
Julie Denesha
Arts ReporterAs KCUR’s arts reporter, I use words, sounds and images to take readers on a journey behind the scenes and into the creative process. I want to introduce listeners to the local creators who enrich our thriving arts communities. I hope to strengthen the Kansas City scene and encourage a deeper appreciation for the arts. Contact me at julie@kcur.org.
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After a global competition, and a monthslong selection process, museum officials announced the New York City firm Weiss/Manfredi will design their ambitious new expansion project. It's estimated to be the largest investment in Kansas City arts in recent years.
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A new art project commemorating the Conley sisters will be unveiled in Kansas City, Kansas, this summer. The exhibit will help tell how the siblings and Wyandot Nation activists banded together to protect a burial ground in the early 1900s.
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The Swedish painter shaped how the rest of the world viewed the hills and streams of Kansas, and the mountains of Colorado. The largest collection of his paintings, prints, and drawings is in the small central Kansas town where he immigrated, lived and worked.
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The gutting of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency that administers about $260 million in grants to libraries and museums, has left a local museum in the lurch.
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Jim Richardson had a distinguished career making images for National Geographic Magazine stories on cultural, environmental and scientific issues. His work on the Flint Hills introduced the uniquely American landscape to an international audience.
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The six architecture firms competing to reimagine Kansas City’s premier museum had three months to dream up plans that will remake its Midtown campus. A new exhibit unveils the designs and will give the public a chance to share their thoughts.
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The Kansas City Fire Department has responded to all kinds of emergencies since 1868, but some firefighters who died doing this dangerous work have been forgotten. Ray Elder is making certain all of them are remembered, and their names added to the Firefighters Fountain and Memorial.
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Musicians and Fat Tuesday marchers have made their way through 18th & Vine, the Crossroads, and the Westside neighborhood for decades — rain, sleet or snow. The colorfully-dressed revelers, known as krewes, celebrate Mardi Gras, the final day of Carnival, before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday.
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Nathan Louis Jackson’s untimely death at the age of 44 left a void in Kansas City theater. A new Kansas City Repertory Theatre production of his play “Broke-ology” could prove the writer's power to inspire audiences hasn’t gone away.
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The exhibit includes 135 handmade antique dolls — some that were made by enslaved people — and about 60 period photographs showing dolls, children and adults posing for the camera. But not everyone involved in the Kansas City showing is completely comfortable with it.