Basketball is not common in a museum, but on Thursday students had the chance to show off their skills in an empty gallery space.
The mini-basketball hoops hung on the wall at the Beach Museum of Art were part of their event that was centered around the Kansas State Book Network’s common read, “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas.
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Basketball wasn’t the only activity available to students. “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” played in the background while students made their own linoleum block-cuts to practice printmaking. Designs ranged from simple to complex, and K-State themed designs were popular.
Even the food connected to the book. Signs hung on the walls by each activity or display and explained its context in the book.
A highlight of the night was the coolest shoes contest, with categories including fanciest, sportiest, dirtiest and cleanest shoes.
Two winners of the coolest shoes contest came from the Psychology in Art and Design Cat Community. Anna Samuelson, freshman in open option, won the fanciest shoes category with a pair of green dinosaur slippers while Logan Staab, freshman in art, took home the honor of sportiest shoes with a pair of bright purple Nikes.
Staab said winning was cool, but he also said he “enjoyed seeing all the different things the museum has to offer.”
Like Samuelson and Staab, many who attended the event were first-year students who were attending with their Cat Communities.
Kennedy Boyles, freshman in biology, enjoyed the theme of the event because she enjoyed reading “The Hate U Give.”
“I like how it explains that using your voice is powerful,” Boyles said.
The open house event gave students a chance to interact with the common read, learn about the Beach Museum and view the 2018 Common Work of Art, “Burial” by New Mexico artist Karsten Creightney.
Kathrine Schlageck, assistant curator of education, said Creightney expressed himself in a way similar to what the main character in “The Hate U Give” did.
Creightney had an uncle who died of a drug overdose, and though his prints are black and white, the imagery he uses helps evoke hope in a manner that Schlageck said was “a visual representation of traveling between two worlds.”
