Community Calendar

Join us for a special storytime featuring this year's Kansas Reads To Preschoolers selection: "Little Nita's Big Idea" by Anna W. Bardaus. For ages 2-6 and families.

Children will develop literacy skills through active listening, singing, movement, and sharing a love of stories in a group setting. Please note, this program will not be held on 11/27.

The urge to create or possess a visual representation of a specific person – a portrait – is present throughout history. Portraits are created for many reasons: from sentimental to celebratory, for public or private viewing, as memorials, and as icons. .

Until the introduction of photography in the 1840s, portraits were rendered by artists in both two and three-dimensional mediums such as paintings and sculptures.

The Museum’s collection includes a variety of portraits, most of which depict local people. In this exhibition, we learn of portraiture and the people portrayed.

On view during regular Museum hours

March 2025 - March 2026

Tues-Fri 11am-4pm, Sat & Sun 1-5pm

Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum - 204 S Main

Located in the Musem's Lois Kay Walls Gallery - 3rd Floor

We are a group of individuals practicing cultivation of the mind. All ages and people are welcome. Each week we have a thirty minute guided meditation followed by discussion. Our topics include meditation practice and living a life of compassion and contemplation. You do not need to have any experience to join and you will be welcomed by a very loving group of individuals. This is not a religious gathering. Please join us if you could use an hour of deep relaxation!

At the prestigious Mayflower Dog Show, a “documentary film crew” captures the excitement and tension displayed by the eccentric participants in the outrageously hilarious satire Best In Show. This biting send-up exposes the wondrously diverse dog owners who travel from all over America to showcase their four-legged contenders. Mild-mannered salesman Gerry Fleck (Eugene Levy) and his vivacious wife, Cookie (Catherine O’Hara), happily prepare their Norwich Terrier, while shop owner Harlan Pepper (Christopher Guest) hopes his Bloodhound wins top prize. As two upwardly mobile attorneys (Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock) anxiously ready their neurotic Weimaraner and an ecstatically happy gay couple (Michael McKean and John Michael Higgins) dote on their tiny Shih Tzu, inept commentator Buck Laughlin (Fred Willard) vainly attempts to provide colorful tidbits about each breed. Now, with the championship at stake, the owners and the canine competitors strut their stuff for the judges in hopes of taking home the ultimate prize–Best In Show.

The urge to create or possess a visual representation of a specific person – a portrait – is present throughout history. Portraits are created for many reasons: from sentimental to celebratory, for public or private viewing, as memorials, and as icons. .

Until the introduction of photography in the 1840s, portraits were rendered by artists in both two and three-dimensional mediums such as paintings and sculptures.

The Museum’s collection includes a variety of portraits, most of which depict local people. In this exhibition, we learn of portraiture and the people portrayed.

On view during regular Museum hours

March 2025 - March 2026

Tues-Fri 11am-4pm, Sat & Sun 1-5pm

Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum - 204 S Main

Located in the Musem's Lois Kay Walls Gallery - 3rd Floor

Get inspired and make a fruit salad like Nita from the 2025 Kansas Reads to Preschoolers selection "Little Nita's Big Idea" by Anna W. Bardaus. This is a drop-in craft for ages 4-11.

Join us in celebrating the accomplishments of Wichita’s Sound of the Future at our Youth Orchestras concerts in the 2025-2026 season. The Youth Symphony, Youth Concert Band, and Youth Wind Ensemble perform on Saturday evening, and the Introductory String Ensemble, Youth Chamber Players, and Repertory Orchestra perform on Sunday. And the best news? One ticket admits you to both performances – Saturday AND Sunday!

Saturday: 11/22 - 7:30 PM
Sunday: 11/23 - 3:00 PM

Wichitans desired to be modern since the City’s beginning in 1870. The Modern era had been evolving for a century at that time and it would take another 100 years before Wichita achieved a “modern” look. World War II (1939-1945) greatly disrupted development in design.

Over the next two decades, postwar prosperity propelled design of the modern era to its zenith. By that time, Wichita’s modernization was most apparent in its new urban 1969 skyline, which remains in place today.

In the 1950s and 1960s, modern design from architecture to fashions and furnishings became familiar as people followed popular trends replacing old with new. Visual art and advertising led the way for the modern look - which by the 1960s, people referred to as “Mod.” This new look coincided with changes as society became more pluralistic and increasingly aware of its diversity. The post-war baby boom gave rise to a prominent youth culture creating new markets. New technology improving the ability to travel and share information led to wide acceptance of modern style.

This modern sensibility cast a popular and unifying mindset. This era featured non-representational abstract design to create engaging effects rather than portray objects or scenes. The effects were both dazzling and confusing, challenging everyone’s perception of reality. Our visual world was forever changed.

(This exhibition follows (and is directly patterned after) the Museum’s previous exhibit Art Deco on the Plains. It takes the timeline forward to explore modern design experienced locally in the 1950s and 1960s. The exhibition is a feature of the Lois Kay Walls Local Visual Art History Series.)

On view through 2025 in the Slawson Gallery, 4th floor.

Tues-Fri 11am-4pm, Sat & Sun 1-5pm

Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum - 204 S Main

The urge to create or possess a visual representation of a specific person – a portrait – is present throughout history. Portraits are created for many reasons: from sentimental to celebratory, for public or private viewing, as memorials, and as icons. .

Until the introduction of photography in the 1840s, portraits were rendered by artists in both two and three-dimensional mediums such as paintings and sculptures.

The Museum’s collection includes a variety of portraits, most of which depict local people. In this exhibition, we learn of portraiture and the people portrayed.

On view during regular Museum hours

March 2025 - March 2026

Tues-Fri 11am-4pm, Sat & Sun 1-5pm

Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum - 204 S Main

Located in the Musem's Lois Kay Walls Gallery - 3rd Floor

Join us in celebrating the accomplishments of Wichita’s Sound of the Future at our Youth Orchestras concerts in the 2025-2026 season. The Youth Symphony, Youth Concert Band, and Youth Wind Ensemble perform on Saturday evening, and the Introductory String Ensemble, Youth Chamber Players, and Repertory Orchestra perform on Sunday. And the best news? One ticket admits you to both performances – Saturday AND Sunday!

Saturday: 11/22 - 7:30 PM
Sunday: 11/23 - 3:00 PM

Children ages 2 and under will develop a love of learning as they sing, dance, and enjoy simple stories. Caregivers will learn tips to encourage their child's early learning development. Please note, this program will not be held on 11/11.

The urge to create or possess a visual representation of a specific person – a portrait – is present throughout history. Portraits are created for many reasons: from sentimental to celebratory, for public or private viewing, as memorials, and as icons. .

Until the introduction of photography in the 1840s, portraits were rendered by artists in both two and three-dimensional mediums such as paintings and sculptures.

The Museum’s collection includes a variety of portraits, most of which depict local people. In this exhibition, we learn of portraiture and the people portrayed.

On view during regular Museum hours

March 2025 - March 2026

Tues-Fri 11am-4pm, Sat & Sun 1-5pm

Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum - 204 S Main

Located in the Musem's Lois Kay Walls Gallery - 3rd Floor

Children will develop literacy skills through active listening, singing, movement, and sharing a love of stories in a group setting. Please note, this program will not be held on 11/11. For ages 0-6.