The inaugural phase of the Ulrich Co-Lab established the foundation for the entire project: an invitation to visitors to participate in the museum as thinkers, contributors, and collaborators rather than spectators.

Co-Lab I unfolded across three interactive zones within the gallery. A community survey gathered visitors’ relationships to art, the museum, and the institutions they encounter in daily life. An interactive map connected works from the Ulrich’s permanent collection to specific places in Wichita, surfacing the often invisible threads between the museum’s holdings and the community that surrounds it. A wall of reproductions asked a deceptively simple question, “What does art make you feel?,” and invited visitors to respond directly, in their own words.

The data gathered during this phase shaped every iteration that followed, establishing both the methodology and the spirit of the Co-Lab: that the most rigorous curatorial work begins with listening.

Organized by the Ulrich Museum of Art. Concept and research by Vivian Zavataro