Arts Archives

Among the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art's collection of artists, Raphael Peale isn't the most well-known. But when a local playwright first viewed his painting Venus Rising from the Sea: A Deception, it stuck with her, eventually inspiring her to write a new play about a Kansas City artist and his mysterious muse.

By Steve Walker

For more than a decade, the Charlotte Street Foundation Awards have recognized outstanding visual artists, and since 2008, generative performing artists. The organization just announced this year's visual arts award winners, Jaimie Warren, Dylan Mortimer, and Andrzej Zielenski; each is slated to receive $10,000 in unrestricted funds.

By Laura Spencer

When it comes to self expression, artist, poet and musician Jason Biggers knows few boundaries. In fact, his work reflects a life of crossing the cultural divide?from El Paso, Texas to Mexico and beyond to Germany, Canada and the Philippines. Biggers' art is influenced by Mexican folk art, urban graffiti, pop art and comics. He's also a member of the Latino Writers Collective, and performs his spoken word poetry.

By Susan B. Wilson

To get a new musical on Broadway, it seems producers have to adapt a familiar movie, even an animated one, to get the show in front of an audience. Still, there are composers who shun what's popular for what's interesting or even strange. Two Kansas City theatre companies are about to stage shows whose subject matter lands far afield from/of The Lion King.

By Steve Walker

Last fall, Kansas City author and illustrator Shane Evans teamed up with sculptor and photographer J. LeRoy Beasley to embark on a special mission: a month-long journey through four countries in Southern Africa: Botswana, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Along the way, the two artists visited orphanages, literacy programs and soccer clubs. There, they organized arts programs for children affected by HIV AIDs.

By Susan B. Wilson

Sometimes the most ordinary objects can become extraordinary in the right hands. Like a rock, for example. A new series by printmaker Laura Berman at the Dolphin gallery, explores a sense of place and relationships inspired by a personal rock collection.

By Laura Spencer

Theater always involves collaboration between like-minded actors, directors, and designers. This weekend, a theater in Lawrence expands that relationship to the staff of the Spencer Museum of Art.

By Steve Walker

KCUR News is taking a look at how the recession is affecting members of our community. As part of an occasional segment called My Two Cents, we stopped in to talk to Sherry Leedy, director of Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art in the Crossroads Arts District as she was getting ready for a First Friday.

By Laura Spencer

An exhibition of contemporary Chinese art at the H&R Block Artspace at the Kansas City Art Institute explores the recent cultural transformations in China. Here, Artspace Director Raechell Smith describes the Project Wall, a billboard outside the gallery by artist Yang Yongliang, which provides a preview.

By Laura Spencer

A large billboard outside the H&R Block Artspace at the Kansas City Art Institute depicts a landscape with mountain peaks, a winding river, and mist. But, if you get up close, you'll see the mountains are built of skyscrapers, trees are construction cranes, and the river is a polluted street with congested traffic.

By Laura Spencer

The Gateway Arch is the iconic symbol of St. Louis. It's also the structure most associated with Finnish architect Eero Saarinen. But in his relatively short career, Saarinen had a hand in hundreds of other projects, from office buildings to home furnishings.

By Rachel Lippmann, KWMU

Kansas playwright James Still hasn't lived in this area in years, but his plays make regular appearances here and throughout the U.S. He has a new one about Abraham Lincoln, opening at the Ford Theatre in D.C. in February for the 200th birthday anniversary; but tonight (Friday, January 30), another play, The Velvet Rut, receives its world premiere right here in Kansas City at the Unicorn Theatre.

By Danette Alexander and Angela Elam