ArtsKCGo Your Guide to Arts and Culture

Past and present Park University faculty from the Department of Art and Design are showcasing their work in an art exhibit being presented in the Campanella Gallery, located within Norrington Center on the University’s flagship Parkville Campus. Admission to this biennial faculty exhibit, which continues through Friday, May 10, is free and open to the public. A reception for the artists will be held on Friday, March 29, from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Gallery.

Participating artists include:

Dora Agbas, adjunct instructor of art/fibers, fiber works with embroidered linen, encaustic wax and paper with plant ephemera
Donna Bachmann, professor emerita of art and founder of the Campanella Gallery, mixed media assemblages, including her Secret Garden series
William Eickhorst, Ed.D., former adjunct instructor of fine/visual art, photography
Merrick Henry, assistant teaching professor of graphic design, digital designs
Matthew Krawcheck, adjunct instructor of art, abstract two-dimensional works with solvent transfer, gouache and colored pencil
Andrea Lee, Ph.D., associate professor of fine art and director of the Campanella Gallery, encaustic paintings with collage
Elaina Michalski, assistant teaching professor of fine art, figurative ceramics with gold luster
Lynn Richardson, adjunct instructor of fine art, triptych (a type of art that is divided into three sections or panels and typically hinged together) of “Notre Dame Burning” using graphite on paper

The Campanella Gallery is open during Norrington Center’s regular business hours:

Through Friday, May 3 — Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sunday, 4 to 9 p.m.
Saturday, May 4, through Friday, May 10 — Closed Saturday and Sunday; Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

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Join us for the FREE opening night reception on Thursday, April 4 from 7 – 8:30 pm. Enjoy complimentary appetizers and drinks and view fine art in a beautiful setting.

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Kansas City-based artist Anne Garney creates plein air landscape paintings that burst with joyful vibrancy. Inspired by the Fauve painters, her super-charged palette and structural brushstrokes capture the light, allure and energy of national and international sites.

The solo show runs April 10-June 27, 2024.  An opening reception for the artist will be held on April 17th from 11:30-1pm.

Located inside the Commerce Bank Building at 1000 Walnut Street, The Box Gallery is a one-room exhibition space designed for shows that reveal Kansas City’s cultural arts and history. We partner with local artists, collectors, and arts organizations to host year-round shows. The gallery is free and open to the public M-F 8am-5pm.

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Pollination Investigation, a poster exhibit exploring the unique relationship between pollinators and flowers, is on display now in the LongHouse Visitor Center at the Overland Park Arboretum & Botanical Gardens.

The bilingual (English/Spanish) exhibit features pollinator profiles for insects, birds, bats and more. Each profile describes the pollinators’ favorite flowers based on floral characteristics, encouraging exploration into flower shape, color and scent.

This exhibit comes to the Arboretum in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and Smithsonian Gardens, and will be on display through the fall. Entry into LongHouse Visitor Center and the exhibit is FREE. Admission is only required when entering the Overland Park Arboretum & Botanical Gardens

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Belger Crane Yard Gallery presents Salvador Jiménez-Flores' solo exhibition Arte-Sano: Soy libre porque pienso, opening Friday, February 2, at 2011 Tracy Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64108.  An Opening Night Reception will be held from 6 pm to 8 pm, where the artist will give remarks at 6:30 pm.

Salvador Jiménez-Flores is a Chicago-based artist and educator who, as a teenager, immigrated from Mexico to the U.S. His body of work is steeped in his experience as a bi-cultural, bilingual artist living “concurrently in two different worlds.” Arte-Sano: Soy libre porque pienso showcases the breadth of his practice through a range of media.  His ceramics, glass, metalwork, photography, and prints reflect the artist’s continued exploration of the politics of identity and the state of double consciousness. He also highlights the struggles and complexities of Latinx people living in the U.S.

Rich in symbolism and iconography, Salvador Jiménez-Flores draws upon Afro-Futurism, Funk Ceramics, Robert Arneson’s satiric comedy, and references pre-Columbian traditions and pop culture, to create a world that he calls “Rascquache Futurism.” In the true nature of “rasquachismo,” the concept of making the most of limited resources, Jiménez-Flores attests to his own defiance and inventiveness as an “artesano” (“craftsman”) which is a larger reflection of the resilience of Latinx people.

The exhibition title Arte-Sano:Soy libre porque pienso directly translates to “Craftsman: I am free because I think.” Soy libre porque pienso references the freedom that comes with being able to think for oneself. Including a hyphen in the word “Arte-Sano” Jiménez-Flores creates two words and an expanded meaning “arte” (“art”) and “sano” (“healthy”) revealing his fascination with word play and the power of language.

Salvador Jiménez-Flores is an Assistant Professor in ceramics at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been included in exhibitions at museums such as the National Museum of Mexican Art, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, and Museum of Art and Design. Among his many awards and recognitions, Jiménez-Flores is a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, a Burke Prize finalist, and a 2021 United States Artist Fellow. Currently, Salvador Jiménez-Flores is a member of The Color Network, an organization whose mission is to promote the advancement of people of color in the ceramic arts, and the Institutio Gráfico de Chicago, a socially conscious organization that utilizes printmaking to ignite community engagement in sociopolitical discourse.

Salvador Jiménez-Flores\' exhibition Arte-Sano: Soy libre porque pienso will be on view through June 8, 2024.

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AnticKS & MOdels + My theater to your eyes: Kahlil Robert Irving marks the artist’s first institutional exhibition in Kansas and a return to the central Midwest. Irving’s work engages with the current post-industrial landscape and grapples with how tools and technology challenge perceptions of what we see and how we understand information. Irving is interested in using materials to engage abstract ideas around perception and legibility. Growing up in St. Louis, a city that has experienced a sharp population decline in recent years, the artist is constantly learning stories about places that need to be memorialized and not forgotten—places that continue to go unrecognized and unappreciated for their significance.

Irving critically engages the Nerman Museum’s architecture by trespassing its gallery divisions and boundaries. As visitors navigate the walkway, they encounter sculptures of ceramic, painted foam, fabric, granite, marble, wood, in addition to artifacts, and discovered objects drawn from the artist’s personal collection. With AnticKS & MOdels, the artist’s goal is both to fool the eye and the opposite: to make space for viewers to experience more. Irving uses material culture to reflect his own life and memorialize the present. Learn more about this exhibition at nermanmuseum.org.

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Belger Arts is pleased to present Heartland 6, a juried exhibition of the Midwest’s finest glass art. The exhibition opens with the following programming at two Belger Arts locations:

* Opening reception on Friday, April 5 from 6 pm to 8 pm at the Belger Crane Yard Gallery (2011 Tracy Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64108). Artists whose work was selected as “Best in Show” and “Honorable Mention” will be recognized at 6:30pm.
* Artist talk and process presentation on Saturday, April 6 featuring the Heartland 6 “Best in Show” artist from 3pm to 4pm at the Belger Glass Annex (1219 E. 19th Street, Kansas City, MO 64108).

Glass artists from Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma were invited to submit work to Heartland 6. The exhibition includes selected works by: Karina Boatright (NE), Joey Bourdow (KS), Olivia Brummet (NE), Megan Chalifoux (MO), Kate Clements (MO), Olivia Dobkin (MO), Roberta Eichenberg (KS), Genevieve Flynn (MO), Jessica Gorecki (NE), Swede Hickok (MO), Katie Hogan (MO), Cole Kennedy (KS), Sara Sally LaGrand (MO), Sky Maggiore (KS), Jessalyn Mailoa (MO), Taylor Moore (NE), Emily Nickel (OK), Mary Peterson (MO), Audrey Puckett (MO), Nadine Saylor (NE), Olivia Shelton (MO), Lauryl Sidwell (MO), Pamela Sabroso & Alison Siegel (MO), Kale Stewart (KS), Marie Tabler (MO), Kat Weltha (KS), and Evan Wunsch (MO).

This year’s guest jurors were Samatha De Tillio and Leo Tecosky. De Tillio is a contributing editor to GLASS: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly and museum curator working with institutions including the Corning Museum of Glass, Museum of Art and Design, and Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian National Museum of American Art, among others. Tecosky is a Brooklyn-based glass artist with a BA in Fine Arts from Alfred University and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts. Tecosky’s artwork explores the intersection of cultural and craft traditions with influences from hip-hop and graffiti.

“Best in Show” and “Honorable Mention” works and artists will be recognized at the exhibition’s opening reception on April 5 at 6:30pm.

Click here to learn more about the Heartland 6 exhibition, the Friday night open reception, or the Saturday artist talk.

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Dive into the dynamic world of NFTs with Marco Peyfuss and Ben Strauss at our upcoming event, where artistry intersects with innovation. Marco brings his expertise from Honeybee Robotics, where he honed skills in testing and developing software for space applications, to the burgeoning blockchain arena. With a passion for NFT and smart contract development, he’s pioneering the linkage of art to real-time events through advanced programming. Ben Strauss, an ex-aerospace engineer turned NFT connoisseur, captures the essence of the Colorado landscape through his lens. His photography, having graced the eyes of millions worldwide, now serves as a foundation for exploring the NFT space. Ben’s transition from engineering to digital artistry through Transient Labs is pushing the envelope of what\'s possible with NFTs. Together at Transient Labs, Marco and Ben are redefining the art landscape. They've been instrumental in sponsoring Kansas City’s first digital art gallery, bringing a revolutionary platform to artists and art enthusiasts alike. This event is an unmissable opportunity for anyone intrigued by the intersection of technology and art. You\'ll gain insights into how NFTs started, where they currently stand, and where this technology could take the world of art next. Whether you\'re an artist, collector, or tech enthusiast, Marco and Ben\'s firsthand experiences and forward-thinking visions will illuminate the path of digital art’s future.

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Midwest GameFest Kansas City is an annual four-day tabletop hobby game convention held each Spring in the Kansas City area. It is the companion convention to our online-only event, Midwest GameFest Online, held each Fall online. Midwest GameFest brings a number of long-standing midwestern game organizations under one roof. The Role-Players Guild of Kansas City (Shauncon, KCGameFair), Heart of America Historical Miniatures Gaming Society (Borderwars), and Recruits (A Historical, Fantasy, and Sci-Fi Wargaming Convention) have banded together to bring you in-person role-playing games, historical miniatures, board games, card games, organized play, cosplay, artwork, workshops, game designers, exhibitors, benefit events, a used game sale and more! Midwest GameFest is organized and funded by The Role-Players Guild of Kansas City, LTD.

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Guests are required to check in before they can enter museum galleries or Rozzelle Court Restaurant – either in person or online in advance of their visit. Staffed and self-service check-in kiosks are located at museum entrances. If you’ve checked-in online, you’ll need to provide the QR code you received with your reservation confirmation email.

Once you’ve checked in at the museum, you’ll receive a wristband and access to all general admission galleries.

To learn more about visiting the museum, click here.

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Patrick McGrath Muñiz is an artist from Puerto Rico, now living in Texas. His current artwork is comprised primarily of drawings, 'retablo' paintings and tarot cards, inspired after one of the few personal items he managed to recover before hurricane Maria hit his childhood home and studio in the island in 2017. The artist incorporates and combines figures and icons from Spanish Colonial Iconography, American Pop Culture and Tarot layered with personal myths and memories. His work reflects on the colonial roots of our current consumer culture.  Patrick obtained a BFA (Magna Cum Laude) in Fine Arts from the School of Fine Arts of San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2003 and an MFA (Suma Cum Laude) from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2006. Patrick McGrath Muñiz is represented by Evoke Contemporary, Santa Fe.

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Jianqiao Luan (JQ) is originally from northern part of Mainland China. Jianqiao has lived in Beijing and Chengde (a smaller town 2 hours away from Beijing) before moving to the US when he was 25. After completing his bachelor’s degree in Landscape Design from Beijing Forestry University, JQ started his master’s degree in Horticulture at Kansas State University in 2015, then moving to Kansas City in 2018.

JQ has always loved painting and drawing. His art practice started at a young age. JQ's doodles on his family’s white clean condo walls, however cute, these efforts also made his parents a little upset. JQ never pursued any professional training in art until his undergraduate studies in landscape design, those classes were only taught for a few semesters. These few art classes, however, gave him the opportunity to really fall in love with watercolor and since that time he has been self-teaching and practicing over the last few years.

Now he is a declared 'full time artist'.

Follow JQ on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jqwatercolor/

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This wet and messy class is hands-on and you'll make yourself a stack of usable paper in the color and sizes of your choosing - from large art papers, to place cards, to stationery and envelopes. Paper will be dry and ready to pick up the following week. Taught by Kelsey Pike, professional papermaker and author of "Modern Papermaking: Techniques in Handmade Paper." For adults (ages 16 and up)

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Players, including museum members and children, are required to reserve their tee times. We encourage guests to book in advance, but on-site reservations are available on a first come, first served basis. Each tee time is limited to 12 people.

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Join us on April 19th at 5pm for the opening reception for ArtHeals 2024! Featuring the work of over 50 artists, ArtHeals shows the convergence of art and wellness, encompassing various dimensions of physical, mental, community, and spiritual well-being.

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Please join us Friday, April 19th, from 6-9 PM, for an evening of great art, great company, and decent wine. We'll be featuring the work of Gary Bowling, Tyler Kimball, and John Gary Brown--all of them rock stars of this era.

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We hope you’ll join us on 3rd Friday, April 19, as Kiosk Gallery presents Puff Puff Puff Pass, an exhibition including collaborative ceramic and mixed media works by SunYoung Park, Meg Howton, Liz Stensland, and Caro Burks.

EXHIBITION STATEMENT

Stumbling through the hazy fog. Hanger 9 terrace next to Carbondale Station puff puff puff pass,a typical summer night in Carbondale in a hazy fog. Sticky, sticky, skin-to-skin, puff puff, and puff pass. Meg, Caro, Liz and SunYoung. Puff. Candlelight and Blue Gatorade. Homemade pickles and Kimchi. Puff. Sitting on tan carpet, spilling seltzer. Puff. Fire and Bugs fly in my ears, sweating and giggling as things crawl in the darkness. Pass. Kiln Dust and pink spray paint. Swinging drinks and glitter slime. Staring into potholes, thinking about the future, Bubble tea… Pumpkin pies from Alabama, creamy whites, crispy chicken, wild overalls from West Virginia, extra kindness and barefoot from South Dakota, and loud laughter, spicy from Masan. They just puff puff pass puff puff pass. Today, they are in Kansas City. Camel puff puff… wait a sec,SunYoung refuses the smoke. Let’s switch to…

The exhibition’s introduction sets the stage for a collaborative and playful exploration of creativity among Meg Howton, Liz Stensland, Caro Burks, and SunYoung Park. Their intellectual bonds, which originated from their meeting at the MFA program at Southern Illinois University – Carbondale, have evolved into a delight-ful friendship. Puff Puff Puff Pass presents a unique collaborative project in which bisque objects travel between Minneapolis, MN, Kansas City, MO, Tuscaloosa, AL, and Richmond, VA, passing from one artist to another in a whimsical relay. SunYoung initiates the journey to Caro, who passes it to Liz, continuing until Meg brings the cycle full circle. In this creative exchange, artists add their personal touch, shaping the pieces with their unique perspectives and styles. The result is a harmonious blend of artistic expression, reflecting the joys of collaboration and the power of shared creativity.

ARTISTS’ RECEPTIONFriday, April 19, 2024, 6-9 pm CSTKiosk Gallery1600 Genessee, Suite 133Kansas City, MO  64102OPEN HOURSSaturdays 12-4 pm & by appointmentShow runs through June 8, 2024HOLIDAY CLOSURESSaturday, May 25 (Memorial Day Weekend)

ARTIST BIOS

SunYoung Park SunYoung Park explores the space between imagination and reality. The use of diverse materials represents her visual language as she explores contrasting surfaces, emphasizing ceramics and mixed media. Park earned her BFA and MFA from Hong-Ik University, Seoul, Korea, and an MFA from Southern Illinois University – Carbondale (2021). She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally. Park was the resident artist at Clayarch Gimhae Museum in the Ceramic Creative Center (2017). She has participated in Jingdezhen International Ceramic Art Biennale, Jingdezhen, China; 7° Salon international Art Résilience, Musée de Peinture de Saint-Frajou, France; and the Women to Watch exhibition at Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO. SunYoung is a 2023 Charlotte Street Visual Artist Award Fellow and Awardee of the Byron C. Cohen Award. She is currently a resident artist at Charlotte Street Foundation in Kansas City, MO.park-sunyoung.comMeg HowtonMeg Howton began her young career making mud pies in the iron-rich Alabama clay. Howton received an award at the ripe old age of 6 for showing creativity by spinning a Q-tip® while painting a plate of the paper variety. This set her sights on a career in the art field, so she attended The University of Alabama where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics and Photography in 2015. She then relocated to Gainesville, Florida where she completed her post-baccalaureate at the University of Florida in 2018. Meg attended Southern Illinois University where she received her Master of Fine Arts. She now is a full-time Instructor of ceramics at The University of Alabama. Meg recently led a workshop at the 2024 Alabama Clay conference. meghowton.netLiz Stensland  Liz Stensland is a mixed-media artist living in the Twin Cities area. Liz works for Textile Center, a national fiber art center, and is a studio artist working at Northern Clay Center. Her work focuses on nuances within domestic spaces through lighting, mechanisms, and space. Liz works with textiles and ceramics in her sculptures as she enjoys the duality that they share together physically as well as metaphorically. Her work has been shown in exhibitions nationally as well as internationally at the XIV International Biennial of Ceramics of Manises in Valencia, Spain.elizabethstensland.comCaro Burks  Caro Burks uses mixed-media sculpture and installation to explore themes of sentimentality, storytelling, and symbolism in decorative culture. Caro received her BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2015, held a post-baccalaureate position at the University of Arkansas from 2015-2017, and received her MFA from Southern Illinois University in the Spring of 2020. Burks has been awarded residencies at Penland School of Crafts, Anderson Ranch Arts Center and the New Harmony Clay Project. She has participated in solo, juried and group exhibitions nationally. Her work is currently on display at the Marvin Cone Gallery as a Kocher Visiting Artist Fellow, in the two-person exhibition Dusty Old Darkness.caropradosburks.com

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Music Theatre Kansas City (MTKC)’s professional company, MTKC Pro, is presenting the regional premiere of Rocky: Live on Stage April 12-28. Based on the academy-award winning film, MTKC Pro is bringing Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed to life in a new immersive multimedia production. All performances will be in MTKC’s theater, B&B Live, inside the B&B Shawnee Movie Theater Complex. Tickets are $20 for students and $30 for adults and are available online at www.mtkc.org. Group rates are available by request [[email protected]]

The cast will be headed by Drew Starlin, a local Kansas City actor who made his Broadway Debut in the original cast of Footloose and has continued to perform professionally all over the country. He is joined on stage by Lawrence legend, Ric Averill as Mickey and Shane St. James as his opponent, Apollo Creed. 15 additional professional actors round out the cast, along with a live orchestra of 14 on-stage musicians, directed by MTKC’s Artistic Director, Julie Danielson. The film and montage elements of the production are directed by Kyle Stone.

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Mark your calendars for Friday, April 19th at 7:30 p.m. when the Sanctuary of St. Andrew's will ring out with an homage to one of the most influential bands in history. Get ready for a Beatlesmania show like no other! The Mighty Mo Jazz Orchestra will turn the night into a celebration of the Fab Four with powerful renditions of your favorite Beatles covers. It's a celebration of one of the most iconic bands in music history, reimagined through the vibrant lens of jazz. Prepare for an unforgettable night of music, nostalgia, and camaraderie that only the Beatles and jazz can conjure.

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Michael Stern, conductor

Jeffrey Kahane, piano

RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Serenade No. 10, "Gran Partita"

Michael Stern has crafted a unique program that will delight the senses and linger in your memory. Ralph Vaughan Williams was steeped in the rich heritage of English string music and he used a sweet melody by the Renaissance composer Thomas Tallis in this glorious fantasia that has delighted audiences for more than a century. You'll be swept away by the luscious string sonority.

Throughout his stellar career, Jeffrey Kahane has enchanted audiences with insightful and inspiring performances. An acclaimed pianist, we’re delighted to welcome him back to Kansas City to play Beethoven’s superb Fourth Piano Concerto, an absolute masterwork for the piano. Hear for yourself what happens when great talents combine across the centuries.

The Kansas City Symphony woodwinds are exceptional musicians and they'll be featured in Mozart's Serenade No. 10, often called "Gran Partita" for its expansive form. This graceful work pushes the conventional boundaries in an elegant and polished manner that readily demonstrates Mozart's genius.

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Eden to Eternity is an exhibit from the Bowden Collection made up of forty stunning molas collected from various Cuna artisans on the San Blas Islands, just off the coast of Panama. Molas are panels of reversed embroidery meant to be applied to the front and back of Cuna women’s blouses. Each mola in this collection is a beautifully designed interpretation of a biblical story with whimsical treatments and tender insights. These molas are a reminder of the diverse, global nature of artistic expression within the Christian faith.

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