Kansas art town
Dan S
Sowing Art on the Kansas Prairie
By STEPHEN KINZER
SEDAN, Kan. ‹ Not long ago this isolated town nestled in the Flint
Hills seemed about to blow off the map. The bank failed, farmers lost or
sold their land, stores shut down, and people drifted away.
Now, however, life here is changing. Driven in part by the dream of Bill
Kurtis, a Kansan and longtime television newscaster, Sedan is reinventing
itself as a prairie art colony.
As word spreads, artists have begun arriving. Some are refugees from what
they say are overcommercialized art scenes in places like Santa Fe, N.M.
One, Stan Herd, a pioneer of environmental art, has built a monumental stone
work called "Prairiehenge" on a hilltop outside town.
Mr. Herd lives in Lawrence, 180 miles north of Sedan, but spent much of 2003
here working on his installation. During last year he saw Sedan begin to
flower. "This is a very unique spot for the evolving of an art that is about
land and place," he said. Mr. Herd and several other artists are considering
buying homes and relocating part time to Sedan. "As the place builds, we'll
have weekend houses and then see where we go from there," he said.
Tourists are also finding their way to Sedan. Local merchants estimate that
about 80,000 visited in 2003, and they expect substantially more this year.
The visitors not only buy art but flit among new shops to scoop up antiques,
quilts and homemade candy. To accommodate them, developers plan to renovate
the town's only hotel, which has been closed since the 1970's.
Many troubled Midwestern towns are grasping for ways to fend off decline
and, in some cases, extinction. People in Sedan, which has 1,200 residents
and is in one of the poorest parts of Kansas, believe they have found what
hundreds of communities are seeking: a formula that will lead them back
toward prosperity.
"It's just mind-boggling to see what can happen," said Judy Tolbert, who
grew up nearby, now owns a bed-and-breakfast here and is a former president
of the town's chamber of commerce. "When I got back to Sedan four and a half
years ago, there were 14 empty buildings on Main Street.
Now there are two. The cultural aspect is the key. When people come to see
renowned artists and galleries, that's a different clientele you're
attracting."
The town's first and so far only gallery, called Art of the Prairie, is the
centerpiece of Mr. Kurtis's effort to make prairie art a signature Sedan
product.
"Western art has become very popular and expensive," he said. "Indian art is
on the same track. This prairie art strikes those same chords of land and
heritage."
The gallery is hung with paintings of the prairie, a landscape that
generations of artists have shunned as featureless and uninteresting. "The
prairie is so subtle that it's hard to get the atmosphere," said Judith
Mackey, who since July has been an artist in residence at Art of the
Prairie. "It doesn't have the grandeur of the mountains or canyons, but the
beauty is there."
A prominent American Indian artist, the ceramic sculptor Barry Coffin, who
lived in New Mexico for more than 20 years, recently moved back to his
hometown, Lawrence, partly because he wanted to be close to Sedan. He said
he planned to open a studio here this spring, and to teach workshops in
ceramic art.
"I really like what's going on there, and I decided I'd like to be a part of
it," Mr. Coffin said.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas visited Sedan in October and said afterward
that she considered this "very much a model" for other struggling
communities.
"It's not only art and culture, but the land itself," Ms. Sebelius said.
"Ninety-five percent of the tallgrass prairie that remains in the world is
here in Kansas. It's a terrain that needs to be seen and appreciated the
same way people go down the Amazon River or into a rain forest."
Prairie grassland once covered much of North America's midsection. European
settlers turned nearly all of it into farms and ranches, and today the
prairie landscape survives mainly in isolated reserves. The area around
Sedan, however, looks much as it did when Indians first roamed here. Its
appeal is central to the town's revitalization.
"The idea is not just to introduce people to art from the prairie," Mr.
Kurtis said. "We also want to help them experience this environment so they
feel a closer connection to the art and to the landscape it represents."
Dick Jones, a real estate agent, said that in the 1950's Sedan was "a robust
rural community." He recalled watching it decline into "a ghost town" by
1980. But he said that 33 homes have been built in the area during the last
three years, compared with 11 during the previous three years. Real estate
prices have risen by a total of 24 percent since 1998, he said.
Residents have initiated a handful of civic efforts since the late 1980's,
including a successful campaign to save the local movie house. The big break
came in 1999 when Mr. Kurtis, who had already bought land nearby, decided to
make rescuing Sedan his personal project.
Mr. Kurtis, who is 63, grew up in Independence, Kan., 40 miles east of here.
He built a reputation as a correspondent and news anchor for CBS (he was a
co-anchor on the "Morning" program in the early 1980's) and now runs a
company in Chicago that produces documentaries for cable television,
including the History Channel and A&E.
During the last four years he has bought 14 buildings in Sedan, many along
Main Street, and paid to renovate most of them. He has also assembled 10,000
acres west of town, on which he grazes about 1,000 head of cattle and 50
buffalo. By his own account he has invested about $1 million here. He said
he hoped to turn a profit, although that is not his main goal.
"For me it was getting back in touch with the land, especially after 9/11,"
he said while driving over a frozen hillside on his ranch. "When towers
fall, you reach out for some permanent anchor."
By renovating buildings on Main Street and renting them to shopkeepers for
$1 a year, Mr. Kurtis fueled Sedan's rebirth. This has made him something of
a local hero, but some people here fear that Sedan is losing its rural
identity.
"We've seen a lot of hype, but not much for the average Joe," said Jeanette
Myers, who works with disabled children at the nearby elementary school.
"Bill did straighten up his buildings, which made other stores clean up and
paint. If you talk to business people, they'll tell you business has really
picked up. Yeah, he's helped, but everything he does also helps himself."
Larry Powell, a city council member, said he has heard that some older
residents resent Mr. Kurtis and fear that his project will drive up property
taxes.
"But when you ask people directly, no one says anything really negative,"
Mr. Powell said. "How can they? This is the first time in many years that
we've had something to look forward to."
The latest building Mr. Kurtis has bought here is an old lumber mill that he
plans to turn into a residence and studio space for three artists.
Some people want to renovate the old 300-seat playhouse, where the last
production was staged more than half a century ago. Others dream of mounting
a clown festival or performance series, tied to Emmett Kelly, one of the
most famous clowns of the 20th century and a Sedan native. Mr. Kurtis said
he planned to open his ranch to tourists who want to relive the Old West
experience.
"If there's a lesson here, it's that towns can regenerate themselves by
doing something different," Mr. Kurtis said. "Imagination is the key."
*************
Gary Oblock
This is good and well. I wish the artists in Kansas well. However, I must warn artists
this still is Kansas so don't pack your bags quite yet!
Looking at the web it's clear to me that Kansas is not a hotbed of figurative bronze sculpture.
Sculptures with titles like "Welcoming Christ" should give you a hint that the local market
has its limits. Having lived there myself for three years in a fairly large city I feel safe to
say that the views of most of the locals are somewhat provincial to say the least. These
were in general nice people but I don't see them purchasing anything at all controversial
or expensive.
The Flint Hills are moderately attractive but they certainly are not the Grand Tetons.
Living on the prairie has several associated problems. There is no significant geographic
barrier between Kansas and the north pole. The Flint Hills are at a lower elevation than the
Colorado prairie and are significantly farther south than the Dakotas the so weather here is
warmer that either of these places. However this is not at all a good thing in the summer.
Also in the summer the pollen count reaches an insane level so you can't survive in
comfort there if you have one allergy prone bone in your body. An additional problem
is the tornados. I personally found cowering in the basement, every time unstable
atmospheric conditions arose, to be a bit unnerving.
-- Gary
Gary Waller
"Gary Oblock" <mw...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:4012DAF7...@earthlink.net...
> Dan --
>
Too bad you didn't try penguin smackin' while you were in Kansas, you might
of stayed longer
http://pya.cc/pyaimg/pimg.php?imgid=2437
Gary Oblock
Gary --
It looks like penguin smackin' requires steep icy hills and penguins, neither of
which Kansas has. ;-)
-- Gary
P.S. Where on earth do you find these sites?
Gary Waller
>
> P.S. Where on earth do you find these sites?
>
This one came from http://www.bt3a.com a British website with a huge and
regular section 'photoshopping' hijinx. The humour is very much British -
which is often self depreciating. While the average Canadian or American
might laugh at some poor fool slipping on a banana peel - Brits would more
enjoy the poor fool telling the story. While I lived there, I often heard
something like "That twat Gary did such and such last night, what an idiot,
etc" and I would think -thats no way to talk about a friend - then it turns
out they are talking about themselves in the third person! Anybody who puts
their head above the crowd becomes a target - for example the magician David
Baines trouble with his London (vegas style) stunt, he was driven out of
town.
After that buildup - the current worldwide photoshop project is lowbrow,
photoshopping inanimate objects in intimate positions. Also read the
bulletin boards ' lies my parents told me'.
Gary Waller
"Gary Waller" <moz...@telus.net> wrote in message
news:d_UQb.14202$P51.13570@clgrps12...
>
> "Gary Oblock" <mw...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
> news:401362D7...@earthlink.net...
> >
> > P.S. Where on earth do you find these sites?
> >
>
> This one came from http://www.bt3a.com a British website with a huge and
>
This didn't draw Simon out of hiding - or deep covert ops as he prefers -
maybe the mention that Bill Gates is going to be knighted by the Queen for
his contribution to global enterprise. Could he pull some some strings and
get one for me too? Sir Gary has a certain ring to it. Anybody else
interested - we can get a charter flight together, then on the return trip,
use our new found powers to take over some hopelessly impoverished country
(Madagascar would be my choice) and turn it into a sculpting heaven and
worldwide arts, architecture and music attraction.
George Graham
"Honours are like haemerroids, sooner or later every asshole gets one"
Spelling is probablt wrong but subscribers to this site usually give out
such intersting information and views, that the spelling is of little
consequence
I find the group extraordinary informative.
George
Simon
> This didn't draw Simon out of hiding - or deep covert ops as he prefers -
> maybe the mention that Bill Gates is going to be knighted by the Queen for
> his contribution to global enterprise. Could he pull some some strings and
> get one for me too? Sir Gary has a certain ring to it. Anybody else
> interested - we can get a charter flight together, then on the return
trip,
> use our new found powers to take over some hopelessly impoverished country
> (Madagascar would be my choice) and turn it into a sculpting heaven and
> worldwide arts, architecture and music attraction.
>
I'm afraid I can't help you with the knighthood Gary ;-) .. not really
hiding, been busy with a few things ... deep covert ops? . hardly ...lol ..
just seen nothing that required my input of late .. someone usually beats me
to the answer ... the only input i have is to point out that Dan must have
got out the wrong side of the bed again the other day ;-)
as to BG's knighthood ... well it really just goes to show what a
meaningless bit of drivel the honours system is now.
British self-depraction and penchant for shooting down anyone that steps out
of a crowd. Just goes to show how insecure we really can be and our fear of
failure is often compensated by pointing out our own failings before someone
beats us to the punch ....... has someone got another country I could live
in please?
Simon
Gary Waller
"Simon" <sycofx...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:B_6Rb.973$e52...@news-binary.blueyonder.co.uk...
. the only input i have is to point out that Dan must have
> got out the wrong side of the bed again the other day ;-)
>
neighbour says 'Good Morning Dan - looks like you got up on the wrong side
of the bed this morning!" - Dan harumphs, and pays him no mind, the
newspaper guy on the corner says " Morning Dan - did you get up on the wrong
side of the bed this morning?" Again another harumph. Finally he arrives at
his sleek, spacious studio, in one of the better known, trendy buildings in
Memphis - the doorman opens the door " Good Morning Mr. Spector - I see you
got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning". This time Dan loses it
'Whats wrong with all you morons - Why does everyone say I got up on the
wrong side of the bed??" .The doorman points down - Dan is wearing his
wife's fluffy pink bedroom slippers.
Dan S
My doorman is no longer in my employ.
Hey, what the --
All I did is pass on an intresting art story somebody (very cute) sent me.
My version of the hemmorhoids joke is,
Opinions are like assholes, everyone's got one, and they all stink
--except mine. My employees claim mine smells like musky roses.
If Mick can get knighted, can Herman be far behind?
danzo
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In article <kBiRb.19745$A7.19052@edtnps84>, "Gary Waller" <moz...@telus.net>
wrote: