THE BACK PAGE TIME AND SPACE
I’m tucked beneath the staircase of the newest building in downtown Wichita. The Kansas Leadership Center professional staff has been in this new space since early August, and while the new ‘no walls’ office space is great for collaboration, when it comes to writing, I need some alone time and space. This new space is the evolution of a conversation that began a generation ago when the people of Kansas communicated to the Kansas Health Foundation that if we really want to improve the health of Kansans, then let’s add some value to the leadership capacity of those who show up to do that important work. That led to a series of leadership development efforts under the foundation’s auspices and evolved to a conclusion that when it comes to actually moving the needle on health issues in the civic arena, the capacity of those in the community to lead and effect actual change is pretty much the ballgame. Six years ago, the Kansas Leadership Center set up shop in the oldest working office building in Wichita. The Occidental began life in 1876 in Wichita’s Cow Town era as a hotel for cowboys and cattle barons. That space reeked of history. My penny loafers made the stairs creak, and historical photos on hallway walls were testament to the building’s origins. I was a daydream away from checking my six-shooter at the front desk, pardner.
I was the Heights High yearbook photographer, we dragged the varsity cheerleaders downtown to pose next to the chrome bumper horse sculpture on the building’s west side. Three years later I was in the bank courtyard in a throng of green T-shirted political rally-ers supporting a diminutive 46-year-old former member of the Maize school board wearing glasses and a huge smile. The placards read, “A woman’s place is in the House … and in the Senate” and “Run, Nancy, run.” Back in those pre-driver’s license Douglas-dragging years, my friends and I would board a city bus for the journey downtown. We’d cheer for Wichita Aeros Chris Chambliss and Buddy Bell at then-Lawrence Stadium, listen to records at the new Wichita Public Library and just knock around downtown. The bus to get back home stopped at the corner of Broadway and William, directly in front of the former Henry’s department store, right around the block from me now. So I guess in a tangible way, it’s the space between my ears, in my heart and in my gut that’s really impacted by this physical space where I find myself. Here under the stairs. As others spend time in this new building, gaining knowledge and expanding their capacity to lead, my bet is it’ll happen to them.
This summer, the Kansas Leadership Center moved from the oldest working space in Wichita to the newest. In fact, this new space in which I’m sitting, the Kansas Leadership Center & Kansas Health Foundation Conference Center, is the first new building in downtown Wichita in 40 years.
Mike Matson is Director of Innovative and Strategic Communication for the Kansas Leadership Center.
I’ve been in this space before. I was in Pleasant Valley Junior High when what was then the Fourth Financial Center building went up right across Douglas from where I’m sitting. A glance to the right and the memories wash over me. When
80.