Art meets nature in new $3.5 million garden at Wichita Art Museum (+video)

Hundreds of people strolled through the Wichita Art Museum’s new art garden on Saturday with food, folding chairs or a pooch in tow.

Saturday was the grand opening for the garden, which has been in the making for about three years. The garden was funded entirely by private donors and is open 24/7.

“To think it was flat and grass, with some trees and some shrubs, to this,” museum director Patricia McDonnell said, gesturing toward the sloping terraces of the garden.

The garden is designed to represent a natural Kansas prairie environment, “but how do you do that in a really exquisite way?” McDonnell said.

“We didn’t want a manicured French garden, we didn’t want an English rose garden,” she said. “People will see a lot of familiar plantings, and yet there are any number that are really pretty special.”

Two weddings have already been booked for the space, McDonnell said.

The idea to install the art garden originated in 2012, when two of the museum’s benefactors, Paula Downing and Martie Walker, discussed it over lunch.

“We had lawn, we had trees, we had shrubs – it was all pretty average,” McDonnell said. “It wasn’t memorable, and that wasn’t acceptable for them. Between them, we had a million dollars. We knew that ... for gardens, that would go a long way.”

McDonnell said she hopes the art garden will be a “welcome mat” for the community to access the art museum.

“Somebody asked me ‘What are the (art garden’s) hours?’ and it really stumped me for a minute,” she said. “Hours? Oh, you think this is going to be like Botanica. There’s no gate, there’s no hours, there’s no charge. It’s here for you morning, noon and night.”

She said the garden will also help soften the building’s perception, which some refer to as “an imposing fortress.”

“This garden softens that,” she said. “Really, I think it improves the architecture by quite a bit because it just makes it a warmer building.”

Wichita Mayor Jeff Longwell dedicated the art garden Saturday morning, praising the generosity of the museum’s donors.

“You make it easy for the mayor of the 49th-largest city in the United States to love you, and I thank you for loving Wichita,” he said. “We invite the community to come and stroll through this new beautiful space – stop and contemplate, throw a Frisbee and enjoy the confluence of art and nature.”

This story was originally published September 26, 2015 at 7:45 PM with the headline "Art meets nature in new $3.5 million garden at Wichita Art Museum (+video)."