ARTSPEAK RADIO chats with KCAC and Impratical Spaces

Wednesday, January 15, 2020, noon – 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live www.kkfi.org

Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd talks with Kansas City Artists Coalition founder Maura Conry, Executive Director Marissa Starke, plus Impractical Spaces project members Cory Imig and Melaney Mitchell.

The Kansas City Artists Coalition was created to change the lives of artists living in Kansas City, Missouri. On March 5, 1975 a large group of artists gathered in the studio of local artists Philomene Bennett and Lou Marak to address “How the Artist Can Benefit from Centralization.” Overwhelmingly the group felt a self-initiated organization was the only alternative to isolation, elitism, apathy, and ignorance. The ultimate result of that meeting was the incorporation of the Kansas City Artist Coalition in August 1976.The Kansas City Artists Coalition (KCAC or Artists Coalition) is an artist-centered, artist-run alternative space that presents a variety of exhibitions of contemporary artists’ work in its Mallin Gallery, Jacqueline B. Charno Gallery, the Underground Gallery and the Snap Space Gallery.
Kansas City Artists Coalition is located at 3200 Gillham Rd. KCMO 64109 www. kansascityartistscoalition.org

MAURA CONRY-Steamy New Orleans paid no attention to my birth in 1940, though I was yelling my lungs out. Childhood in rural 1950’s Louisiana consisted of wading in bayous, sleeping to the din of frogs and insects, avoiding snakes and alligators while caring for my four younger siblings, and making things. Too poor for toys, I drew from the rich canvass of natural and found materials to create non-stop, never imagining the vast possibilities of a creative life.
Parochial school drummed into me the strictest ideals of Irish Catholicism until, at age 14, a yearning to become a Roman Catholic nun took hold. Off I went to an old-fashioned convent still operating in “Middle Ages” mode. My growing desire to study art worsened my status with my superiors who told me “artists were ne’er-do-wells.” That it was “God’s will” that I study pharmacy to staff the order’s hospitals. After high school, I was summarily packed off to Loyola University to study bioscience with the Jesuits. Dutifully, I staffed hospitals.
In due time this period of my life (11 years) had run its course and I decided to leave the order. My petition to Rome to be absolved from my holy vows was granted, and I struck out on my own to create a new life for myself amid admonitions from the nuns that my position in hell for all eternity was secured. At last I had a life of my own.
The fine arts program at University of Houston welcomed me and I spent four glorious years immersing myself in art. I married a NASA professional transferred to Kansas, had a son, divorced, and struck out as a single mom nurturing a son and an art career while supporting myself as a pharmacist. My small artists cooperative gallery kept my passion alive while I juggled necessities. Then a bout of cancer in the early 90s spiraled my life out of control again and set me on a new trajectory. With my son out of the nest and myself not getting any younger, I trudged back to graduate school and became a psychotherapist, a profession that delves into the deepest levels of the human condition. For twenty years I worked with people in crisis, gleaning from them the
layered depths of human nature, the spirituality of the human condition, and the many faces of suffering.
My art unfolds itself out of the deep well of life experiences that feeds my creativity. I use layered imagery from religion, biology, pharmacy, psychotherapy, and the social sciences, in all of which I am formally and informally trained. Spiritual and religious themes continue to pervade my artwork at every turn.
At age 79, through my art, I am still yelling my lungs out.

MARISSA STARKE joined the KCAC staff in 2010 previously she worked as Art Director at Artichokes, Leawood, Kansas.
During her time here at KCAC she has played an integral role in the development of many new programs and artist opportunities. For the past four years she has curated the Underground Gallery exhibition space.
In 2015 she developed and managed the KCAC Artist Takeover program on the KCAC Instagram account, which continues to connect artists with their audience in this micro residency program.
In 2016, Ms. Starke created Coffee Talk, a monthly networking event free and open to the public for artists to connect with one another to discuss timely artful issues. 2016 was also the 40th anniversary for KCAC and Ms. Starke managed and coordinated the Block Party celebration for the community to celebrate the impact that KCAC has and continues to have on the community.
In the fall of 2017, Ms. Starke launched and continues to curate the experimental gallery, Snap Space, for artists 18 – 35 years of age. This gives emerging artists an opportunity to continue artistic growth outside of their studio walls and connects them with the KC community.
Marissa is a Fall 2021 Centurion. Marissa served on the River Market Community Association Board of Directors (2016-2019), in 2017 she was the Head of the Marketing Committee. She has also served as the juror for the Prairie Village State of the Arts Exhibition (2018), Alumni Board of Directors of Notre Dame de Sion (2016-2017), TruFriends of Truman Medical Centers Board (2015-2016), the Art in the Loop Art in City Market Park Selection Panel (2017), and as the Notre Dame de Sion Student Exhibition Juror (2016).
She studied art history at Cornell College, Iowa and the University of Kansas.

CORY IMIG is an artist, educator, and arts administrator based in the Midwest. Her work takes the form of large-scale installations that alter spaces physically, visually, and temporally. Cory has exhibited in numerous exhibitions across the United States, in spaces such as Savannah College of Art and Design, Museum of Art and Southwest School of Art (San Antonio) as well as attended residencies at Art Omi International Art Center and ACRE. In addition to her studio practice, she is a founding member of PLUG Projects (2011), a curatorial collaboration in the Stockyards District of Kansas City, as well as Say Uncle (2015), a nomadic residency and exhibition program. She is currently co-director of Beyond Alternatives, a symposium that focuses on artist-led organizing outside of large metropolitan areas and co-editor of Impractical Spaces a forthcoming book documenting the artist-run community across the United States.
MELANEY ANN MITCHELL is an artist, writer, and organizer based in KC, MO. Mitchell is a current studio resident at The Drugstore in midtown. She was the Founder and Senior Editor of Informality Blog, an online arts criticism platform for documenting the conversation about Kansas City contemporary art and culture, where she remains an Editor at Large. In addition, she was a Co-Director/Curator at PLUG Projects (2016-2017) and the Director of Subterranean Gallery (2012-2015). Her curatorial, writing, and visual art practices all revolve around the intersection of our lives with digital culture and its impact on our identities

Impractical Spaces involves a symposium and a publication organized by Melaney Ann Mitchell and Cory Imig focused on the history and impact of artist-run spaces in Kansas City. Artist-run spaces are galleries and collectives run by artists that provide alternatives to established institutions and commercial galleries of a city. These spaces respond directly to the needs of the local arts community. They are some of the deepest advocates for alternative practices, working with shoestring budgets to create contexts for and conversations about what artists are exploring. They are rich in risk, advocate for the sticky, the uncomfortable, the experimental, and the avant-garde. Kansas City’s art history is dependent upon them. Because of their DIY nature, and small budgets, the documentation of these spaces often falls short or remains ephemeral. Through conducting extensive research, hosting a symposium, and printing this free limited-run publication, Melaney and Cory would like to honor these Impractical Spaces and their impact. This project is also a partnership with the national Impractical Spaces project, which is a collaboration between Art F City and Beyond Alternatives. The national project aims to document the history of artist-run spaces in at least 50 cities across the United States. Because the KC Edition of this project will be one of the first to be completed it will contextualize Kansas City within a larger national conversation about these types of spaces, as well as set a precedent and highlight the Kansas City art scene. Through associated public programming and the subsequent publication, Melaney and Cory will create an historical object with lasting effect, and develop a scalable strategy for archiving these types of spaces and their impacts.www.org/rocket-grants-projects/the-projects-2019-2020/impractical-spaces/

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