In Bloom

February 25–August 30, 2025
Join us in celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Kansas State University Gardens with floral imagery from the museum’s collection. This exhibition is also our annual collaboration with the Manhattan Public Library’s summer reading program. The American Library Association has chosen the theme, “Color Our World,” and we promise a riot of color!

Exhibition highlights include glass artist Dale Chihuly’s Imperial Iris Persian Pair, a gift of Ross and Marianna Beach, and Cubist artist George Braque’s Les Marguerites. Numerous Midwestern artists will be represented, among them John F. Helm, Jr., Avis Chitwood, Birger Sandzén and Grant Wood. Wood’s Tame Flowers in the exhibition was hand colored by his sister, Nan Wood. Contemporary artists featured include Renée Stout, Karsten Creightney and Kate Nessler. Nessler’s Lady Slipper Orchid was a Royal Horticultural Society gold medal winner.

Elementary school tours of In Bloom will focus on botany and scientific drawing. The exhibition will also provide subject matter for the museum’s summer ARTSmart programs featuring visits to The Meadow north of the museum, discussions of the importance of pollinators and a variety of colorful art projects.

The exhibition has been co-curated by Gabriella Randall as part of a museum certificate program in K-State’s anthropology department. Randall is majoring in art history and minoring in classics. Her work on the exhibition was part of a 2024 summer internship at the Beach Museum of Art which was generously funded by Tony Crawford.

Major Sponsors: Friends of the Beach Museum of Art, Greater Manhattan Community Foundation’s Lincoln & Dorothy I. Deihl Community Grants Program
Sustaining Sponsors: Dan and Beth Bird
Media Sponsor: Radio Kansas

Related event

Let’s Talk Flowers with Karsten Creightney
A Let’s Talk Art conversation
Thursday, March 6, 5:30 p.m.
Livestream
Click here to register