The Magic of Things: 5 Continents, 25 Centuries, 125 Years of Collecting

February 19-October 9, 2022

To celebrate the depth and breadth of what is now Kauffman Museum, the spring 2022 exhibition is titled “The Magic of Things: 5 Continents, 25 Centuries, 125 Years of Collecting.” Thirteen current and former staff have selected artifacts and animal specimens not on permanent display to illustrate their significance to the collectors and to the museum staff who worked with them.

Items in the exhibition range from a Mesopotamian cuneiform tablet from 2000 BCE to a Macintosh computer from 1986, a ngoma drum from a Zimbabwean healer to a 1914 Indian motorcycle, and a Red-sided Eclectus Parrot from New Guinea to a horse-drawn hearse last used at a funeral home in Goessel, Kansas.

Vapes: Marketing an Addiction

July 29-January 9, 2022

This traveling exhibition examines what we know about e-cigarettes

Vapes: Marketing an Addiction tells three intertwining stories:

• the rise and fall of cigarette smoking and advertising in the 20th century
• the emergence of the e-cigarette in the 21st century and new marketing strategies
• the challenges of nicotine addiction and quitting

These stories connect with all of us–our families, our friends, and people in our community. What’s your story?

Of Land and People: Our Community at the Crossroads of Change 

December 5 – January 17, 2021

North Newton is strategically located at a historic crossroads in south-central Kansas. Of Land and People: Our Community at the Crossroads of Change celebrates the land on which our museum and community is placed, honors the people who have lived and worked on it, and invites visitors to reflect on the profound changes that have occurred here.

Of Land and People introduces the story of First Kansans who hunted and traveled along Sand Creek; ponder the changes to the prairie and the enrichment to our community brought by immigrants; and explore the rich legacy of trails past and present in our town.

Newton Kids Create: Storytelling through Art

April 22, 2018 – January 20, 2019

This exhibit began as a collaborative project between the Kansas Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (KIPCOR), Newton USD 373 art teachers and librarians, and Kauffman Museum.  KIPCOR invited author and storyteller Rafe Martin to retell folktales from around the world. Rafe was hosted by area schools for storytelling sessions, and art teachers and school librarians included Mr. Martin’s work in their curriculum. Kauffman Museum offered a space to exhibit the students’ artwork. A piece of collective artwork was created by over 1,000 Newton students, telling stories through art.

The Chisholm Trail: Driving the American West

December 19, 2017 – April 1, 2018

The Chisholm Trail fundamentally changed the American West. From the birth of the cowboy as icon to the revival of the cattle industry, the Old Chisholm Trail helped shape our popular culture by altering how we thought of the American West and the individuals who lived there. The Chisholm Trail: Driving the American West is a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Chisholm Trail. This traveling exhibit, in collaboration with Symphony in the Flint Hills and Flint Hills Design with major sponsorship from Lost Trail Soda, invites visitors of all ages to explore the Chisholm Trail from its inception in the late 1860s to today.

What’s Old is New: Recent Acquisitions to Our Mennonite Collections

February 2014 – May 18, 2014

What does Kauffman Museum collect? From the museum’s beginnings in 1896, our staff have collected cultural history artifacts and natural history specimens that teach and inspire. To illustrate our policies and collecting priorities, this exhibition features recent acquisitions to our Mennonite collections, from church pulpits to quilts, immigrant furniture, and a cemetery map on a bread board!

Art That Worked: WPA Art in Newton, 1935-1943

September 8,2013 – January 5, 2014

Art That Worked celebrates Newton’s impressive collection of work from the Kansas Museum Project, a Works Progress Administration (WPA) program. This statewide education initiative trained unemployed artists and created a visual art education collection for use in schools, libraries and museums across Kansas.

Lenders to the exhibition: USD 373 Newton Public Schools, Newton Public Library, Mennonite Library and Archives, Bethel College Art Department, Kauffman Museum.

Threshing Stone: Mennonite Artifact & Icon

October 6, 2013 – January 20, 2013

This special exhibition brings together the stories of threshing technology, Russian Mennonite immigration, and how the threshing stone became a symbol of Kansas wheat heritage and Mennonite tradition. Recognizing the history and symbolic meanings of the threshing stone is part of the 125th anniversary celebrations at Bethel College.

Americans by Choice: The Story of Immigration & Citizenship in Kansas

July 14, 2012 – January 20, 2012

Americans by Choice illustrates the paths to citizenship taken by Kansas settlers from around the world over the past 150 years. The exhibition features photographs and documents to convey their personal struggles, sacrifices and accomplishments along the journey to naturalization.

Americans by Choice is a special exhibition from the U.S. District Court, District of Kansas, in celebration of the court’s 150th anniversary. The traveling version is based on a permanent exhibit of the same title at the Robert J. Dole Courthouse in Kansas City, Kansas. 

The Eyes of a Stranger: Indian Images and Experiences by Cookie Wiebe

November 13, 2011 – January 22, 2012

In 2009, we returned to work at Woodstock School in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India. We lived in the foothills of the Himalayas, surrounded by natural beauty and cultural riches. My camera is small, light – and always at hand, leading to more photos than I can sort, catalog or even begin to share. This exhibit is an attempt to celebrate the beauty of India’s people, as seen through the eyes of a stranger – a stranger, who, after 35 years, is ready to claim the identity of “artist”.
From the Artists statement to the exhibit.

Awesome 150: Museum Friends Share Their Favorites

Summer 2011 – October 9, 2011

Kauffman Museum commemorates 150 awesome years of Kansas statehood (1861-2011) with a special exhibition of 150 awesome items from museum storage. Volunteers served as “community curators” by selecting artifacts and taxidermy specimens for the exhibition.

KANSAS: Kids at Northridge Sharing Art & Story

January 2011 – January 30, 2011

KANSAS features official state symbols and historic artifacts in art and stories by children from Northridge Elementary School—the museum’s neighborhood school in Newton, Kansas. USD 373 teachers Gail Pryce (writing and drama) and LaDonna Unruh Voth (art) led the KANSAS project in collaboration with Bethel College students enrolled in “Teaching the Expressive Arts.” Pryce, Voth, Denetta Denno (physical education) and Brian Postier (music) met weekly with college students at Northridge to work with children from kindergarten through fourth grade.

Beloved: Artwork by Kristin Diener

July 17, 2010 – August 22, 2010

This special exhibition features handcrafted personal adornment and whimsical rolling toys by Kristin Diener of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Diener’s work is sometimes referred to as memory jewelry. Diener notes, “Many pieces refer directly to my Amish and Mennonite heritage, some incorporating family objects.” Diener is the granddaughter of Louella and Tilman R. Smith—who was president of Hesston College in Hesston, Kansas, from 1959 to 1968.

Images of Paraguay

February 27 – May 23, 2010

A joint exhibition featuring contemporary, ethnographic and folk art from the heart of South America at Carriage Factory Gallery and Kauffman Museum.

Visual arts are powerful communicators of a people’s history, cultural identity and values across boundaries of language and political borders. In this exhibition the viewer will come face to face with the diversity of Paraguay’s peoples, the depth and challenges of this beautiful country’s history, the vitality and many layers of its artistic traditions and current visual culture.
Dr. Reinhild Kauenhoven Janzen, guest curator

Wheels: Transportation and Toys from the Collections

Fall 2009 – January 24, 2010

A century ago children commonly received tricycles, toy trucks, wagons and doll strollers as Christmas gifts. The Kauffman Museum collections include these wheeled toys as well as adult-size bicycles, motorcycles and automobiles, including the 1914 Indian motorcycle featured in this exhibition. A free-to-the-public “Big Wheels” event featured a 1926 American LaFrance fire truck, 1955 Kenworth 900 semi, 1956 White Super Power truck, and a 1957 Nash Metropolitan.

Hot and Cold: Images of America in Conflict

February 20, 2009 – April 19, 2009

Times of war and conflict produce powerful images within a society. The exhibition features thirty-three works ranging from the wood engraving “Kansas Sketches” published in Harper’s Weekly in 1858, to “Iraq Identity Playing Cards” printed in 2003 by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. Hot and Cold also includes “America is Waiting,” a 1982 work by experimental filmmaker Bruce Conner (1933-2008) who was recognized at the 2009 Oscar awards ceremony.

Guest curator, James W. Johnson