Grants from Humanities Kansas and Evergy have given Kauffman Museum an important boost for a new exhibition on a historic local bird count.

Museum staff and a guest curator are fabricating “A Day with the Birds: Community Science and the Audubon Christmas Bird Count,” set to open in December 2023.

The museum recently announced that it had received grants of $12,000 from Humanities Kansas and $10,000 from Evergy.   

“A Day with the Birds” and series of associated events through spring 2024 will mark the 75th anniversary of the Halstead-Newton Christmas Bird Count.

Friends of Kauffman Museum, volunteers who help support the museum on the Bethel campus, will hold a sale of vintage items, antiques and artwork on Saturday, April 29.

The sale will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the museum’s front entrance and in the auditorium. Kauffman Museum is at 27th and Main in North Newton.

The premier item at the sale is an early-19th-century icon of Kyivan saints Boris and Gleb.

The two brothers were the favorite sons of Volodymyr the Great, who reigned Kyivan Rus’ from 980 to 1015.

Phil Epp may be best known for paintings that evoke the wide-open spaces of the Great Plains and American Southwest, but his love for art has taken him across the world.

He will share some of his experiences in “Images of Art and Design in Central Asia,” one of Kauffman Museum’s periodic Sunday-Afternoon-at-the-Museum programs, March 12, at 3 p.m. in the museum auditorium.

It is free and open to the public.

Former students and family members will remember the late Keith Sprunger Saturday, March 11, at 7 p.m. at Kauffman Museum, when a research fund in his honor will be formally launched.

The event will take place in person in the museum auditorium, but there is also a Zoom link for those who want to join from a distance: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87056000991

Creative Kansans of all kinds will be the center of the annual Celebrate Kansas Day! at Kauffman Museum on Saturday, Jan. 28, in and around the museum starting at noon.

“Kansans Create!” is the theme of the programs and activities that begin at 11:30 a.m. when food trucks from LeJ’s BBQ, Sage & Juliette Coffee and Tacos Ana’s will be in the museum parking lot at the corner of North Main and 27th Streets.

The museum and grounds open at noon for an afternoon of special activities and programs.

The campus is closed, except for Kauffman Museum, Reverie Roasters at Mojo's, and the advancement office on Dec. 30, from Friday, Dec. 23, through Monday, Jan. 2, 2023.

Advancement staff will be in their office at Leisy House (corner of Goerz Ave. and E. 23rd St. in North Newton) from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 30, and welcome visitors.

Kauffman Museum is open Dec. 27-30 (Tuesday-Friday), 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. The museum is closed Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day (as well as the normal Mondays).

This is the final week to see Kauffman Museum’s exhibit of the textile arts of Kyrgyz nomads, “Reeds & Wool: Patterned Screens of Central Asia,” Tuesday, May 22, through Sunday, May 28.

The special exhibition, which opened Oct. 22, will be on display through May 21, 2023.

Kauffman Museum developed this exhibition in 1998 in collaboration with John L. Sommer (1927-2020) to feature his extensive collection of reed screens.

Bethel welcomes alumni and friends for its annual Fall Festival, with most events taking place Saturday, Oct. 8, on campus.

Find a complete Fall Festival schedule at www.bethelks.edu/fallfest

Fall Festival kicks off Oct. 6 with Taste of Newton, a Bethel collaboration with the City of Newton and the Newton Area Chamber of Commerce, 6-9 p.m. downtown.

Today is the last chance to see Nate Hofer's exhibit in the Regier Art Gallery in Luyken Fine Arts Center, with the artist reception this evening (Sept. 22) from 6-8 p.m. at the gallery.

According to Hofer, the human race has managed to escape extinction so far most likely by sheer luck.

His exhibit, "One and a Half Acres: Images of America's Decommissioned Missile Silos," is one of arresting aerial photo images of no-longer-used nuclear missile silos in the Midwest.

Hofer is a musician and graphic designer from Overland Park, Kan.

The annual issue of Bethel’s journal Mennonite Life is now live for 2022 with articles remembering Keith Sprunger and Lawrence Hart, reflections on museum collecting, craft, and more.

The current issue of the online-only journal can be viewed at ml.bethelks.edu