The Museum installed a new, site-specific commission by sculptor John Douglas Powers. Confluence brings the magic of the tallgrass prairie to the WAM galleries. Comprised of 700 vertical rods swaying rhythmically like prairie grasses in the wind, Confluence is a mesmerizing kinetic sculpture. Video projections of awe-inspiring Flint Hills skyscapes complete the installation.

John Douglas Powers studied art history at Vanderbilt University and earned an MFA in sculpture from University of Georgia. He has exhibited at Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and MIT Museum, amongst others. He was a 2016 Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of a Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA grant. Powers currently lives and works in Knoxville where he is Assistant Professor of Sculpture at the University of Tennessee.

John Douglas Powers, Confluence, 2023. Walnut, steel, aluminum, brass, plastic, and motor with pinhole video, about 57 x 78 x 108 in. Wichita Art Museum, Museum purchase, American Art Acquisition Fund established by friends and franchisees of Pizza Hut, in honor of Frank and Dan Carney, 2023.22