Have you seen it? Unlike typical murals full of bright, bold colors designed to draw your attention, Wichita’s latest mural is in black and white. However, you can’t miss it.
The huge mural is on the west side of The Kansas African American Museum’s future home at 201 N. Main, and was creatively designed to serve as a bridge between the museum’s past and its future.
In August 2022, after years of work to secure a new location, TKAAM announced it had secured the old Sunflower Bank as its new home, but the facility would need major renovations and it would take $6 million to complete.
With fundraising well underway, the mural begins the museum’s public transition from the past, to the present, and into the new location
“We had conversations about trying to just figure out ways to celebrate that transition instead of just plowing through it,” said Aaron Asis, the mural artist. “One of the things that really became apparent was the new building could be a stage or a canvas for some work that was collectively created and developed with stakeholders of TKAAM.”
The mural was developed as a project between TKAAM and Harvester Arts, a Wichita-based nonprofit focused on building the creative capacity of the community through arts experimentation, public art projects, artist residencies, and professional development for artists.
“Our partnership with Harvester Arts really demonstrates the opportunity to collaborate and to expand both missions or missions of more than one organization for a common good, especially when it benefits the community,” said Denise Sherman, TKAAM executive director.
In a nod to the museum’s Black history focus, they searched historic archives for inspiration for the mural and landed on a 1943 Gordon Parks’ photo: “A Harlem Scene, New York, New York.” The picture is of two African-American children in the streets of Harlem. The view shows their backs, not their faces, and the team saw this as portraying the two walking into the future.
“The characters became sort of a gesture of moving into the new space,” said Asis.
The words superimposed on top of the picture, “Tell the story, the stories that have not been told,” are a nod to the museum’s year long project “Sankofa – Tell the Story.” The mural is titled “Sankofa,” a term from Ghana meaning one should remember the past to make positive progress in the future.
The mural and its message are complemented by the museum’s latest exhibit, of the same name, which encourages reflection “on important narratives through thought-provoking images, photographs, and documents following the African-American experience in Kansas.”
Sherman said the museum will spend the next year focusing on the theme “Tell the Story” in numerous ways.
“Storytelling is the foundation of African and African-American culture,” said Sherman. “We tell stories so that we can keep our heritage and our legacies alive.”
“The hope is that we really celebrate the idea of storytelling,” said Asis. “I think just understanding the power of storytelling and really empowering people to share their story and have that be an important part of all of us moving forward together, I don’t think you can go wrong.
The Kansas African American Museum is currently still in its longtime home at 601 N. Water. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mon. through Fri. and noon to 4 p.m. Sat.
