The Wichita Art Museum welcomes visitors! Our goal is to provide a safe and pleasant museum-going experience that recognizes state/federal statutes and local ordinances.

Identifying Disruptive Visitor Behavior
No person shall engage in any conduct that creates a safety threat to other people, including but not restricted to the following:

• Smoking, vaping, or using tobacco in the museum, including the use of electronic cigarettes
• Using flash photography, selfie sticks, or tripods in the Wichita Art Museum (see WAM’s Photography Policy)
• Threatening, physically harming, or interfering with staff or visitors
• Eating or drinking in areas of the museum where food or beverages are not allowed
• Bringing animals or vehicles into the museum, except as required by persons with a disability
• Failing to wear a shirt or shoes
• Bringing explosive or dangerous biological or chemical agent into the Wichita Art Museum
• Bringing guns, knives, or other weapons into the Wichita Art Museum in any manner other than as allowed by local ordinance or state statute
• Bringing sleeping bags, bedrolls, blankets, large-framed backpacks, luggage, or bags of clothing into the museum or leaving them unattended on museum grounds
• Illegally using controlled substances and possessing controlled substances, paraphernalia, or simulated controlled substances
• Unauthorized consumption of alcoholic beverages on Wichita Art Museum grounds
• Bringing shopping carts or wheeled conveyances into the Wichita Art Museum (with the exception of wheelchairs, baby strollers, or carriages used for the actual transport of a person or child, or wheeled backpacks, book carriers or briefcases)
• Parking a bicycle, wheeled conveyance, shopping carts, or other wheeled cart in any area other than at a designated bicycle rack
• Failing to keep personal belongings to oneself. WAM is not responsible for lost or stolen property, and the museum’s premises shall not be used for storage of personal belongings. Items left unattended are subject to removal and discard. Any personal items brought into the museum are subject to inspection.
• Leaving a child age 12 or younger unattended in the museum without the supervision of an adult
• Carrying another person on one’s back or shoulders
• Disorderly behavior in public such as urinating, defecating, or exposing of genitals
• Using profanity, abusive or intimidating language or gestures to other visitors or staff members
• Behavior that is willfully annoying, harassing, or threatening to another person, including, but not limited to, staring at another person with the intent to annoy that person, following another person about the building with the intent to annoy that person, or displaying print or non-print materials of an offensive nature to others or by behaving in a manner that can be reasonably expected to disturb others
• Speaking at volumes that are unnecessarily loud or making other loud noises that are disruptive to other visitors, including, but not limited to, singing or talking loudly to others or in monologues
• Sleeping or napping
• Playing audio equipment that is audible to others
• Interfering with others’ use of the museum through poor personal hygiene or excessive body odor/perfume/cologne
• Campaigning, petitioning, interviewing, canvassing, or surveying customers or staff inside museum facilities
• Misusing the restrooms (including use of the restrooms for graffiti or bathing)
• Damaging, defacing, or destroying museum property, or disrupting museum events or services
• Stealing museum materials or property
• Interfering with, obstructing, or blocking free passage on the premises
• Attempting to remain in the museum after its regular closing time
• Trespassing or refusing to leave museum property when ordered to do so by staff

Consequences for Disruptive Behavior and Policy Violations

Visitors observed to be behaving in ways identified as unacceptable in this code of conduct will be instructed to cease the behavior or leave the Wichita Art Museum. Failure to observe these rules by refusing to change conduct when asked will result in loss of museum-going privileges, including the right to visit the museum’s facilities and grounds. Banning will usually be done first for a single day, then for a week, and then for a month. Permanent banning for unacceptable behavior must be authorized by the Director of the Wichita Art Museum, or their designee, and will be used when repeated attempts to correct unacceptable behavior have failed or serious offenses have occurred.

Adopted 9/20/2021