ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Spring is definitely in the air in Southwest Kansas, and along with all of the other sights and sounds of the season, viewing of some of nature’s creatures is one of the more popular warm weather activities in the area.
Among those creatures are butterflies, and later this month, Liberal’s Baker Arts Center is giving people a chance to see some monarch butterflies in the center’s big backyard.
Starting April 27 and running through May 8, Baker welcomes everyone to the Butterfly Encounter, and Director Misty Martin said there are a couple of different ways for people to enjoy the experience.
“We have schools who are scheduling,” she said. “We’re almost completely booked up right now with the schools. We have a few spots, so we definitely encourage any schools that are trying to get their students in to get in contact with us. Schools can bring their students for field trips, and we are also open daily to the public.”
Hours for the Butterfly Encounter will be 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and Martin said the exhibit will likewise be available for viewing on Sundays.
“We’re not typically open Sundays, but during that season for the butterfly exhibit, we’ll have special hours,” she said.
Saturday, May 2, in addition to the Butterfly Encounter, Baker will also host a Spring Market, and as part of this, food trucks and other vendors will be on hand.
“There will be kids activities and all kinds of different local and area people with goods, services out in the lawn area,” she said.
As for the Butterfly Encounter, Martin said those who come to Baker Arts can interact and even feed live monarch butterflies.
“They’ll sometimes land on your shoulder or your head when you’re feeding them,” she said. “You get to experience and see the butterflies up close. It’s really cool. It’s like you’re in this little fairy tale land. In addition to the butterfly experience itself, we will have stations set up with activities such as painting, a photo booth we’ll have available for everybody to do.”
Butterfly enthusiasts can also enjoy a watercolor and shadow art station, and Martin said there may even be a trivia station to test a person’s knowledge of the insect.
The butterflies themselves are being brought to Liberal from a company in Florida. Martin said the idea came to her after she and her daughter experienced a similar exhibit about 10 to 15 years ago at Baker Arts.
“At that time, I was the principal at a school in Hugoton,” she said. “We brought students over. My youngest daughter at the time was in preschool or kindergarten. We did the butterfly experience. We went in, and it was magical.”
That same year featured a migration of monarch butterflies to Southwest Kansas, and Martin said her family got to experience the insects at their home as well.
“We’re outside at our home at the time, and we see these butterflies come,” she said. “They land in this tree in our front yard. Our youngest daughter runs inside and makes this little syrup concoction she assumed they would use at the butterfly exhibit. She gets a little paint brush, and she sits in the tree with those monarch butterflies.”
Martin said it was her and her daughter’s experience with the previous Baker Arts exhibit that made her want to give people the opportunity to encounter butterflies again at the center.
“I just thought it was such a great experience for me and my child,” she said. “I wanted that to be an opportunity for other parents and children.”
Of course, late April and early May means schools are finishing up their academic calendar for the year, and Martin said the Butterfly Encounter gives adults and children an early start to summer vacation.
“It’s that little thing that gets everybody over the hump for that end of the school year,” she said. “It gives teachers a little time to be out and about from the classroom. It gets the kids moving. It gives everybody that bit of push they need to get through the school year.”
With the exhibit running for about two weeks, Martin said she is hoping to generate as much fun as possible in that time.
“I hope it’s one of those things that is contagious,” she said.
For field trips, registration is necessary, but Martin said individuals are welcome to register online at www.bakerarts.org or come on a specific day.
“There is a fee to enter and do the exhibit. It’s $10, and that includes the exhibit and all the activities we have,” she said.
Martin encourages everyone to step into a magical space filled with hundreds of live butterflies at Baker Arts Center.
“Every time we do an event, I’m the most excited I’ve been, and as we come to this event, I can definitely say I am the most excited I have been,” she said.
