By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
The Spring Art Walk will return this weekend as an all-day Saturday event.
The event will be anchored by the 53rd Annual Smokey Hill Art Exhibition at the Hays Arts Center, but along with opportunities to see all types of art across locations in downtown Hays and beyond the Art Walk will be bookended by concerts performed by Fort Hays State University ensembles.
“So that's an amazing day because our Smokie’s pretty spectacular,” said Hays Arts Council executive director Brenda Meder. “And it's going to be pretty spectacular again this year.”
And with the all-day Saturday event, a feature brought back for this year’s Art Walk by popular demand, allows participants to enjoy not just the showcases, but also explore downtown Hays.
“We found out that a lot of people really enjoyed the more leisurely pace they,” Meder said. “They had more time to see everything including going down to the college, they enjoyed being able to also patronize and frequent the retail establishments, the restaurants, coffee shops and breweries in downtown Hays.”
While the Art Walk itself will take place Saturday, weekend events will in downtown will kick off Friday, with an FHSU Jazz Bands Concert set to begin at 7 p.m. in the downtown pavilion. The concert will be the last for the group under the direction of long-time director Brad Dawson.
Also, on Friday the FHSU Encore Series will present the ballet, Anne of Green Gables in the Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center.
The Hays Community Theatre will also showcase A Radical Midsummer Night’s Dream at 7:30 p.m.
During Saturday’s festivities, 19 locations will be available to tour, featuring a variety of media.
Many of the exhibitions feature FHSU student work.
“There are at least two MFA thesis exhibitions,” Meder said. “Big important shows, with wonderful bodies of rich contemporary artwork.”
“And I think I counted four or five BFA exhibitions,” she said. “So, students who are finishing their undergrad, their Bachelor of Fine Arts programs, the visual artists, they need to mount exhibitions, or at least should for fulfilling all their requirements.”
Along with the many locations downtown, three exhibitions will take place on the FHSU campus.
“I do want to remind everyone that I mentioned the campus exhibitions, they are just 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.,” Meder said. “But otherwise, everything else is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.”
A full calendar of events is available on the Hays Art Council’s website, haysartscouncil.org.
“And it's just a nice 8.5” by 11” sheet of information, easy to print out,” Meder said. “So, you can plan your attack and not miss a thing. But it's going to be a really, really amazing event.”
The Smoky Hill exhibition is set to run through June 4 and will also be available to view online.
“So, if you do have to miss the Artwalk weekend, still take time to come and see the Smoky because there will be amazing artwork there in so many different styles, genres and sizes from artists all throughout Kansas,” Meder said.
Wrapping up the weekend the Hays Symphony will present a concert in conjunction with the FHSU choirs at 7:30 p.m. Sunday in the Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center as they wrap up their seasons.
“And the concert is called Voyage to France because of Hector Berlioz for the orchestra and Francis Poulenc for the choirs,” said FHSU choirs director Terry Crull.
The free concert will feature arguably Berlioz’s most famous work, the Symphonie Fantastique.
“Great piece, very picturesque,” Crull said, noting the work was at the start of programmatic music that attempts to tell a story with the music.
“When they first played Symphonie Fantastique it caused a riot,” he said. “I mean, they had to bring the police in because they really aren't used to that kind of grotesque in your face music.”
For more information about the FHSU Department of Music visit their website, fhsu.edu.
