ARTSPEAK RADIO chats with James Martin, TJ Templeton, and Kathryne Grimm

Wednesday, June 3, 2020, noon – 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live www.kkfi.org

Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd talks with James Martin KC Public Art Administrator, TJ Templeton The Bunker curator, and artist/photographer/queer trans disibility activist Kathyrne Grimm.

JAMES MARTIN, Public Art Administrator, General Services Department, Facilities & Architecture Division, City of Kansas City, Missouri, develops public policy for the City Coordinates the Municipal Art Commission’s role in City public art and building projects. Martin holds a Master’s degree in arts administration, art, art history, architecture, landscape architecture, construction community and capital construction project coordination. Martin will discuss how the art selection process works and talk about projects that are currently ongoing and upcoming public art opportunities at KCI.
By City Charter, the Art Commission’s responsibilities include the approval of works of art on, or extending over, any City property; the design of buildings, bridges, fences and other structures built by the City; and any privately-owned signs, skywalks or other structures that extend over public property. City ordinances also provide that no existing work of art owned by the City can be moved or altered without commission approval except under emergency conditions. The mission of the Municipal Art Commission is to serve as a catalyst for artistic growth and aesthetic excellence in our communities, and in doing so, enhance the vitality of Kansas City and enrich the lives of our residents.
www.kcmo.gov
414 E 12th St, 17th Floor Kansas City, MO 64106

TJ TEMPLETON-Adapting to the pandemic as best we can The Bunker is no longer open to the public, but open by appointment only. We are greatly expanding our online presence with an online storefront, virtual 360 degree tours, and streaming video. As the artist-in-residence, Templeton is almost always available. First Friday receptions are cancelled for the time being, but will be doing a live virtual event from 7 to 8 p.m. Details and where to watch can be found on our website and Facebook page.

June’s artist is Benjamin Parks. www.benjaminparks.info/

Parks is the incredible multidisciplinary visual artist/musician behind the musical duo “Of Tree” whose visual art has been exhibited in such galleries as Leedy Voulkos, Hilliard gallery, and the Cee Flat gallery in Brooklyn, NY to name a few.

July features Ada Koch, the President of the board of the KC Artist’s Coalition and the artist that was behind the public art poppy installation at the WW1 Museum last year. This year, starting in June, her streetcar wrap will feature her art accompanied by a poem by Glenn North as part of the Art in the Loop program. Glenn is the Executive Director of the Bruce R Watkins Cultural Heritage Center and is currently filling his position as the Poet Laureate of the 18th and Vine Historic Jazz District. A book featuring the art and poetry of both will be available for sale during the show.
www.thebunkerartspace.com

KATHRYNE GRIMM is an award-winning and nationally exhibited fine art conceptual figurative photographer and queer trans disability activist whose artwork focuses on using femme and non-binary bodies to initiate a dialogue about issues facing the disabled. They were the recent subject of the short documentary “Kathryne: Uncensored” where they discussed accessibility in the arts, and their artwork has been published in various literary journals and art magazines. Kathryne’s activist work has led to numerous lectures and presentations on disability rights and issues facing the disability community, including ableism in media narratives and representation. They currently sit on the board of the Kansas Disability Caucus and on the Expressions curatorial and organizing committee through The Whole Person as their Disabled Artist Representative. Kathryne’s current activism and art focus is breaking down the barriers of how disabled bodies are viewed in contemporary art and in society, bringing awareness to the lack of accessibility within the Kansas City arts scene, and discussing the intersection of Domestic Violence, Disability, and Queerness. They currently reside in Kansas City in a very dark and edwardian-inspired apartment with their elementary school aged child and an apocalypse-ready sized stash of green tea.

Kansas City Artists Coalition, June 5 – 26, 2020
Invisible Victims
A series about the intersection of Disability and Domestic Violence

Disabled people are 40% more likely to experience intimate partner violence than those without disabilities. Women with intellectual disabilities are sexually assaulted at rates more than twelve times higher than those without disabilities. 83% of disabled women are sexually assaulted in their lifetime.

Invisible Victims examines the internal narrative of a disabled domestic violence victim while they are living with their abuser, and functions as a voice for victims of an epidemic that is never addressed. We follow the invisible victim as they experience severe isolation, represented by a stark dark background and often solitary presence, though evidence of the abuser is always present through the symbolic use of the color red. We continue through observing them experiencing a denial of bodily autonomy, woven in numerous pieces either through the use of hands violating the figure, smeared lipstick, or blindfolds and gags. We then follow them as they experience torture, with drops of blood symbolic for the abuser’s actions. This victim cries for help, but their cries go unanswered, and they, inevitably, stand alone, cradling their head in their hands, left by society to endure their unexitable circumstances. We finally find them at the end of the series, covered in their own blood as a subversive Madonna; a failure of societal expectations of disability to be “inspiring” and function as inspiration porn to the non-disabled. Instead of society creating avenues of assistance, the invisible victim is judged for not performing perfect inspirational disability.
www.kansascityartistscoalition.org

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