August 31, 2026
Story by Barton Communications
Courtesy photos submitted
The Shafer Art Gallery at Barton Community College will host a free reception for its annual “Friends and Acquaintances” exhibition from 4 to 6 p.m. Sept. 11, celebrating the work of Kansas artists featured in the exhibition, which runs through Oct. 30.
Attendees will have the opportunity to hear from this year’s spotlight artist Gracie Bronson as well as a variety of local artists. Light refreshments will be served.
Bronson is an artist from Pratt County working primarily in oils. She also enjoys other mediums including photography, graphite, charcoal, and pastels.
While exploring the woods of her childhood home in Northeast Mississippi, she discovered that her first art "teacher" was actually nature itself. As a child, Gracie spent many hours studying the trees, watching light fall through the branches and pool on the forest floor, and watching the sun rise and set again behind the dark silhouettes of oaks.
Bronson graduated from Blue Mountain College in Mississippi with a degree in English and art. She took every art class the college offered. She spent every free moment after class in the college art studios under the mentorship and encouragement of the art instructor. She began painting landscapes and discovered oil painting as her favorite medium to express her love of the created world.
After college, Bronson met and married a native Kansan and moved to Pratt. She continued to paint in her spare time while raising a family. She taught painting classes at the Filley Art Museum for several years and has an art studio in the rolling hills of southern Pratt County. She said much of her inspiration comes from long country walks with her dogs and her daughters. Her most important art teacher is still nature itself, but now she studies the open horizons, the big skies, the landscapes, the rustling prairie grasses, and the native wildflowers of the Kansas countryside.
Many residents of Pratt County have seen Bronson’s artwork without realizing it. Anyone who has been to the children's library of the Pratt Public Library will remember the mural along an entire wall of the library. The Old West mural on the train barn at Sixth Street Park is also her creation. She has sold pieces through the Filley and appeared in some shows there as well. She now feels very honored and excited to be in this show at the Shafer Art Gallery.
Shafer Art Gallery Director Jenna Harbaugh said Friends and Acquaintances allows visitors to connect with artists from across Kansas and learn more about their work.
“Friends and Acquaintances is exciting to me because it offers everyone a chance to meet creative people from all over the state,” she said. “Kansas is too often viewed as a flyover state, and it’s time to showcase the talent we truly have. I encourage everyone to come to the opening reception, connect with the artists, and learn more about the work on display.”
The Gallery is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information about the exhibition, visit shafergallery.myportfolio.com.