Current Exhibitions


Where the Magic Happens: Artists in the Studio

February 13 – October 19, 2024
Explore the creative process through views of artists working in their studios, many of them self-portraits. The exhibition features works from the museum's collection and tools owned by Charles Marshall, Herschel Logan and Bernard Steffen.

wood+paper+box in your hands

2023 Friends of the Beach Museum of Art Gift Print
October 3, 2023 – April 27, 2024
Katie Baldwin, Mariko Jesse, and Yoonmi Nam make up the artist collective wood+paper+box. They are also the creators of the 2023 Gift Print and the focus of this exhibition. They met in Japan in 2004 at an artist residency and studied mokuhanga, the traditional Japanese woodblock printmaking technique. Artworks by wood+paper+box carry the spark born of shared experience and are created through collaboration, interaction, and friendship. They offer the idea of appreciating art not just by looking but also by touching and participating. In the exhibition, visitors can handle and interact with a sample gift print, Mise-en-Scène.

The 2023 Gift Print is available to the public for purchase. Friends of the Beach Museum of Art at any level receive a 25% discount on the price. For more information about becoming a Friend or purchasing a gift print, please call 785-532-7718 or email beachart@ksu.edu.

To the Stars Through Art: A History of Art Collecting in Kansas Public Schools, 1900-1950

August 22, 2023 – May 11, 2024
In 1911 the school superintendent in McPherson, Kansas, organized an exhibition to acquire artwork for a new high school. This became an annual ticketed event, allowing the McPherson schools to establish a rich collection of works by regionally and nationally recognized artists, among them James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Birger Sandzén and Fern Coppedge.

Before the mid-century, schools in dozens of Kansas communities, including boarding schools for Indigenous students and segregated schools, joined McPherson in acquiring original art. To the Stars Through Art will feature 70 paintings and prints by Blackbear Bosin, Norma Bassett Hall, Walter Ufer and other artists, from more than a dozen schools and history museums across the state.

A goal of the exhibition is to guide Kansas schools in caring for their collections and using art for educational enrichment. The exhibition is being organized by Curator Elizabeth Seaton in collaboration with regional scholars and museum curators.

Neil Welliver: Maine Seasons

June 27, 2023 – August 17, 2024
Enjoy an imaginary trek into Maine’s natural wonders in this exhibition of three large paintings by Neil Welliver (1929-2005). About his dramatic depictions of the state’s landscape, the artist said he hoped the viewer might “really actively enter … in a psychological sense.” The works are on loan from Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art through the Art Bridges Foundation.

Prairie Views

Ongoing with new selections

This exhibition gives voice to the prairie and provides opportunities for all ages to discover its form and beauty. The exhibition complements the nearby outdoor Meadow as well as art displayed in other galleries, including Jim Richardson’s photographs of prairie root systems. Prairie Views includes photographs of prairie fires by Larry Schwarm and a collage-print related to the Ogallala aquifer by Lynn Benson, among other images.

2023-2024 K-State Common Works of Art

Each year, the K-State Book Network selects a common reading for first-year students, providing an intellectual experience they can share with other students and members of the university community. The 2023 K-State First Book is the multi-award-winning graphic novel They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, illustrated by Harmony Becker. Beach Museum of Art staff have selected work by Lawrence, Kansas, artist Roger Y. Shimomura in the collection to complement Takei’s book about life in a World War II Japanese American concentration camp.