Artists Thrive 2024 Summit attendees in the “Arts in Education: Making the K-12 Connection” session participating in an exercise to strengthen relationships in the community (photo courtesy of Artists Thrive)
Q: What do Berea, Kentucky; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and Kansas City, Missouri; have in common?
A: Since 2017, each city has hosted or will soon host the Artists Thrive Summit — a national arts conference unlike any other, according to Diane Scott, director of artist services for the Mid-America Arts Alliance.
“It really does bring together people who are working artists, people who are arts administrators, people who are arts educators and arts funders,” she says. “All in one room.”
A diverse group matching that description will descend on Kansas City’s Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation May 6-8 for three days of workshops, networking and field trips.
Roughly half of the 250 attendees are expected to come from the metro area. The rest practice their craft in cities across the country. All will be hoping to learn more about what the Artists Thrive website describes as a “navigation system” containing “a set of interconnected and holistic resources that can guide us in improving our performance and, ultimately, the conditions in which artists thrive.” Or more simply, “Artists Thrive aims to raise the value of artists in every community.”
The organization is funded by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, a longtime supporter of the Artist INC professional development program at Mid-America Arts Alliance. In fact, one of the gatherings that helped pave the way for Artists Thrive took place at M-AAA’s headquarters in Kansas City 10 years ago. But this will be the first time the annual Summit has come to town. (It will return in 2026 and 2027.)
Scott says it’s a nice nod to the notable things happening here in the arts. Not just at our “major institutions, but also at the grassroots level.”
Participants will keep busy, attending sessions on a variety of topics including those proposed by attendees themselves in a pre-conference online forum. Some of the sessions will be moderated by local artists, arts administrators and educators — though Scott notes that in many small organizations one person wears all those hats!
But what excites her most are the “learning journeys” planned for the weekend. There will be trips to the InterUrban ArtHouse in Overland Park and the Englewood Arts Center in Independence, which not only offers traditional classes and clinics, but also a program to assist would-be home buyers. In addition, conference-goers will visit Kansas City’s Charlotte Street and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson County Community College. They’ll also head to the airport to view the art that’s on display there and learn how those public pieces were chosen.
“Thrive is really highlighting what a great arts hub Kansas City is on a national level,” Scott says. “And I am super excited to get to share that with people from all over the country. This really is an amazing community, with an entrepreneurial spirit and an ability to do things that’s second to none.” Registration for the 2025 Arts Thrive Conference is still open, but attendance is limited to 250.
To learn more about the conference and the organization, visit www.artiststhrive.org.
