Arts Council of Metropolitan KC

Address:

906 Grand, Suite 10B
Kansas City, MO 64106
USA

ArtsKC - The Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City was founded in February 1999. The Arts Council was started as a result of a community-wide planning process facilitated by the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation. Joan Israelite was hired to build this new organization as the Council's first President and CEO. Harlan Brownlee succeeded Israelite in February of 2009. Today, the Arts Council serves Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas, and Jackson, Clay, and Platte counties in Missouri.

The Arts Council has developed programs designed to strengthen the region through the arts. We serve as a meeting place for arts organizations in the metropolitan area. The Arts Council has nurtured a network of arts organizations that work together to address common issues. Serving as the voice for the arts in civic dialogues, the Arts Council stays in close contact with the arts and business community to keep informed of challenges, and provide a forum for discussion on current issues and opportunities. The Arts Council promotes networking, learning, and collaboration among the arts and business communities.

Our Business Programs are designed to connect business, civic, and arts communities to stimulate economic development and support workplace creativity. This program has over a hundred members and provides services such as Art@Work (a corporate arts festival), Now Showing (a loaned art program), Arts & Issues(a lunch and learn series), and the ArtsKC Awards Luncheon (a luncheon honoring businesses for excellent art/business partnerships).

Artists, INC, presented by the Arts Council, Charlotte Street Foundation, and the Missouri Small Business & Technology Development Center, is a series of career building and professional development workshops for artists. In addition, the new KCArtistsLink website is a network connection service of resources that provides information about business-building and support programs to all artists throughout the region.

Kansas City is one of the largest regions in the United States that does not have an established source of dedicated public funding for the arts which is crucial to the long term health of our arts community. Securing sustainable public funding for the arts is crucial and is a long-term goal. In 2007 the Arts Council started the ArtsKC Fund, a united arts fund to support arts organizations and artists through a competitive grants system. In six years, the ArtsKC Fund has raised 2.4 million dollars for the arts community.

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Diversity Workshop