Wichita museums promise variety of things to do in major birthday year

One is an octogenarian, one is a teenager, and one is in between. This year, the Wichita Art Museum, the Kansas Aviation Museum and Exploration Place are all celebrating significant birthdays: 80, 25 and 15 years, respectively.

As well-established as they are, the museums still have the ability to delight and surprise. Here’s a look at five things to do at each of them.

1. Stroll the museum’s new Art Garden when it opens this fall. Plans call for the landscaping to be a work of art itself, with undulating land and lots of trees, bushes, wild grasses and perennials. The view will vary as you circle the building, from sweeping vistas of the Arkansas River to more intimate settings. The museum’s outdoor sculpture collection is also being rearranged for heightened appreciation. Museum officials call the garden an 80th birthday present to the city.

2. Ever wonder what a wheat field made of 9 million glass beads would look like? Find out this summer when a room-sized exhibit called “Gather” opens.

3. Old-school photography gets its due in the “Five Alchemists” exhibit through May 31. The show features artists who use vintage photographic processes and all sorts of unusual “canvasses.”

4. Attend one of the “Art Chatter” sessions. Held each spring and fall, the programs feature talented people from diverse fields giving entertaining and very succinct presentations about their professions and passions. The next one, from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, features an author, artist, architect, musician, photographer and landscape artist. General admission is $10 at the door (free for members); the event includes a cash bar.

5. Look back at rural Kansas in 1975 – yes, it’s really been 40 years – through photographs commissioned by the University of Kansas that are on loan from the Smithsonian Institution. Opening this fall, the exhibit is called “No Mountains in the Way” and includes some photos by noted Wichita photographer Larry Schwarm.

Details

Hours: Closed Mondays; open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, noon-5 p.m. Sundays

Where: 1400 W. Museum Blvd.

Cost: Adults $7; seniors (60 and older) $5; students with ID and ages 5-17, $3; members and children under 5, free

Phone: 316-268-4921

Website: wichitaartmuseum.org

1. Touch things. The museum prides itself on its “please do touch” policy. Want to have your photograph taken next to your grandson who’s sitting on the tire of a B52? Go ahead. Longing to sit in the cockpit of a Beechcraft King Air? Yes, you can.

2. Get as close to flying as you can without leaving the ground. One simulator is housed in an actual Cessna 210 fuselage. While there, talk via radio to another person in the mock control tower. Simulated ground and air radar is part of the simulation.

3. Speaking of towers, the museum’s terminal control tower is open to the public and is the highest point in Wichita (yes, that includes the Epic Center and other downtown buildings). It carries a live feed from both the McConnell and Eisenhower airport towers.

4. Attend “Play on a Plane” at the museum in June. A host of planes are parked on the ramp – 727, 737, KC 135, B52, Learjet 23 and more – and you can go inside them.

5. Cheer on teams of athletes from local high schools during the first Whole World Flightline Combine on March 28. In a series of drills designed to test speed, agility and strength, the athletes will pull a Learjet over a timed course, flip B52 tires, run the museum tower’s stairs and more.

Details

Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Sundays

Where: 3350 S. George Washington Blvd.

Cost: Adults $8.95, seniors (65 and older) $7.95, ages 4-12 $6.95, ages 3 and under free

Phone: 316-683-9242

Website: kansasaviationmuseum.org

1. Visit the new preschool exhibit gallery called “Kansas Kids Connect” when it opens in September. It’s the museum’s first permanent exhibit renovation.

2. Put your spring break to good use by learning about game design and coding during a workshop offered in the Butler Community College Technology Studio.

3. Rent the facility, inside and/or out. Its striking building and 20 acres on the Arkansas River make it ideal for all kinds of events. Corporate picnics are becoming popular in the festival plaza and picnic grove areas. The museum was booked solid with holiday parties in December, and it’s already getting calls for this year.

4. If you’re a teacher, take advantage of Exploration Place’s outreach program. The museum offers Wichita school district curriculum development and teacher training for the Next Generation Science Standards, while its own educators offer scion programming for third and fourth grades in Sumner County.

5. Check out the museum’s special events. There will be a new Riverfest film event, a celebration of Hispanic culture in September and another family-friendly Halloween event called “Spooky Science.” Not to mention the adults-only zombie-themed Museum of Undead, the Gingerbread Village and, of course, the museum’s largest fundraiser, Death by Chocolate, held each spring.

Details

Hours: Closed Mondays; open 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, noon-5 p.m. Sundays

Where: 300 N. McLean Blvd.

Cost: Adults $9.50, seniors (65 and older) $8, ages 3-11 $6, members and ages 2 and under free

Phone: 316-660-0600

Website: exploration.org

This story was originally published March 1, 2015 at 11:49 AM with the headline "Wichita museums promise variety of things to do in major birthday year."