ARTSPEAK RADIO + George Guastello and Kristen Devlin

ARTSPEAK RADIO, Wednesday, March 10, 2021, noon – 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org
Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd talks with Union Station President and CEO, George Guastello and Kristen Devlin Johnson County Developmental Supports Emerging Artists Program Specialist.

GEORGE GUASTELLO, President/CEO Union Station –
Architectural Masterpiece. Living History. A place for great adventure. Where Kansas City Connects. All of these phrases – and more – are regularly used to describe Union Station. Visitors of all ages, from all places and for all reasons tie Union Station to special and magical moments from their lives. What a great honor it is to be caretakers of this history and makers of its magnificent future!
Built in 1914, Union Station opens her arms with 850,000 square feet of amazing space that originally featured 900 rooms. In her prime as a working train station, she accommodated hundreds of thousands of passengers each year. During WWII, an estimated one million travelers – many of those soldiers – passed through the Station. The North Waiting Room (now Grand Plaza) held 10,000 people and the complex included restaurants, a cigar store, barbershop, railroad offices, the nation’s largest Railway Express Building (used for shipping freight and mail) as well as a powerhouse providing steam and power. So many stories of farewells, reunions and of day-to-day vibrancy still echo in her walls. Just listen . . .
Closed in the 1980s, our Station sat empty and neglected, narrowly escaping demolition on several occasions. Then, in 1996, a historic bi-state initiative was passed to fund the Station’s renovation, which was completed in grand fashion in 1999.
Union Station is once again a majestic and desired destination for our surrounding communities. She is at once, magical, warm, casual, elegant, full of surprises and wise from experience but young at heart.

Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away.
AN INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF UNPRECEDENTED IMPORTANCE.
A STORY TO SHAKE THE CONSCIENCE OF THE WORLD.
From Twenty Worldwide Institutions, Museums & Private Collections. 
A First-Time Presentation and Collaboration Including 700 Original Artifacts.

The most significant site of the Holocaust, Auschwitz was not a single entity. It developed from a concentration camp created by the SS as a tool of terror in German-occupied Poland into a complex of three main camps and almost 50 subcamps. From spring 1942 the camp combined two functions – a concentration camp and extermination center. Altogether, some 1.1 million people – mostly Jews —were murdered there.

This groundbreaking exhibition brings together more than 700 original objects and 400 photographs from over 20 institutions and museums around the world. Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. is the most comprehensive exhibition dedicated to the history of Auschwitz and its role in the Holocaust ever presented in North America, and an unparalleled opportunity to confront the singular face of human evil—one that arose not long ago and not far away.

For the first time, 75 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, a touring exhibition dedicated to the historical significance of the camp is being presented to a U.S. audience.
Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. opening in Kansas City June 2021 after the exhibition closes at New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. The exhibition explores the dual identity of the camp as a physical location—the largest documented mass murder site in human history—and as a symbol of the borderless manifestation of hatred and human barbarity.

Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. was conceived by Musealia and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and curated by an international panel of experts, including world-renowned scholars Dr. Robert Jan van Pelt, Dr. Michael Berenbaum, and Paul Salmons, in an unprecedented collaboration with historians and curators at the Research Center at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, led by Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz.

The exhibition features artifacts and materials—never before seen in North America—on loan from more than 20 institutions and private collections around the world. In addition to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, participating institutions include Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, Auschwitz Jewish Center in Oświęcim, the Memorial and Museum Sachsenhausen in Oranienburg, and the Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide in London.

Union Station Kansas City is honored to host this significant story and presentation of artifacts and — in addition to making advance tickets available — has opened opportunities for interested businesses, institutions and individuals to lend their support to help make this extraordinary exhibition possible.

Opening June 2021
Union Station 30 West Pershing Road Kansas City, MO 64108 (816) 460 – 2020
www.unionstation.org

KRISTEN DEVLIN, JCDS Emerging Artists Program Arts Program Specialist- Johnson County Developmental Supports is an agency of Johnson County Government that facilitates career and personal development for Johnson County residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities. A developmental disability is a chronic condition present before the age 22 due to physical and/or mental impairments such as intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism or Down Syndrome, among others.

Designated as Johnson County’s Community Developmental Disabilites Organizaiton, JCDS also offers a single point of entry for those seeking IDD services, determines eligibility for services, and coordinates a network of over 70 Johnson County providers.

JCDS benefits from the support of a separate Friends of JCDS organization dedicated to providing additional resources for priority individuals and community-centered projects where other funding in not available.

JCDS is guided by a 7- member governing board appointed by the Johnson County Board fo County Commissioners.

The JCDS Emerging Artists Program consists of adult artists with IDD who are passionate and driven to create artwork. The artist’s work in studio located in a public venue at the Johnson County Arts and Heritage Center.
While acrylic painting is the most-used medium in studio, there are also artists using watercolor, colored pencil, fiber arts, ceramics, woodworking, and sculpture.
The artists have opportunities to show and sell their artwork at their studio, local art shows, galleries, and participate in marketing their work through their social media accounts, Facebook, Instagram, and Flickr. Sales from the artwork go directly to the artists.

The Emerging Artists are in varying stages of the artistic development and most have been creating artwork as soon as they could hold a pencil.
Besides making money in an industry not typically open for people with IDD, many artists have had the door opened to equal citizenship, personal growth, communication, self-expression, self-advocacy, and self-esteem from the art program. The artists get seen as adult artists not as their disability.
Johnson County Arts and Heritage Center 8788 Metcalf, Overland Park, KS 66212
www.jocogov.org

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