For the first time in — no one is sure of how many years — there will be no painted teacup from the Kansas State Fair going to the governor’s mansion this year.

None were entered into the annual fine arts competition.

Fair officials fear it may be a trend as more historical skills and interests featured at the fair for decades are lost, though entries in other categories are up as interests, and time devoted to crafts, shift.

“It’s been a long-standing tradition to have a cup sit at the governor’s mansion, and for the first time in a long time, we don’t have one,” said Kansas State Fair General Manager Bryan Schulz.

Gov. Laura Kelly will not be attending the fair on Governor's Day this year. Lt. Gov. David Toland will be taking her place.

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“I know overall, from what I’m hearing, a lot of people are aging out,” Schulz said. “People are not wanting to submit those things, and the art is kind of being lost.”

Besides China painting, woodworking entries and “other old school arts and crafts” are on the decline, said Nancy Schmutz, competitions coordinator for static displays.

Fair organizers are trying to introduce opportunities for people to learn new skills, including some of those dying arts.

For example, this week the fair held several free sessions demonstrating flower arranging.

But they often take a commitment in both time and practice that people don’t have the spare time or patience for, Schmutz said.

“Some of them are also not cheap to get into,” Schulz said. “Look at the cost of woodworking tools.”

There are annual fluctuations in types of entries, but some continue to be State Fair mainstays that continue to do well, such as quilts.

Entries from FFA students, which precipitously dropped last year due to interruptions to the school year from COVID-19, have rebounded.

Guy Shoulders, state advisor for the Kansas FFA Association Agriculture Education Program, revamped the FFA entry book over the past year, Schulz said, and entries shot up from just 10 last year to nearly 600 this fair.

“Those are projects from welding and plasma cutting to building a birdhouse,” Schulz said. “He redid the categories in the book to allow kids not living on the farm to be able to enter projects. There are still some big ag mechanic projects out there, like a rebuilt tractor, but the program really took off.”

Schmutz said it’s hard to tell which other categories of entries are seeing true declines because of the impact on entries from concerns about COVID-19, which resulted in the cancellation of the 2020 fair and some COVID protocols imposed for the 2021 fair that may have discouraged people.

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“We saw things increase across the board this year,” Schmutz said, but food entries were down from historic levels, which she thought might be COVID-related.

Besides classes — the flower decorating drew about 20 people, Schmutz said — they’re working to create more interest through on-site competitions.

“We have a butter sculpture contest where you get a pound of butter to create,” Schmutz said. “It doubled this year to 12 entries. We’re getting ready to do a corn shucking contest this weekend.”

At the fair in Fargo, North Dakota, where Schulz was manager before coming to Hutchinson, they introduced Lego building contests, which had competitors from toddlers to adults.

“We bought a bunch of Legos and poured them out on a table, and people had 30 minutes to make a creation,” he said. “Prior to that, people brought their own Legos. But they were practicing building them before they came, so they knew where every piece went that came in the box. With this, you give them a green square, and they build what they can in the time allotted.”

The trophies also were made of Legos, he said. He didn't know if they might introduce something similar here.

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“The education manager this year had a pollinator picnic, where she did a class on insect hotels,” Schmutz said. “One lady came in and didn’t know if she’d be good enough to do it, but she ended up entering it into the fair. Then she did a scarecrow and a butter sculpture. She just loved it, and what a joy to have.”

Schulz, meanwhile, hopes perhaps some art teachers might pick up some of those lost arts and reintroduce them to students to create a new generation of artists for future fairs.