State Fair To Showcase New Museum

When the Kansas State Fair opens Friday, it will include a new museum honoring a longtime painter and fair fixture who died last year.

The fair’s new Lair White House is located on the site of the former home of J.B. Holdren, long known as Bardo the Clown. He was a clown and show painter at the fair for decades before his death in 2013.

The half-million-dollar, two-story Lair White House includes a museum on its ground floor. It was paid for with private funds.

The first exhibit will be “Year of the Clown,” which will showcase Holdren’s private collection of carnival artifacts including antique posters, restored carousel horses and Bardo’s clown suit from the 1930s.

The fair runs from Friday through Sept. 14.

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Information from: The Hutchinson News, http://www.hutchnews.com