Arts & Culture

The JuneteenthKC Heritage Festival takes place this year across two days in a newly-transformed Historic 18th and Vine district. It's also the first time festival organizers will welcome a World Cup audience.

Kansas City G.I.F.T, a nonprofit focused on growing Black entrepreneurship, will distribute a guide in June that features 30 Black-owned businesses. The hope is that the World Cup, predicted to bring in more prospective shoppers than Kansas City has ever seen at once, jumpstarts long-term growth.

The exhibit was organized with students at the University of Missouri Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy.

The first woman to chair the Kansas City Art Institute’s ceramics program retired this month. Cary Esser overhauled the department’s curriculum, modernized studio facilities and supported a generation of student artists.

Residents and visitors can get in the World Cup spirit with these six soccer-themed exhibitions at museums, galleries and institutions across the area.

What began as an annual celebration of Mexican immigrants and their cultural roots has grown into a weekend-long block party filled with music, food and the chance for longtime supporters to reconnect.

The hollow heart-shaped design for this year’s Parade of Hearts was the perfect template for an art piece doubling as a community space. Artist Abby Gust Hutter created the sculpture “Read it Forward,” which she turned into a little free library outside of Rainy Day Books in Fairway.

When a Kansas City opera held auditions of older dogs for a new production, canine owners around the metro answered the call. Meet the working dogs trying out for a critical role in “Of Mice and Men." Plus: We'll take a tour of the Kansas Statehouse and a new mural depicting 13 women’s civil rights advocates.

Events are planned throughout the tournament, featuring watch parties, live music, and cultural programs. Partnerships include the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and American Jazz Museum.

Rapper Jamel Thompson, better known as The Royal Chief, got his start in Atlanta learning about the industry and even ghostwriting for Kanye West. He came back home to Kansas City in 2017, and now works to advance the music industry here

An interactive exhibit in a Crossroads art gallery aims to astonish earthly and extraterrestrial visitors alike. Wichita, Kansas, artists and spouses Mike Miller and Meghan Miller have created inventive ways to make art from found and salvaged objects.

Glenn Robinson's formula is simple: show up, press record, and tell the truth. Now, the creator behind Hood Dude Food Reviews is one of the city’s most influential champions of Black-owned restaurants and small businesses.