K-State museum receives large gift of Curry works

Manhattan The Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art at Kansas State University has received more than 900 works of Kansas-born artist John Steuart Curry that were bequeathed to his wife, Kathleen G. Curry.

The gift makes the Beach Museum’s holdings of Curry work the largest in the country.

A well-known artist in the 1930s and 1940s, Curry and artists Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton led the Regionalist movement, which was based on painting America’s heartland. Curry’s work has been displayed in the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. He is best known for his mural of John Brown in the state capitol in Topeka, above.

The gift includes paintings, watercolors, drawings, lithographs and page proofs for book illustrations. The subject matter features figure studies, landscapes, views of the circus, Cuba, football scenes and animals.

Lawrence Arts Commission awards $3,500 in grants

The Lawrence Arts Commission has announced the recipients of the 2002 Community Arts Grants. The grants are intended as start-up money for projects or special community art-related ventures that encourage arts within the Lawrence community.

Recipients are Art Amid Agony, The Coalition Players, $500; “Prairie Nutcracker,” Deborah Bettinger, $500; The Vintage Players, Lawrence Community Theatre, $500; Wall of Respect III, Douglas County Rape Victim-Survivor Service, $500; Will Play for Food, Amy Carlson, et. al., $500; Tonight We Murder, David Gunn, $500; and Masters of Irish Music Workshop, Tallgrass Folk Project Limited, $500.

Unicorn picks play by KU alum for new season

Kansas City, Mo. The Unicorn Theatre, 3828 Main St., has selected a play by Kansas University alumnus Neil LaBute for its 2002-2003 season.

LaBute’s suspenseful “The Shape of Things” will open Oct. 18. The play explores how one partner manipulates the other when power is used to win the game of love. LaBute is best-known for his play “Bash” and his movies “In the Company of Men” and “Your Friends and Neighbors.”

The rest of the lineup includes “Dirty Blonde” by Claudia Shear, opens Aug. 30; “Bat Boy: The Musical” by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming, opens Dec. 6; “Loving Lucy” by Philip blue owl Hooser, opens Jan. 24, 2003; “The Memory of Water” by Shelagh Stephenson, opens March 14; “Bee-Luther-Hatchee” by Thomas Gibbons, opens May 2; and “Lobby Hero” by Kenneth Lonergan, opens June 20, 2003.