Visual arts

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.

More than 100 years ago, Swedish-born artist Birger Sandzén helped shape the way Americans picture the Kansas landscape. Today, the largest collection of his paintings, prints, and drawings is in the small central Kansas town where he immigrated, lived and worked.

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.

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.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art recently selected six finalists to design new expansion plans, down from 180 submissions from around the world. Nelson President and CEO Julian Zugazagoitia and Board Chair Evelyn Belger discuss what they hope to see in a makeover of the Kansas City institution.

Start your spring with a visit to these six refreshing art exhibitions happening in Kansas City, featuring the works of award-winning artists from around the region.

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.