The Wichita Art Museum is an art museum located in Wichita, Kansas, United States.Using our custom trip planner, Wichita attractions like Wichita Art Museum can form part of a personalized travel itinerary.
The museum was established in 1915, when Louise Caldwell Murdock’s Will which created a trust to start the Roland P. Murdock Collection of art in memory of her husband. The trust would purchase art for the City of Wichita by “American painters, potters, sculptors, and textile weavers.” The collection includes works by Mary Cassatt, Arthur G. Dove, Thomas Eakins, Robert Henri, Douglas Abdell, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, John Marin, Paul Meltsner, Horace Pippin, Maurice Prendergast, Albert Pinkham Ryder and Charles Sheeler. The Museum's lobby features a ceiling and chandelier made by Dale Chihuly.
The museum opened in 1935 with art borrowed from other museums. The first work in the Murdock Collection was purchased in 1939. Mrs. Murdock's friend, Elizabeth Stubblefield Navas, selected and purchased works of American art for the Murdock Collection until 1962. The building was enlarged with a new lobby and two new wings in 1963. In 1964, a foundation was established for the purpose of raising funds for new acquisitions. In the 1970s, the city built a new and larger climate controlled facility. In 2003, the museum finished another expansion project giving the building 115,000 total square feet.
Tera Hedrick, an art historian and Wichita East High School graduate, was hired as curator in 2017 after serving in an interim role.
In January 2020, the museum announced that it would begin renovation on its main entrance and lobby.
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Wichita Art Museum reviews
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If you enjoy viewing art, put the Wichita Art Museum on your list when visiting Wichita. The museum is stocked with paintings of interest and other art objects as well as special exhibitions. I found.... more »
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We really enjoyed our visit to the Wichita Art Museum. We decided to go to see the Chihuly glass floor. It's beautiful! And it was fun to walk on the top of it. The Preston Singletary exhibit was... more »
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Great art museum, very well laid out, very inviting and flows well. The folks attending the museum are present and helpful without being intrusive. The displays are always set up in a thoughtful manner that compliments the subject matter. We've visited many displays here over the years and are always impressed. Very convenient and well maintained.
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Living in Wichita I have been more times than I can count. Museum is always clean, free on Saturdays and good family fun in general. The downside... unless they have an exhibit come through NOTHING ever changes. Same paintings, same everything from what I can tell from the last 20 plus years. Like I said... free on Saturdays!
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