Category: Articles
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Spinning Tree Whirls Ahead
Spinning Tree Theatre directors Michael Grayman and Andy Parkhurst are not status quo types. They go for broke — in the pieces they choose to produce, in the venues they select, and in the actors and musicians they contract. Spinning Tree has only been active in Kansas City for four years, but already Grayman and Parkhurst have more than fulfilled their goal.
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Susan Schmelzer on Arts Policy: We, the Grassroots People!
“I found my first success in the visual arts when I was nine. I am now a professional artist. Art saved me.” This note was written by a Missouri artist to the General Assembly. If you think this little piece of lobbying made a ripple amidst the wrangling and aggression that went on in Jefferson City this spring . . . you’re right!
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Reassessing Fritz Scholder
Forty years ago, Fritz Scholder (1937-2005) reset the course of American Indian art when he embarked on a series of powerful figurative depictions of lone Indians in a state of existential crisis. The canvases were large, many nearing nine by six feet, balancing zones of emotionally charged color with energetic brushwork.
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Art Fabricator to the World
On a Sunday morning in early May, a helicopter gently removed the eastern-most and largest of the four Sky Stations atop Bartle Hall. Damaged by lightning, the nearly 40,000-pound sculpture was trucked to Zahner Co. for repairs. That destination made perfect sense: Zahner Co. is the Kansas City firm that worked with artist R.M. Fischer to produce the $1.2 million public sculpture, which was installed in 1994.