(Schedule Subject to Change)

Barton County Arts Council, Inc.

P.O. Box 154

1401 Main Street

Great Bend, KS 67530

Phone: 620-792-4221

Hours: MTTF 11:30-5:30 pm; W 1:00-5:30 pm

Website: http://bartonarts.org

E-Mail: [email protected]

Tickets: [email protected]

These programs are presented in part by the Kansas Arts Commission, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Additional support for special programs is provided by the Kansas Humanities Council. Barton County, the City of Great Bend and CPI Qualified Plan Consultants, Great Bend, also provide support of the Barton County Arts Council.

Exhibit

Who:            Lawrence Robl

Where:  Barton County Arts Center, Forest & Main, Great Bend

When:   Month of September

Lawrence Robl is a local artist who grew up south of Ellinwood. He will be showing a selection of his paintings and prints.

Concert

Who:    Randy Sparks & Becky Jo Benson

Where:  The Back Room of the Barton County Arts Center, Forest & Main, Great Bend

When:   8:00 p.m., Sunday, September 1, 2007

Cost:    $15 with advance reservations

Web:            http://www.thenewchristyminstrels.com/

In 1961, Randy Sparks founded The New Christy Minstrels; in 2005, six of the original members reunited and added some members of more recent vintage, including Becky Jo Benson. Randy and Becky Jo will bring of evening of entertainment featuring both the new and the nostalgic.

Concert

Who:    Piper Leigh & Tim Durham

Where:  The Back Room of the Barton County Arts Center, Forest & Main, Great Bend

When:   8:00 p.m., Saturday, September 29, 2007

Cost:    $10 with advance reservations

Web:            http://www.piperleigh.com/

Tim & Piper Bio Tim Durham and Piper Leigh are a singer/songwriter duo from Ark City. Their repertoire is a mix of funky singer/songwriter classics, blues tunes, Irish folk songs, country crooners, jazz standards, and some original soon-to-be hits! They've developed their high-energy show over the last couple years to be something to fit all audiences. As a duo, Tim & Piper have energy on stage that's contagious. Their friendship with each other flows over to their audiences and the result is... a concert to remember.

Exhibit

Who:    Hillary King

Where: Barton County Arts Center, Forest & Main, Great Bend

When:   Month of October

Hillary King is an elementary art instructor with USD 428, Great Bend, and will be bringing in a selection of her works for this exhibit.

Concert

Who:    Bryan Bowers

Where:  The Back Room of the Barton County Arts Center, Forest & Main, Great Bend

When:   7:30 p.m., Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Cost:    $10 with advance reservations

Web:            http://www.bryanbowers.com/

Bower's creativity and talent have won him induction into Frets Magazine's First Gallery of the Greats after five years of winning the stringed instrument, open category of the magazine�s readers' poll. This distinction put Bowers along side other luminaries, such as Chet Atkins, David Grisman, Stephan Grappelli, Itzhak Perlman, Tony Rice, Rob Wasserman and Mark O'Connor, recognized for their personal accomplishments. In 1993, Bryan was inducted into the Autoharp Hall of Fame to stand only with Maybelle Carter, Kilby Snow, and Sara Carter. From his rather unglamorous beginning as a street singer, Bryan Bowers has become a major artist on the traditional music circuit. He has redefined the autoharp and is also well known as a singer-songwriter. Bryan has a dynamic outgoing personality and an uncanny ability to enchant a crowd in practically any situation. His towering six foot four inch frame can be wild and zany on stage while playing a song like `Dixie' and five minutes later he can have the same audience singing `Will The Circle Be Unbroken' in quiet reverence and delight. For nearly three decades, Bryan Bowers has been to the autoharp what Earl Scruggs was to the five-string banjo. He presents instrumental virtuosity combined with warmth, eloquence, expression and professionalism.

Convention

Kansas Art Educators Association

When:   October 5-6, 2007

Where:  Great Bend, Kansas

Web:            http://www.kaea.com/

Concert

Who:    Edgar Cruz

Where:  The Back Room of the Barton County Arts Center, Forest & Main, Great Bend

When:   7:30 p.m., Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Cost:    $10 with advance reservations

Web:            http://www.edgarcruz.com

Each year, Edgar Cruz plays over 250 performances and has toured throughout North America, Europe, and South America. He has been a headliner at the Chet Atkins Festival in Nashville since 1995. Cruz offers an incredible live repertoire of �the greatest hits of the guitar,� including: Malague�a, Classical Gas, Bohemian Rhapsody, In the Mood, Dueling Banjos, and so on. Audience participation, clapping, singing, dancing, are all encouraged. He has been named Oklahoma�s Top Performing Artist by the Oklahoma Gazette and holds a Bachelor of Music in Guitar Performance.

2007 Oscar Micheaux Memorial Celebration

Rising from the Plains: Black Kansans Telling Their Stories in New Ways

When:   October 19-21, 2007

Where:  Barton County Arts Center, Forest & Main, Great Bend; Crest Theatre, 1905 Lakin, Great Bend

Web:            http://www.micheaux.org

This year we salute Black Kansans who became consummate storytellers, including: Oscar Micheaux (novelist, entrepreneur and the first African-American filmmaker), Perry G. Lowery (cornet player, band leader for Barnum & Bailey sideshows, entrepreneur), Lorenzo Fuller, Jr. (Broadway star, first African-American with a show on network television), Gwendolyn Brooks (first African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for literature) and Langston Hughes (poet Laureate of the Harlem Renaissance).

Exhibit

Who:    Rose Dudek

Where:  Barton County Arts Center, Forest & Main, Great Bend

When:   Month of November

Rose Dudek�s unique style of painting and her newly developed love of photography will grace the gallery during November.

Concert

Who:    D-Squared

Where:  The Back Room of the Barton County Arts Center, Forest & Main, Great Bend

When:   7:30 p.m., Thursday, November 1, 2007

Cost:    $10 with advance reservations

Web:            http://www.dsquaredmusic.com/category/cd-release/

In the musical equation, D‑Squared, the whole is indeed greater than the sum of its parts. The voices of Don Charles and Deb Gessner blend with the folk harp and guitar to create a tonal fabric as rich and varied as the Southwestern landscape. The music sets sail in some intriguing directions, always arriving but never by the expected route. Suspended in a graceful weave of melody and counterpoint is a sly, back-door wit punctuated by an understated spirituality. Their original songs and tunes are born of an intimate relationship to the land and their lives in the central Arizona mountains. They write about real people in a real world with real concerns who are nonetheless real glad to be here.

Concert

Who:    Curtis & Loretta

Where:  The Back Room of the Barton County Arts Center, Forest & Main, Great Bend

When:   7:30 p.m., Sunday, November 11, 2007

Cost:    $10 with advance reservations

Web:            http://www.curtisandloretta.com/

Curtis & Loretta's music comes straight from the heart. The husband and wife duo's extraordinary harmonies and proficiency on a parade of stringed instruments create an alluring frame for their poignant original songs, and carefully chosen traditional pieces from the British Isles, America, and beyond. The current menagerie includes Celtic harp, mandocello, mandolin, guitars, clawhammer banjo, and National steel ukulele, plus a bit of kazoo, harmonica, and shakers.

Exhibit

Who:    Norma Clare

Where:  Barton County Arts Center, Forest & Main, Great Bend

When:   Month of December

From Dodge City, Norma Clare will show a number of her watercolors and items painted on leather during December. Living in Dodge, the historic western atmosphere has served as an inspiration.

Concert

Who:    Small Potatoes

Where:  The Back Room of the Barton County Arts Center, Forest & Main, Great Bend

When:   7:30 p.m., Sunday, December 2, 2007

Cost:    $10 with advance reservations

Web:            http://www.smallpotatoesmusic.com/

The Chicago based folk duo of Jacquie Manning and Rich Prezioso say it has taken them years of careful indecision to develop a repertoire they describe as "Celtic to cowboy" Superb musicianship and showmanship, award-winning songwriting, and a strong sense of tradition has made them, as Dirty Linen Magazine said, "one of the most polished, inventive, and entertaining shows on the circuit."

Release Date: July 5, 2007

Revision Date: August 30, 2007