does NOT require exhibit admission to enter. Visitors can buy “Chirpie Tickets” for rides in the SIM. We are calling this part of EP – which also includes the Explore Store, WaterWay Café and CyberDome Theater – a pay-as-you-go area. The idea is that if visitors just have a few minutes to burn, they can enjoy any of these offerings at their leisure.
MiniGolf
$2 admission
MiniGolf is open! Remember to hone your putting skills at our 18-hole putting green, nestled along the Arkansas River – with a great view of the restored Keeper of the Plains!
Great Plains Nature Center
6232 E. 29th St. N.
Wichita, Ks 67220
(316) 683-5499
www.gpnc.org
Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center
1100 N. Plum
Hutchinson, Ks 67501
1 (800) 397-0330
www.cosmo.org
Lake Afton Public Observatory
McArthur Road at 247th St. West in Lake Afton Park
(316) 978-3854
www.wichita.edu/lapo
Sedgwick County Zoo
5555 Zoo Blvd.
Wichita, Ks 67212
(316) 660-WILD
www.scz.org
The Wichita Ice Center
Wichita Ice Center
505 W. Maple
Wichita, Ks. 67213
(316) 337-9199
(316) 337-9155 - fax
Wichita Public Library
223 S. Main
Wichita, Ks 67202
(316) 261-8500
www.wichita.lib.ks.us
All programs are free and open to the public. With 48-hour notice, the Library can provide signed programs and meet other special needs; call 261-8590 for details. Some programs require contacting the hosting branch for registration. See event descriptions for registration dates. Thanks to the Wichita Public Library Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Friends of the Wichita Public Library for making many of these programs possible.
Check the Library's web site for a listing of events.