Exhibits
Dwight D. Eisenhower’s leadership style as president reflected his practical, level-headed Midwestern roots: Work from the middle to accomplish what those on the extremes saw as impossible.
The exhibit Eisenhower’s Middle Road spotlights a prescription for peace and prosperity that guided Ike throughout his eight years in the White House. He sought balance for America—the pursuit and preservation of social gains, for instance, while refraining from government overreach. The exhibit in the Central Library’s Rocky and Gabriella Mountain Gallery explores six key areas reflecting that approach.
Presented in partnership with the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home. Work/research on the exhibit was funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
The exhibit Eisenhower’s Middle Road spotlights a prescription for peace and prosperity that guided Ike throughout his eight years in the White House. He sought balance for America—the pursuit and preservation of social gains, for instance, while refraining from government overreach. The exhibit in the Central Library’s Rocky and Gabriella Mountain Gallery explores six key areas reflecting that approach.
Presented in partnership with the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home. Work/research on the exhibit was funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
Kansas City artist Benjamin Todd Wills has corresponded with thousands of prisoners over the years. When one sent him a paper airplane—its folds, textual content, and illustrations laden with messages both expressed and implicit—it inspired a unique project.
From an ever-growing collection of inmates’ paper plane submissions, Wills fashioned the exhibit Airplanes. The creations vary in size and design, some made from notebook and drawing paper, others from commissary lists, notices of denied appeals, and behavioral writeups. Their content and tone range from regret to hostility, from bravado to humility, each representing, according to Wills, “a vehicle of escape, missed opportunity, and in some cases rebellion for its creator.”
The exhibit also features Wills’ near-life-size depiction of a solitary-confinement prison cell, constructed according to sketches of those who’ve occupied them.
From an ever-growing collection of inmates’ paper plane submissions, Wills fashioned the exhibit Airplanes. The creations vary in size and design, some made from notebook and drawing paper, others from commissary lists, notices of denied appeals, and behavioral writeups. Their content and tone range from regret to hostility, from bravado to humility, each representing, according to Wills, “a vehicle of escape, missed opportunity, and in some cases rebellion for its creator.”
The exhibit also features Wills’ near-life-size depiction of a solitary-confinement prison cell, constructed according to sketches of those who’ve occupied them.
