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Central Standard

A Sneak Peek Into Kansas City's 62-Day Arts Festival, Open Spaces

Grecian-style columns wrapped in colorful banners. A sign that reads "Open Spaces" hangs below.
Kathleen Pointer
/
KCUR 89.3
Kansas City's Open Spaces will feature performances and experiences at The Village every weekend of the festival. The Villlage, considered to be the hub of the sprawling festival, is housed at Swope Park's main pavilion.

For a while now, much of Kansas City's arts community has been abuzz about Open Spaces, the 62-day arts festival that's giving a platform to local, national and international artists. The plan, hatched nearly five years years ago by an arts commission Mayor Sly James put together, is becoming a reality this weekend.

Today, Central Standard broadcast live from the pavilion at Swope Park, the heart of the Open Spaces festival and dubbed The Village for the next two months. We talked with people on the inside of the event to get the lowdown on what it's taken to get this thing off of the ground and with some arts experts who told us what they're most looking forward to seeing and experiencing.

People don't make cameos in news stories; the human story is the story, with characters affected by news events, not defined by them. As a columnist and podcaster, I want to acknowledge what it feels like to live through this time in Kansas City, one vantage point at a time. Together, these weekly vignettes form a collage of daily life in Kansas City as it changes in some ways, and stubbornly resists change in others. You can follow me on Twitter @GinaKCUR or email me at gina@kcur.org.