Curated by Timothy A. Schuler and Derek Hamm
May 4 – May 25, 2019
Public Works-2 (detail) Derek Hamm
Opening Reception | May 4 |3 -5 pm
Panel | 4 pm
Panelists: Christy Davis, executive director of the Symphony in the Flint Hills; Jim Hoy, folk historian and author; Luke Koch, stone mason and owner of Koch Construction Specialties; and Hesse McGraw, a principal and curator at El Dorado Inc.
Refreshments | Free admission
Since before European settlement, the distinct landscape of the Flint Hills has both subtly and dramatically determined the shape and character of the built environment. Through an examination of the region’s architecture — the hidden, the everyday, and the aspirational — this exhibition will investigate the complex relationships between buildings, landscape, and culture.
The exhibition will feature original work by photographic artist Elise Kirk, assistant professor of photo media at the University of Kansas, along with other artists whose work explores the built environment of the Flint Hills. Also included will be a curated selection of contemporary architecture by El Dorado Inc. of Kansas City, Ben Moore Studio of Manhattan, Rod Harms and Stephanie Rolley of Manhattan, and the Kansas State University Design + Make Studio.
A panel discussion will be held on Saturday, May 4, at 4 pm. Panelists include Christy Davis, executive director of the Symphony in the Flint Hills; Jim Hoy, folk historian and author of Flint Hills Cowboys: Tales from the Tallgrass Prairie; Luke Koch, stone mason and owner of Koch Construction Specialities; and Hesse McGraw, a principal and curator at El Dorado Inc.
The exhibition is part of a larger exploration into the future of the Flint Hills that will be published in Places Journal, which is based in San Francisco and produces public scholarship on architecture, landscape and urbanism.
Timothy Schuler and and Derek Hamm grew up together on the edge of the Flint Hills in Marion County. They have remained close over the years despite living long distances apart, and their work has slowly merged over the years — Timothy is a journalist who has come to write primarily about design and landscape architecture, and Derek is a designer whose personal work is focused on land and community in rural places.
Timothy pitched an essay on architecture in the Flint Hills to Places Journal, and he and Derek applied for funding from Humanities Kansas to produce a public exhibition based on the piece. They have been working with local architects, ranchers, historians, photographers and others for the past few months to put together the exhibition.
TIMOTHY SCHULER is an award-winning journalist whose writing focuses on the built and natural environments. He is a contributing editor at Landscape Architecture Magazine, and his writing has also appeared in Monocle, Metropolis, Curbed, CityLab, Next City, and FLUX Hawaii, among others. Based in Honolulu, he is a native Kansan.
DEREK HAMM is a designer and educator living in central Kansas. He teaches graphic design at Tabor College in his hometown of Hillsboro, produces socially-engaged projects with local communities, runs the design studio Prairie People with his wife, Katherine, co-manages The Bank Art Space in Matfield Green, and helps coordinate the Tallgrass Artist Residency based around the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.
The exhibition is a project of the Center for Living Education which is the nonprofit that facilitates The Bank Art Space, sponsors Emma Chase Friday Night Music in Cottonwood Falls, and helped found the inaugural Tallgrass Artist Residency.
The exhibit is made possible with the support of Humanities Kansas, Places Journal, The Volland Store Fund
