KMUW Community Calendar

Since 1939, the Historical Museum has been actively collecting and preserving artifacts central to telling our local history’s stories. These artifacts are acquired in a number of ways, including purchases from local thrift shops.

Thrift Finds in the Museum Collection features objects fortunately discovered by Museum staff at local thrift stores. These items, no longer of use to their original owner, can help us to tell the story of our community.

The newest additions in the series include a 1973 leisure suit from Henry's Department Store and a circa 1955 Toni Todd sundress, both found locally at Goodwill (21st & Amidon).

Some notable finds still on view include designs by Halston and Victor Costa, a Nehru jacket retailed by Henry’s department store, and a 1950s Shocker Lounge bowling shirt.

Produced by the Museum, this exhibition was made possible through funding from Stev Overstreet, Alice Smith, the family of Kenneth E Gerhardt, and Goodwill Industries of Kansas

Join us to learn about effective communication with healthcare professionals, having difficult conversations, and developing transition plans. Refreshments provided by WSU Tech. Call (316) 261-8500 or visit wichitalibrary.org/events to register.

Explore creativity with a mixed-media art session hosted by the Teen Advisory Board! Try new techniques and experiment with different materials. All supplies provided - bring your imagination! For ages 12-17.

Grab your boogie shoes and join library staff as we shake our sillies out, practice our dinosaur roars, and more during this hour of family-friendly music and dancing. For ages 4-11.

April is National Poetry Month! Whether you are a seasoned writer or picking up a pen for the first time, this class offers a supportive space to experiment with language and imagery. Call (316) 261-8500 or visit wichitalibrary.org/events to register.

Join a classic high fantasy Dungeons & Dragons campaign! We'll choose a campaign setting and play it throughout the program season. New players welcome! Call (316) 350-3261 or visit wichitalibrary.org/events to register.

Join a classic high fantasy Dungeons & Dragons campaign! We'll choose a campaign setting and play it throughout the program season. New players welcome! Register online or call (316) 261-8500. For ages 12-17.

Revolutsia is a growing collection of shops, small businesses, restaurants and bars made of stacked shipping containers! The space is super rad, for indoor and outdoor community gathering and create event engagement. Located at Central & Volutsia near Downtown Wichita.

Exclusively, just for the night, Haute Handmade Market will pop up with over a dozen makers featured outside each store front!

Add this stop on your First Friday art crawl and shop your favorite makers with a TOP-NOTCH artist line up in a laid back setting with music, food and drinks ... both indoors and outdoors!

Every First Friday

• Friday April 7th
• Friday May 5th
• Friday June 2nd
• Friday July 7th
• Friday Aug 4th
• Friday Sept 1st
• Friday Oct 6th
• Friday Nov 3rd
• Friday Dec 1st

First Friday Food Truck Rally, along with music by DJ O.G.P. Also10 of Wichita's finest food trucks. Free donations to enter the museum.
Fun night out with a friend.

Join us for Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum’s First Friday exhibit opening of Why History Museums Collect Art.

This exhibition is part of the ongoing Lois Kay Walls visual art exhibition series produced by the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum.

Art is not only for Art Museums. If a picture is worth a thousand words, it stands to reason that art can tell us a lot about the times and place where it was produced. Local history museums exist to explore time and place.

Featuring works from C.A. Seward, John Noble, Edmund Davison, Birger Sandzen, Bruce McGrew, and more!

This special exhibit is one of dozens on view throughout the Museum, located in Wichita’s original City Hall building, and open to the public during these extended hours.

Free Admission
Open to the Public
204 S Main Street; Wichita, KS 67203
3rd Floor- Lois Kay Walls Visual Arts Gallery

This solo-exhibition will feature new paintings by artist, Mark Flickinger!

We hope you will join us for our opening reception on First Friday, April 3rd from 5:00pm – 8:00pm!

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ARTIST STATEMENT:

"Mark Flickinger has been weaving his narrative of the American landscape for over two decades. As an instructor at Cowley College since 2001, Mark has shared his passion for Art History, Painting, and Drawing with countless students, and took on the role of department chair in 2015.

Mark holds a Bachelor's degree in Painting and Drawing from Wichita State University and a Master's in Painting from Indiana University. His work has graced galleries nationwide, from Philadelphia to Chicago, and resides in both private and public collections across the globe.

For Mark, painting begins as a deep, immersive response to the world around him. He often finds himself lost in the light, air, and movement of a landscape, which he then captures through oil studies, watercolors, drawings, and photographs. The process continues in the studio, where these memories, combined with tangible elements like rock and plant samples, are transcribed onto canvas. His paintings are more than just depictions; they are explorations of memory, place, and the indescribable beauty that exists in the landscape—a beauty that, as Henry David Thoreau once noted, is only as much as we are prepared to appreciate."

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ON DISPLAY AT RSG APRIL 3rd – APRIL 25th, 2026

Please join us on first Friday, April 3 for the opening celebration of Sensationally Sensory featuring Heartspring School students
Heartspring is a Wichita-based nonprofit providing therapies and special education for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities. Through its Outpatient Clinic and Therapeutic Residential & Day School, Heartspring supports children and youth with diverse developmental, sensory, and communication needs.
Sensationally Sensory is an interactive art exhibition created by Heartspring students, celebrating touch, sound, movement, and vivid color. The show features ocean drums on turntables, kinetic gear sculptures, tactile wood and acrylic creations, expressive wooden faces, patterned block designs, squish‑art textures, and resin-encased fidget pieces. Each artwork invites you to explore the senses and experience creativity in new, accessible ways.
First Friday April 3rd
Sensationally Sensory featuring Heartspring School students
On display in the Patricia A. Peer Window Gallery April 3-26

The School of Creativity Salon showcases the dynamic range of works created at Mark Arts by students and instructors in a range of mediums, including painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, pottery, sculpture, jewelry, enameling and metalsmithing. This exhibition has 128 participants and approximately 150 works of art. It will remain on view in the Gladys & Karl T. Wiedemann Gallery through May 16.

5-7 p.m. Enjoy live music and a cash bar
5:45 p.m. Remarks & Honoring Volunteers of the Year: Baseline Creative Inc. & Ruthie Williams

Free to attend | RSVPs appreciated.

Opening reception for Gallery Member Jill Stromberg on First Friday April 3rd from 6 - 9 pm. Her exhibition of painting will be on display till April 25th. There will be a closing reception for Jill on Final Friday April 24th.

Artist Statement
I paint it my way. Well, of course, every artist paints it their
way. But my technique is unique to me and only me.
My inspiration is born out of the love for travel and my
attempt to freeze that moment, that feeling, that connection with
the subject and intense emotion on a blank canvas. When I
experience those moments of inspiration, I never want to let it go
or forget the perfect natural beauty of it all.
My style of painting is very intuitive. Without a formal
education in Art, I paint from the heart with passion. I’ve been
described as a “Colorist”. My paint palette is very high key and I’m
not timid in my use of complementary colors; orange, purple,
yellow, blue. These particular colors are repeated throughout this
exhibition. I see myself as a “Bold Impressionist”, leaving the
viewer to finish the painting.
This collection of paintings reflects some of my most
treasured captured moments. Many of them feature flowers,
especially lavender and sunflowers which are a personal passion
of mine. Many of them feature pathways, straight and winding.
I’m particularly drawn to pathways because they reflect the
essence of my personal life journey. Choosing a pathway whether
straight or winding always leads to adventure, enlightenment, and
a humble sense of self. It expands ones knowledge and forges
connections with other people and other cultures. As the poet
laureate, Maya Angelou once wrote, “We are more alike my friend,
than we are unalike.” Thank you for joining me for my featured
exhibition and please take your time to enjoy the art your way.

Gallery 12 is open & free to the public: Wednesday/Thursday/Saturday 10 am to 4 pm & Friday Noon to 6 pm.