Volunteer board members at Wellington's Chisholm Trail Museum received a letter from New York artist Allan McCollum, dated June 15, 2003, and containing the following statement . . .

"I would like to donate a small topographical model of the state of Kansas to your collection...I am an artist from New York, and a number of these models were made for an exhibition at a Kansas City gallery called Grandarts. I am hoping a few of them can find a use beyond the boundaries of the contemporary art world. I am planning to take a road trip through the state of Kansas in August, and it would be a pleasure for me to bring the model to you, should you be interested in accepting the gift."

Museum volunteers didn't pass up such a unique opportunity. McCollum recently hand-delivered the model to the museum. According to the artist, he left the model "blank" so as to allow its new owners to enhance it according to their specific plans for its display.

In an effort to explain the project McCollum stated, "l was recently fortunate to have the Grand Arts gallery in Kansas City offer to help finance and produce an art exhibition for me. I decided to do a project that explored the shapes and topography of the two states, Kansas and Missouri. I believe that everyone has a profound emotional involvement with such features of their own home territory, and I think that these feelings can be an interesting subject for artistic exploration. Instead of making just one single project to be seen by a limited number Kansas City art viewers, I decided to expand the project into two parts."

The first part involved the creation of three-dimensional, topographical models of the two states, cast from a mold in ceramic, and finished with a bright colored glaze for the purpose of sale and exhibit.

Though the very same molds were used for the second part, a different object was created for a different purpose. The additional models were produced using a mixture of plaster and cement, and are being donated to small, regional historical society museums (much iike our own) throughout Kansas and Missouri.

"This part of the project is less about the objects themselves, and more about the 'distribution' of the objects," McCollum stated. "One could think of the movement of these objects across the two states as a kind of 'sculpture in motion."'

According to McCollum, though it can be expensive to produce models from molds, it becomes more economical to produce them in quantity.

"I am trying to 'piggy-back' a practical, educational project on top of an art gallery project, and thus extend the benefits of Grand Arts gallery's eftorts into areas beyond the Kansas City art community," he said.

The cast was taken from two original models created frpm computerized Geogiaphical Information Systems data supplied by the United States government. Therefore, in spite of slightly exaggerated features that give a better picture of elevations across the state, the models are 'scientifically accurate to a fair degree.'

The exhibition of the ceramic models will be on view from November 7 through December 20, at Grand Arts, 1819 Grand Boulevard, Kansas City, MO 64108. For those who would like more information, the gallery's phone number is 816.421.6887.

For those who are interested in learning a little more about the project as a whole, you are invited to visit the project website:
topomodels.html topos/topomodels.html. Those who wish to view the model can do so at the Chisholm Trail Museum.