Norman Akers Artist Talk and Reception

Join us at the Nerman Museum on Thursday, October 1, from 6-7 p.m. for an artist talk and reception for Norman Akers Navigates the Space Between, with a reception to follow. This talk will be moderated by David Cateforis. This event is free and open to the public.

Norman Akers earned his MFA in Painting from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL; a certificate in Museum Studies from the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM; and a BFA in Painting from the Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO.

David Cateforis is professor and chair of art history at the University of Kansas, where he has taught since 1992. He is the author of “Modern Art: A Global Survey from the Mid-Nineteenth Century to the Present” (Oxford University Press, 2023).

Norman Akers Navigates the Space Between will be on view in the Nerman Museum’s Kansas Focus Gallery, First Floor, through December 6, 2026.

This project is part of the initiative Home Is Where We Are: Art of First Americans. Spanning institutions across the Great Plains, it marks a coordinated focus on contemporary Indigenous art. Each organization presents a distinct project contributing to a collective that amplifies Indigenous perspectives. Participating institutions include the Chapman Center for Rural Studies; Kansas Studies Institute; Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art; Mid-America All-Indian Museum; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art; Salina Art Center; Ulrich Museum of Art; and Volland, A Place for Art and Community — positioning the region as a destination for experiencing the art of First Americans.

Photo: Cody Hammer/Osage News