Visual Arts

Long time readers of the Kansas City Star and Times might remember a column by a woman named Mrs. Sam Ray. The columns always featured commentary and a reproduction of an old postcard from Mrs. Ray’s vast collection of cards. They were usually intricately colored historical images of noteworthy mansions, municipal buildings, industry and civic life of Kansas City.

Today, the cards live in the Missouri Valley Special Collections of the Kansas City Public Library and the library is staging an exhibit with them that opened Monday, January 28th.

Kansas City Art Institute students experienced cross-cultural communication through art during a Sunday workshop with visiting artists at the H&R Block Artspace. As part of their 1o-day residency in Kansas City, the Xijing Men led the students through activities designed to inspire them to use their skills as budding artists.

  Before friends could tell their friends about their travels through email, social media and phone calls, postcards were the way to tell people where one was traveling. On Monday, the Kansas City Public Library will open its "Greetings From Kansas City" exhibit which showcases 200 postcards about Kansas City from the 1930s and 40s.

These postcards tell the story of Kansas City as the booming metropolis of the Midwest during this time period and depicts different scenes from around town.

The headline of a recent editorial in The Kansas City Star about downtown Kansas City, Missouri declared: "A decade later, downtown has stronger heartbeat."

Finding meaning in contemporary art often depends more on the viewer than on the artist. What you make of the work is up to you. But what words to use?