Ulrich Museum facts for kids
The Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art is a cool place to see modern and new art. It's found right on the campus of Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas.
Museum History
The museum first opened its doors on December 7, 1974. It's still in the same building, called the McKnight Art Center. A famous architect named Charles F. McAfee designed the building.
The museum is very well known for a huge mosaic on the front of its building. This amazing artwork is made of Venetian glass and marble. It was created by the artist Joan Miró and is called Personnages Oiseaux. This mural is about 28 feet tall and 52 feet wide. It's made up of 80 different panels!
The museum also has a large outdoor sculpture collection. It's called the Martin H. Bush Outdoor Sculpture Collection. There are 80 sculptures spread out over 330 acres of land. In 2006, Public Art Review magazine even said it was one of the top ten campus sculpture collections!
This outdoor collection includes art by many famous artists. Some of these artists are Fernando Botero, Andy Goldsworthy, Claes Oldenburg, and Auguste Rodin. The museum's main collection has about 6,500 art pieces. It includes works by artists like Diane Arbus, Nan Goldin, Gordon Parks, and Andy Warhol.
Personnages Oiseaux Mural
The mural Personnages Oiseaux means Bird People. It is a special artwork by Joan Miró. It is made from thousands of tiny pieces of glass and marble. These small pieces are called tesserae. Miró first painted the design. Then, a company in France called Ateliers Loire turned it into a mosaic mural.
This mural is very unique because it's Miró's only one made with glass and marble. He made eleven murals in his life, but this was the only one like it. The mural was on the museum's south wall from 1978 to 2011.
In 2011, the mural had to be taken down for repairs. It was losing many tiles each year, sometimes 300 to 400! The repairs cost about $2.2 million. But don't worry, the beautiful mural came back in 2016. Now, everyone can enjoy it again!
