Visual arts

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.

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.

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.

Drawing is an an easy hobby that you can take with you anywhere in the world. Around the Kansas City metro, these sketch and painting clubs meet at cafes, museums, parks, and galleries to get the inspiration flowing.

No lejos de los icónicos gallitos de bádminton (Shuttlecocks) del museo, la nueva y enorme escultura de nieve puede verse en el césped al sur del Museo de Arte Nelson-Atkins. Es la última “colaboración congelada” de exalumnos del Instituto de Arte de Kansas City.

The huge new snow sculpture can be seen on the south lawn of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, not far from the museum’s iconic “Shuttlecocks.” It’s the latest cold collaboration from former Kansas City Art Institute students.

"Mapping the Heavens: Art, Astronomy and Exchange Between the Islamic Lands and Europe" features paintings from the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, rare books from the Linda Hall Library and other sources to tell the story of how scientists across time, place and religion expanded early knowledge of astronomy.

There's plenty on view at Kansas City-area galleries this winter. Shake off the post-holiday blues with these solo exhibits and group shows from a range of perspectives and mediums.

Twenty-three years after the final issue of Forum magazine rolled off the presses, the Kansas City Artists Coalition’s local arts magazine is roaring back to life thanks to the efforts of a new editor. Here's what readers can expect, and what the reborn publication means for the local arts community.

Darleen Schillaci, a Lawrence stained glass artist, has become a hot commodity at Kansas City's Merry Market for her ornaments — including corn dogs and a variety of pickles. Schillaci turned her hobby into a business, Artistained Glass, about a year ago.

A five-year legal battle between the heirs of Missouri painter Thomas Hart Benton and the Kansas City bank that handled his trust has ended with a judge awarding the family a fraction of the millions they sought.

Kansas City's crown-jewel museum launched in October a global competition to find an architectural firm for a $160 million expansion that would transform its Midtown campus. This week, museum visitors had a chance to hear from the finalists.