Thousands see Parks exhibit

By Julie Rausch

It’s been said that Kansas native Gordon Parks is best known for using his camera as a "weapon against poverty and racism." Around Wichita this summer Parks was known for providing a liberal dose of education, culture and inspiration. His touring retrospective exhibition, "Half Past Autumn," was at the Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art for 11 weeks beginning May 23.

The number of people who came to see Parks’ works totaled 14,429. This beats by about 4,000 the total number of people who visited the Ulrich last year.

According to a spokesperson, the Minnesota Museum of Art in St. Paul had a total attendance of 11,000 for its showing of "Half Past Autumn" last winter. The Minnesota museum is located in a metro area of approximately 2.4 million. It was the second venue for the exhibition after the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., which organized the national tour to 15 venues.

Parks’ Wichita exhibition in Wichita stirred up excitement for two alums living in Los Angeles. Nancy Nyberg, who works for MGM, and her husband, fellow alum Gerald "Dean" Cleverdon, heard from a family member in Wichita that Parks’ photographs were going to be on campus. Even though "Half Past Autumn" will be in Los Angeles in fall 2000, Nyberg said, "There’s nothing like seeing it at home." She attended the opening May 23.

Linda Doll, the museum’s office specialist, said she took several phone calls from people on layovers at Wichita’s Mid-Continent Airport who had seen the exhibition’s advertising display on the airport concourse.

"They asked if the exhibit was something they could view within a couple of hours, so several people caught cabs from the airport to see Gordon Parks’ work," said Doll.

The Parks exhibition obviously elicited responses that were not typical of other recent Ulrich exhibitions.

Doll said the public made lots of comments to the museum staff as they were leaving. Some of the comments included "that they were glad we brought the exhibition to Wichita, and that they thought it was a good educational opportunity," Doll said. "Others said they were glad to see so many children exposed to Parks’ works. We had some people come back more than once."

About a week before the exhibition was to close, President Beggs noticed a family heading for the museum after getting out of a car with Texas plates. He asked them what brought them to see "Half Past Autumn." They told him they were on an impromptu vacation and that they had opened the morning paper and saw an article about the Parks exhibition. That Texas family wasn’t the only group that came from afar. People came from 25 states and from seven countries.

The museum’s education curator, Anna Castillo, who coordinated 52 museum tours and many programs associated with Parks including six movies, seven lectures and four workshops, said she figured about 112 volunteer hours went into helping to keep things running smoothly. Workshops and other events, geared mostly toward children, included picture frame making, photography, storytelling and making family scrapbooks. Tours were given for civic groups, businesses, churches, schools and service organizations and even some Ukrainian dignitaries.

The Gordon Parks exhibition at the Ulrich Museum attracted more than 14,000 people during the 11 weeks it was shown this summer.