Museum’s Shades of Strength and Beauty exhibit showcases women artists of color

It was two portraits created in a unique 3D technique — one depicting a regal-looking Black woman with a large gold headwrap and flowing robe and another depicting poet Maya Angelou in an equally stunning headwrap and robe — that were declared our favorites during a recent Friday afternoon visit to check out the current exhibit in The Kansas African American Museum.

“It’s the cool folds,” declared the 11-year-old in our family group of four about what she liked best about the portraits.

Created with Wichita artist Verlene Mahomes’ signature technique of pulling and shaping the canvas into 3D elements, the two portraits are part of an exhibit called “Shades of Strength and Beauty’ at The Kansas African American Museum. Because the exhibit’s original run from March to June fell within TKAAM’s temporary shutdown period, it has been extended to Sept. 5.

Works by women artists from Black, mixed-race, Asian and Latina heritage are represented in the exhibit; a number of the works also portray women of color.

“We wanted to shine a light on female artists of color in Kansas who don’t get a lot of showing or are not featured elsewhere,” said Paris Cunningham, TKAAM’s curator and a participating artist in the exhibit.

Besides showcasing artists of historically underrepresented cultures, the exhibit also is an opportunity to see works by artists with varying levels of experience — from three teenagers to longtime Kansas artists Mahomes and Janice Thacker and even well-known American artists Elizabeth Catlett and Gwendolyn Knight. The works by Catlett and Knight are part of TKAAM’s permanent collection.

The diversity in the artists’ ages, heritage and mediums — from lithographs to paintings to sculptures — impressed our family group. My daughter, who is of mixed race, said she found it inspiring that the exhibit included the works of at least three teenagers because it showed her two daughters that opportunities to express themselves through art are available.

As Cunningham culled through the submissions for the exhibit, she had specifically looked for entries from young artists, she said. That’s because she remembers how significant it was for her when as a high school junior her art was selected for its first public display in the local annual Art That Touches Your Heart event featuring African American artists.

“Shades of Strength and Beauty” is installed in TKAAM’s main gallery, which once served as the congregation area of the former Calvary Baptist Church, 601 N. Water.

If you go, take some time to see the other exhibits, as well. Another gallery on the main floor exhibits various African artifacts, while the second-floor mezzanine gallery includes an abridged version of TKAAM’s “Defining Black Wichita” exhibit that covers the decades of the 1870s to 1930s.

As Wichita celebrates its 150th anniversary, visitors can learn more about the city’s history, including the fact that one of Wichita’s earliest Black pioneers, Richard Robinson, was among the signees of Wichita’s 1870 Articles of Incorporation document. The exhibit also includes information about Wichita’s Black Belt, the city’s early district of Black businesses and churches that surrounded the former Calvary Baptist Church.

Later this year, TKAAM will exhibit what Cunningham calls part two of the “Defining Black Wichita” exhibit, which will cover the decades of the 1940s through the 1970 and focus on the migration of the Black community from the Black Belt to the McAdams-Dunbar area of Wichita and on Wichita’s civil rights movement.

‘Shades of Strength and Beauty’ exhibit at TKAAM

What: A limited-time exhibit featuring women of color artists and subjects

When: now through Saturday, Sept. 5, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, noon-4 p.m. Saturdays

Where: The Kansas African American Museum, 601 N. Water, Wichita

Cost: $6 adults, $5 seniors, $4 youth grades 6-12, $3 for youth kindergarten-grade 5, free for preschoolers

More info: 316-262*7651 or tkaamuseum.org