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The Mulvane Art Museum was Kansas' First
Art Museum and
named after Newcomerstown's own Joab Mulvane.
(Photo courtesy of Mulvane Art Museum)
Mulvane Art Museum
Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas
Mulvane Art Museum,
Topeka,
Kansas - The
Mulvane Art Museum was founded in 1922 with a bequest
from
Joab Mulvane and is one of the oldest Museums west of
the Mississippi.
Joab R. Mulvane came to
Kansas in 1876 and was perhaps the most successful
Kansan of his generation. The breadth of his interests has
shaped modern Kansas and far beyond especially in shipping
logistics and the strategic advantage of Kansas as a single
point distribution hub for North America. He was president
of at least nine railroads and presided over the Chicago,
Kansas and Western Railway Company, as its President, when
it built over 900 miles of rail lines for the Santa Fe. He
was married to Miss Sarah A. Ross of Ohio who hailed from
the famous Whitaker Steel Family.
Accredited by the
American Association of Museums in 1998, the Museum
houses a collection of approximately 4,000 objects from
around the world including paintings, prints, drawings,
sculptures, photographs and decorative art. While
international in scope, the Museum’s collection focuses on
the works of artists from Kansas and the Midwest and has a
concentration in American art of the 20th century. Most
notable on an international level in the print area is
Salvador Dali,
Robert Motherwell,
Robert Rauschenberg,
Robert Stackhouse,
Jacob Lawrence,
Pablo Picasso,
Albrecht Durer,
Francisco Goya,
Joseph Albers,
Philip Pearlstein,
Rockwell Kent,
Marc Chagall, and
Kathe Kollwitz.
On a regional level we have works on paper by
Birger Sandzen,
Thomas Hart Benton,
John Steuart Curry,
Robert Lostutter, Frank Peers, Paul Mannen, Margaret
Whittemore, Mary Huntoon, and Karen Kunc. Regional,
national, and international painters of note include
Albert Bierstadt,
Albert Bloch,
Philip Guston,
Moses and
Raphael Soyer,
Hale Woodruff, Joan Foth,
Fritz Scholder,
Auguste RodIn, David Hicks Overmyer, Randall Exon,
George Stone,
Marvin Cone, and Robert Sudlow.
The collection includes beautiful works in glass by Jon
Kuhn, and sculptures by Kentucky folk artists. The
collection also has photographs by Alfred Steiglitz, Larry
Schwarm, and will soon add a Gordon Parks to its collection.
Following a tornado in 1966, that destroyed most of the
buildings on campus, the present complex was built. Due to
the nature of the Mulvane Trust, the original building’s
native limestone exterior was unchanged; however the
severely damaged interior was gutted and connected to the
new Garvey Fine Arts Center which also houses the Art
History, Music and Theater Departments.
The Museum underwent another renovation project, completed
in 2006, that increased exhibition space to 5,000 sq. ft.,
provided secure storage for the collection, art preparation
areas, and significantly enlarged the art education program
with the creation of ArtLab, a 1,500 sq. ft. hands-on art
experience center and the renovation of four education
classrooms.
We have a staff of 8, employ 12 Art Instructors that teach
our in-house and outreach programs and 12 work study
students. We also have 100’s of volunteers. Museum hours are
Tuesday-10-7, Wednesday-Friday 10-5, Saturday & Sunday 1-4.
Admission to the Museum and ArtLab is free and open to the
public. We have 350 members and last year over 36,000
visitors to the Museum and the ArtLab.
Exhibits: In addition to showing works from the collection
the Museum also hosts traveling exhibitions. Special
exhibitions have included: European and American
Masterpieces from the William I. Koch Collection, Walter O.
Evans Collection of African American Art, and Visual
Encounters with Paraguay: Celebrating Forty Years of
Kansas-Paraguay Partnership. During November, 2009, the
Museum commissioned Patrick Dougherty, an international
known sculptor, to design and build a site specific
sculpture on the front lawn of the Museum made with native
saplings. The sculpture will last approximately 2 years
before the saplings become brittle and then are returned to
the earth.
Art Resources for Topeka, the Museum’s education program,
provides extensive community outreach to several thousand
children at after school sites, public and private school
classrooms and preschool centers throughout the region-all
are presented free of charge through grants and fundraisers.
In-house art classes, public lectures, family events and
community educational experiences for people of all ages and
abilities are also offered. Treasure chests, Library,
Teacher Resource, Curriculum Plans on-line. Our Bus Fund
allows children, whose schools cannot afford to send groups
due to their budget cuts, to visit the Museum by providing
the transportation fee.
The Mulvane Art Museum is supported by
Washburn University, the Friends of the Mulvane Art
Museum, Inc., The Women’s Board and through gifts from
corporations, foundations and individuals.
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