Water damage will leave part of Wichita museum closed for months

The exhibition space at the Mid-America All-Indian Center will be closed for the next two to three months while it cleans up damage from a water pipe break earlier this week, the city announced Friday.

Officials said water from the pipe flooded portions of the museum’s exhibition space, though none of the artifacts were damaged.

Staff at the museum noticed the leak at around 9:45 a.m. Tuesday, after they “expressed that the humidity level was high in the museum,” according to Jessica Jones, marketing coordinator with the city’s Department of Arts and Cultural Services.

Staff noticed a small leak in the northeast corner of the building.

In total, the exhibition space was covered in about a quarter-inch of water, Jones said.

“Luckily all of the artifacts are on pedestals and covered, so that helped from them becoming wet,” Jones said. “Just the pedestals touched the water.”

Museum staff “worked quickly to move materials into the museum’s vault,” according to the city news release.

Crews will spend the next couple of months repairing the water pipe and fixing the damage to the museum’s exhibition space.

The museum’s event rental space was not affected, and rentals will go on as scheduled.

The gift shop also will remain open.

This story was originally published January 13, 2017 at 12:14 PM with the headline "Water damage will leave part of Wichita museum closed for months."