You can celebrate city of Wichita and Art Museum birthdays at events this weekend

Happy birthday to Wichita — and to you too, Wichita Art Museum.

Everyone is invited to celebrate the birthday of not just Wichita this weekend but also the Wichita Art Museum during some special area events. Wichita’s birthday parties are happening in two places that give a sense of the city’s past: the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum, which is housed in Wichita’s first city hall, and Old Cowtown Museum, a living history attraction dedicated to the city’s early days.

Wichita officially turned 152 on July 20, while WAM’s 87th birthday is being celebrated a few months early. The art museum opened in September 1935.

Grab your birthday party hats — or just make one at WAM’s party — and celebrate at the following events.

Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum, 204 S. Main

The museum is celebrating Wichita’s birthday from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday with special tours to the museum’s clock tower, make-your-own Wichita flag projects and ice cream sandwiches and lemonade served in Heritage Square, the courtyard adjacent to the museum.

Visitors can also explore the four floors of exhibits in the museum, which include a re-creation of a typical early 20th-century neighborhood drug store, the 1890s office of the mayor and an 1890 Victorian house. There are also Wichita-centric exhibits that chronicle the city’s first half-century and a Wichita-built 1916 Jones VI automobile.

The building itself is a piece of Wichita’s history. It was designed by noted architects Willis Proudfoot and George Bird and completed in 1892. Called the Palace of the Plains, it served as Wichita’s city hall until the mid-1970s.

Since the building was constructed during a recession, the clock tower was left vacant for years, according to the museum’s website. The clock was added in 1917. During the tower tours, a special treat for the birthday celebration, visitors will be able to see the clock’s mechanisms, said Samantha Carter, the museum’s lead educator.

Cost: Free with the donation of a birthday card (one card per family) on Saturday or regular admission of $5 adults, $2 ages 6-12, and free ages 6 and under; museum admission is free on Sundays this year thanks to the Ruth Spooner Stone Charitable Trust.

Old Cowtown Museum

The museum’s recognition of Wichita’s birthday will be part of the museum’s National Day of the Cowboy special event happening all day Saturday.

The party for Wichita’s birthday will happen at 3:45 p.m. in Turnverein Hall, with a dance performance by the museum’s Victorian dancers, Entre Nous, singing of the Kansas state song, “Home on the Range, and free cake for visitors, according to Jacky Goerzen, the museum’s executive director.

Cost: Regular museum admission applies: $9 adults, $8 ages 62 and older, $7 ages 12-17, $6 kids 5-11, and free to ages 4 and younger, museum members and active-duty military and their immediate family.

Bonus tip: Use the Sunflower Summer app to get free, one-time admission to Old Cowtown Museum and the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum for Kansas schoolchildren and two adults.

Wichita Art Museum, 1400 W. Museum Blvd.

Among the treats happening during WAM’s birthday bash on Saturday are live music by the Pan ICT Steel Band and free ice cream sandwiches (while they last) handed out by the Wichita Wagonmasters from 1 to 3 p.m.

The festivities kick off at 11 a.m. with a community art-making project inspired by WAM’s Two Triangle Dango ceramic sculpture by artist Jun Kaneko. Visitors will be able to create polka dot patterns, similar to those on the sculpture, on two canvas panels that will be part of an art piece displayed in the museum later this year.

Visitors can also make custom birthday hats for the celebration and shop the used book sale sponsored by Friends of the Art Museum.

Cost: WAM admission is free on Saturdays