Seven of the fourteen public school systems represented in this exhibition contained segregated schools, which were ruled unconstitutional in 1954 by the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision. Some school districts also established separate classrooms and school annexes for students of Mexican descent. For several decades Native American students in a federally managed boarding school in Lawrence were not allowed to speak their tribal languages.

The research for this exhibition suggests that before 1950, institutions established for non-white students lacked the same access to visual arts education, including programs like art collecting.

Contradictions thus exist between the “art for all” ideals that underlie historic art collections in Kansas schools and the era’s exclusionary practices. Promoters of original art in schools expressed a desire to enhance learning environments, cultivate appreciation of “beauty,” and “democratize” art to strengthen American democracy. But which schools were deemed worthy of enhancement? Whose cultures and histories defined what was “beautiful”? And who received the full benefits of American democracy?