KC’s Vanishing Studio Spaces: Can we reverse it?

Quality studio spaces are disappearing from prime areas in Kansas City. Artists and their art have enhanced and rejuvenated areas, communities, and businesses only to have their studio spaces face increased rents, or have their buildings re-purposed to attract a different clientele.

Nationally businesses, communities, and patrons are hosting art studios, residencies, galleries, and pop-up performances to help support artists. What can we do in Kansas City to support our artists?

If you’re a business owner, a patron of the arts, or an artist, you won’t want to miss the conversation. Join us Thursday, January 16 at 21C Museum Hotel.

Panelists:

  • Suzie Aron
  • Philip Botana
  • Dylan Mortimer
  • Rachelle Gardner-Roe
  • Moderator, Simon Kuo

Reservations required.  Click here to register.

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2019 Art in the Loop Project Wraps Up

Art in the Loop Artists

The Art in the Loop Foundation would like to thank our 2019 artists, musicians, partners, funders, volunteers, organizers and audience for participating the “Make/Believe” project this past summer.

The mission of the Art in the Loop Foundation (AILF) is to contribute to the visual identity, enrichment, and revitalization of Downtown Kansas City, create new opportunities for artistic development, and expand public interaction with new art of excellence. This past summer, AILF continued its partnership with KC Streetcar, KCMO Parks Department, Downtown Council and KC Public Library to enrich Downtown KC through the Make/Believe Project. Local artists created works that invited the public to interact with the exuberance, vitality, whimsy, and magic that art can bring. Each artwork presented viewers with the opportunity to imagine, to make-believe, for a moment during each day.

Art in the Loop has fostered growth within the downtown community, enriching commuter routes and parks with public artwork. This work has a potent impact on the space it occupies and part of Art in the Loop’s mission is to encourage the community to engage with these spaces as much as possible. Our community engagement programs offer insight into artist practice and the story behind the work. 

We appreciate the on-going support of our sponsors and contributors as well funding from the Missouri Arts Council, ArtsKC and the Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund of the City of Kansas City, Missouri.

Click here to download a copy of our 2019 Art in the Loop Catalog.

Contact Ann Holliday, ann@downtownkc.org, if you would like more information about Art in the Loop.  The 2020 call for artists will be released in January!

Ayllu performed at the Closing Reception.

Ayllu performed at the 2019 Closing Reception.

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Final Act: 2019 Art in the Loop Closing Reception

Wednesday, November 6, 2019
6 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Kansas City Public Library Central Library
14 West 10th Street

Celebrate what made the 2019 Art in the Loop Project: Make/Believe great. The curated outdoor exhibition, staged in partnership with the City of Kansas City, Missouri, and KC Streetcar, wraps up with a reception, illustrated review, and reflection on this year’s artwork and performances.

Art in the Loop organizers and participants look back on the artistic works and performances featured from May to September. A presentation highlights all the offerings, and selected artists present their works and discuss their experiences. Click here for more information about the 2019 Art in the Loop Project and its artists.

The celebration will include a performance by Ayllu, a local band mixing both traditional and contemporary instruments to create music with traditional Latin references as well as rock, folk and contemporary sounds.

Art in the Loop is designed to make cultural experiences available to downtown residents, visitors, and workers. The closing event is co-presented by Downtown Council, the City of Kansas City, and the Kansas City Art Institute.

 

Click here to RSVP.

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Sheri Purpose Hall Performs at the Union Station Streetcar Stop, Saturday September 7 at 7 p.m.

A Wonka-Riffic Trip: Spoken word poet and performer, Sheri Purpose Hall is creating her own rendition of the masterpiece Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The original story enthralled us, the images that Roald Dahl created and the movie interpretations have solidified the fantasy of Willy Wonka’s candy emporium. Now Sheri Purpose Hall is reinventing these stories with a contemporary urgency and a new and profound strength.

A Wonka-Riffic trip: The Tunnel, The Boat, The Words, The Music— Travel through a Wonka-Riffic tunnel of words, sounds, and images twisting fantasy and reality together. The show combines the poetry of Charlotte Street’s 2019 Generative Performing Artist Sheri Purpose Hall and the music of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory performed by a live band. This work will re-envision our current state as a nation and city through poetry and music and nostalgia.

Join us at the Union Station Streetcar Stop for our final Art in the Loop performance of this year. Our world can be as smooth as chocolate and sweet as candy, so join in to make it happen; Saturday, September 7 at 7 p.m.

Click here to add this event to your calendar

After this event, the closing reception on Wednesday November 6 will wrap up this incredible year of Art in the Loop. To find out more about the closing reception, visit us at artintheloop.com.

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Jane Gotch, public² Performance Sat., Aug. 24, 6:15 p.m.

The culmination of the geolocated virtual reality performance, public², is soon approaching. The performance pieces that have insofar only been observed through the captivating VR technology at the Library NB, River Market West, and Union Station Streetcar Stops is emerging out of its digital environment and into the real world.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

The final public² performance will affirm the thesis of the project. Jane Gotch views public art acts as a microscope, directing attention towards overlooked and mundane locales within a city. Through public performance, artists generate a conceptual feedback loop, documenting and describing the environment’s history, architectural features, and inhabitants while simultaneously becoming new pieces of history and architecture.

The history of the virtual performances will be overlaid with a physical, tactile experience, a performance structured on a familiar archeology but bringing something new and transient.

public2  reimagines what “public space” is, how it is created, and how it is accessed within a city. What “public space” means, not as a physical area but a cultural definition, will be examined in this enthralling performance.

This event will take place on Saturday, August 24 at 6:15 p.m. Union Station, next to the Union Station Streetcar Stop.

Click here to add this event to your calendar

For more information about all the other exciting events this summer, be sure to visit us at artintheloop.com

 

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KC Campus for Animal Care – Call for Artists Extended to Aug. 23

The City of Kansas City, Missouri is seeking one artist and/or one artist team to develop and create original, innovative new works of visual art for exterior or interior spaces of Kansas City Campus for Animal Care located at the northeast corner of Elmwood Avenue and E Gregory Blvd.

The Kansas City, Missouri Animal Shelter is the third-largest open-admission no-kill shelter in the United States.

The KC Parks Department staff has been working with representatives from HNTB, Grand Construction, Kansas City Campus for Animal Care (KCCAC) and Park Staff to design and construct a new animal shelter in Swope Park. A larger upgraded facility is needed to provide better care of the animals entrusted to them and to provide better access by the community they serve. The state-of-the-art facility will be pivotal in accommodating the 57% increase in admissions since 2012 while providing a clean, accessible facility in the center of the city.

The selected artist(s) will create one (1) work of art for Kansas City Campus for Animal Care. The selected artist will work collaboratively with City staff, KCCAC Board, and the design team to develop concepts that are site-specific and site-responsive.

Deadline for submission is August 23, 2019

Estimated Public Art budget: $175,000

To apply go to https://artist.callforentry.org/festivals_unique_info.php?ID=6637

For more information contact Jimmi Lossing, 816-513-7627

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UN/TUCK COLLECTIVE Presents TRANS/PORTAL, Saturday, August 17 in Washington Square Park

TRANS/PORTAL is a one time, all-ages, interdisciplinary electronic popup exhibition celebrating LGBTQIA+ electronic music artists and the power of interactive media.

The UN/TUCK COLLECTIVE specializes in merging the magical with the mundane, the technological with the natural. The “PORTAL” in TRANS/PORTAL is a gateway, separating the outside world, the “known” environment of Washington Square Park, and an experience that cannot be captured or expressed with words. Let yourself pass through this gateway into a fantastic realm of radical self-expression and personal liberation. At sundown, a new life will strike down into the very core of Washington Square Park: electronic musicians, DJs, color lighting, projection mapping, live painting, installations, and dance. The music will feature live hardware and DJ sets from top artists on the UN/TUCK roster while the visuals will include projection mapping collaborations with other queer visual artists in the Kansas City community. 

By bringing together artists of various mediums, this event hopes to create an immersive display of queer/trans artistry, while building an engaging, public facing and community-minded event.

This event will take place on Saturday, August 17 at 6 p.m. in Washington Square Park. The rain date for this event will be August 24, same time and place.

Click here to add this event to your calendar

For more information about all the other exciting events this summer, be sure to visit us at artintheloop.com

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Endless Enlivens Washington Square Park

Endless is an outdoor visual art installation designed by emerging architectural designer and artist, Alonso L. Ortega. As part of Art in the Loop 2019 theme: Make/Believe, this work invites viewers into the playful and immersive mirage of transforming reality. The Make/Believe concept challenges artists to consider the ability of art to be transportive and for fantasy to be collective. The 18 reflective, stainless steel planks of this artwork are strategically placed in the grounds of Washington Square Park to give the illusion of mirrors growing, unsupported from Earth. The mirrors vary in size and placement to play with the skyline of downtown Kansas City.  With the 2019 Art in the Loop theme in mind, Alonso Ortega creates an inviting and unique space for viewers to become enthralled in the realm of Make/Believe.

Alonso Ortega’s background as an architect allows him to have immense attention to detail. Coupling this with his visual imagery, his work allows viewers to place themselves in a world which they create, a world of Make/Believe that gives them the opportunity to interact with the public around them and the city they live in. As an artist, Ortega believes strongly in questioning everything one does and believes. His appreciation of Kansas City and its people are interpreted through the conversation his artwork creates. The mirrors that protrude from the ground are all different heights just like how people come in different shapes and sizes. This places viewers in a powerful space as they look ahead to see a city that represents entrepreneurship and civic engagement and look around to see themselves from different angles and perspectives imagining that the mirrors are giving them the opportunity to live in what they deem make-believe. It ultimately gives each viewer a sense of individuality, though they are within a large community setting. 

Similar to Ortega’s belief of questioning everything one does, his artwork challenges viewers and the people of Kansas City to reflect on their own lives and beliefs. With the surroundings of nature of Washington Square Park, Ortega influences people to reflect in a humbling and grounding way. The solitude of meditating with yourself in front of these mirrors accompanied by the view of a spirited city instills a sense of revitalization within one to grow and evolve equivalent to the development of downtown Kansas City. The possibilities of who you will become, what you will create, and where you will go are Endless! 

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KC Streetcar & Art in the Loop Presents: Miki P. | August 1, 5–7 p.m.

Miki P. is a multi-instrumentalist musician and songwriter who composes music reflecting her life experiences in a heart wrenching lilt. With her roots in the rock world, Miki P. has blended rock traditions with softer melodies from ukulele and piano to compose her voice as a musician. Miki P. balances a consistent musical vocabulary with a desire to grow and develop her sound. Her music, therefore, delivers precision and confidence with an explorative and emotional curiosity.

This Thursday, August 1, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., Miki P. will brighten the murmuring Streetcar with beautiful music and evocative lyrics. Join us onboard the first KC Streetcar leaving Union Station after 5:00 p.m. to witness this exciting, free, public performance.

This is the last Streetcar Summer Sounds Music Series Performance this year, but Art in the Loop isn’t done, yet. There are still many exciting events to come:

August 17—TRANS/PORTAL, UN/TUCK COLLECTIVE
August 24—public², Jane Gotch
September 7—Wonka-riffic Trip, Sheri Purpose Hall
November 6—Closing Reception, Art in the Loop

Click here to add this event to your calendar

For more information about the musicians and when they’ll be performing, along with all the other exciting events this summer, be sure to visit us at artintheloop.com.

This project is supported in part by the City of Kansas City, Missouri Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund

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KCMO Resident Work Sessions – Attention Artists!

The City of Kansas City, Missouri, is ready to hear what you have to say about the priorities you want set for the future.

The Office of Management and Budget has scheduled three interactive forums for residents to offer their input on how best to update our Citywide Business Plan. Council members will need your feedback as they prepare to dive into the next budget, but you have a better chance of influencing the process if you can show up to participate.

At these sessions, you’ll hear insights from city experts on a variety of topics ranging from economic development to housing to public safety. More importantly, you’ll be able to directly deliver your creative solutions to problems that affect the entire City.

Here’s the schedule:
Saturday, Aug. 3, 9:30-11:30 a.m. at SE Community Center, 4201 E. 63rd St.
Monday, Aug. 5, noon-2 p.m. at National WWI Museum and Memorial, 2 Memorial Dr.
Thursday, Aug. 15, 6-8 p.m. at Briarcliff Church, 800 NE Vivion Rd.
This final update to the current four-year Citywide Business Plan must be adopted by Nov. 1, 2019.

Space is limited so reservations are encouraged. Please RSVP to reserve your seat. For more information, contact Kitty Steffens at 816-513-1308.

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KC Healthy Kids Releases Call for Artists: KC Voices, Due August 7

KC Voices is a collaborative of organizations working with local neighborhoods to build organizing and advocacy capacity around policies that impact food security. Together, UMKC’s Center for Neighborhoods, Community Health Council of Wyandotte County, Historic Northeast-Midtown Association and KC Healthy Kids invite artists to explore specific policies such as SNAP (food stamps), WIC, school food and other programs contained in the Child Nutrition Reauthorization and 2018 Farm Bill.

KCHealthy Kids believes storytelling helps change the way people think and talk about these policies by centering conversations around the experiences and priorities of advocates — in this case, residents of low-wealth, racially diverse neighborhoods. Rather than being passive recipients of policy decisions, residents serve as experts who can educate policymakers about the needs of their communities.

The works will be displayed for an audience of policy decision-makers and after exhibition, will live in, and be owned by, the communities they were created for.

Click here for more information: https://www.kchealthykids.org/artists-invited-to-submit-qualifications-for-kc-voices/

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Streetcar Summer Sounds: Kartez Marcel + Kona Ice, July 25, 5–7 p.m.

Kartez Marcel, a native of Kansas City, Missouri is a recording artist, musician, songwriter and overall creative visionary. Marcel fuses hip-hop, R&B, jazz, and soul. As an artist that challenges the status quo, he seeks to provide the highest quality music, entertainment, and visuals at each performance. Marcel strives to provide lyrical prose and sonically mature material that holds its weight against some of the most respected award-winning artists.

This Thursday, July 25, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., Kartez Marcel will perform a powerful yet nuanced musical experience brimming with smart lyrics and energetic rhythm. Join us at the Power and Light NB Stop (Outside the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema) to witness this exciting, free, public performance.

Kona Ice will also be available for purchase at the performance.

The schedule of musicians is as follows, with so much to hear and experience this summer, you won’t want to miss any of it:

July 25: Kartez Marcel
August 1: Miki P

Click here to add this event to your calendar

For more information about the musicians and when they’ll be performing, along with all the other exciting events this summer, be sure to visit us at artintheloop.com

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