After over a decade of work, Emporia Celebrates the Flint Hills is disbanding.
On KVOE’s On-Air Chat on Wednesday, organizers discussed how the group’s mission has changed over time. Duane Henrikson says the initial goal revolved around the Symphony in the Flint Hills.
One of the group’s signature projects was Pianos on the Pavement, an offshoot of a similar public art project in New York City. Developer Gail Milton says it was labor-intensive but gratifying at the same time.
Since those early days, the reach of Emporia Celebrates the Flint Hills has expanded to highlight the culture of the Flint Hills as a whole, as well as Emporia’s regional role. The group has funded Flint Hills maps now in area schools and at Flint Hills Technical College as well as special seasonal murals seen in downtown Emporia. It paid for trips so fourth-graders could see the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. It also developed Secondhand Sounds, a way to create sound machines through nontraditional items.
Emporia Celebrates the Flint Hills has had numerous partners over its 13 years of operation, including the Emporia Arts Center, Emporia Eastside Community Group, Emporia Farmers Market, Lyon County History Center, Tallgrass Writing Group, what’s now called Unbound Gravel and others.
Disbanding comes later this year. Henrikson says Emporia Celebrates the Flint Hills has some funds remaining, which will go to “some of our most prized projects” at some point in the future.
