The Great Bend downtown loft program is now open, said Sara Hayden, president of Great Bend Development Inc., the entity spearheading the project.  With applications now being sought, Hayden said she will hold a question-and-answer session at 4 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 26, at the Great Bend Events Center Santa Fe Trail conference room. “Great Bend Economic Development, with support from the city, is thrilled to be able to offer this grant program to help enhance our downtown corridor and bring more opportunities for business and housing to the community,” Hayden said. “This program allows us the chance to get a lot of work done in a short period of time, making Great Bend stand out as a community that is ready for change and growth, and as a community that takes pride in our future.”
Source: Great Bend Tribune

Vintage computer motherboards, action figures with weapons, car parts, clock gears, and a visionary worldview – these are Mri-Pilar’s materials. Her installation, The Garden of Isis, fills the main floor of the Florence Deeble House in Lucas, and is an ongoing project 20 years in the making. This summer, Pilar installed 50 new pieces on a wall she titled “Continuum.” The works were made in the spring at an artist’s residency at the Red Barn Studio in Lindsborg. “The wall is a mosaic,” Pilar said. “It is very dense and close together with few breathing spaces, but as it moves out, it starts to open up and the silver reflection starts to happen.”  Years ago, when the Grassroots Art Center approved Pilar’s plan for the Garden of Isis, she lined the walls with reflective silver. Light from windows and electric fixtures plays among the thousand-plus individual pieces throughout the house once occupied by local teacher Florence Deeble. Deeble watched S.P. Dinsmoor work on his concrete Garden of Eden when she was a child. At the age of 50, Deeble began her own backyard environment with concrete and rocks she collected on her travels.
Source: Great Bend Tribune