Located at the nexus of the two main streets in Matfield Green — the Flint Hills Scenic Byway and Bocook Street — The Works is the future site of our gallery and visitor’s center. Previously called The Bank, it first opened in 2012. It offered free coffee, free wifi and good conversation, but no bathrooms or modern HVAC. Charlie and Marilyn Wooster generously let Matfield Green Works (then the Center for Living Education) use the building. In 2019, we acquired it from them.
Our partners at Design+Make Studio at Kansas State University started the process of reimagining the Works as a modern-day art and welcome center to help people make deeper connections with the prairie and its inhabitants. Building on that vision, Matfield Green Works is partnering with Gravity Architects (El Dorado, KS), ASM Engineering Consultants (Andover, KS), and SWT Design (Kansas City, MO).
The Works includes a flexible gallery space for exhibitions with seating for 50, visitor’s information area, kitchenette, toilet, storage room, terrace, and sculpture garden with native stone and plantings. It is an ideal home base for Matfield Green Works – art, programs, hospitality.
The design is a modern expression of “Matfield Green vernacular” – simple, practical, low-cost construction. The 1920s masonry façade of The Bank, the last remaining storefront on the Flint Hills Scenic Byway (KS-177/Reed Street) in Matfield Green, will be restored and reused as the façade of the new building.
Be A Part of The Works
Checks for Matfield Green Works, a 401(c)3 nonprofit, should be mailed to
201A N. Reed St., Matfield Green, KS 66862.