Barton County (Kansas) Arts Council

When the Arts Council acquired the Barton Arts Center on January 1, 2000, they actually acquired two buildings which are attached. The first floor of the main building has been converted from a shoe store to an art gallery. Behind the gallery is a smaller building which had housed the Army Recruiter, but had become just a storeroom for the shoe store.

This “back room” was cleaned up in time for the Micheaux Festival and was used as a venue where videotapes of Micheaux movies could be screened.

Since then, the room has been used to host a Poetry Circle, a public practice debate by Great Bend High School debaters, and a public performance by Great Bend High School forensics students.

The room can also be used for such purposes as:

• art demonstrations
• art workshops
• lectures
• singer/songwriter performances
• chamber music
• small jazz ensembles
• literary presentations

CPI Qualified Plan Consultants has generously offered to again underwrite the Back Room for 2005.
(See story from the Great Bend Tribune.)

You're invited to view some photos of each of the performances to date:

Chronological (most recent first):

You're also invited to view video clips from some recent performances:

In the hope of coordinating the scheduling all such activities, a unified calendar of all events currently scheduled in the back room is shown below:

If you wish to be notified of upcoming events in the Back Room, answer as many of the following questions as possible and then press the subscribe button. If you aren't sure whether you're already on the list, feel free to submit the information again.

Read what the Great Bend Tribune had about the Back Room.