Category: Articles

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July 2, 2018

Mona Hatoum: Reimagining the Familiar

Can a wheelchair pose a threat? Does menace lie in a bunk bed? Is there a hidden agenda lurking in a kitchen — as an ominous electric buzz humming through chairs and tables suggests? In the art of Mona Hatoum, the familiar can be disorienting and unsettling, challenging our assumptions and upending our expectations. “Terra Infirma,” an exhibition on view at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis through Aug. 11, spans the four-decade career of the Palestinian multimedia and installation artist.
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July 2, 2018

Arts Marketing Goes to the Dogs

Have you noticed how pets and other animals are everywhere? In addition to ubiquitous social media postings about silly pets and media stories extolling the latest sweet, brave or otherwise inspirational animal in the news, critters are helping to market all manner of goods and services these days. The art world has taken heed.
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July 2, 2018

‘My Happiness’ a Kansas City Hit

Sixty-five years ago, an assembler at the machine shop M.B. Parker Co. walked into Memphis Recording Service and paid $3.98 to play guitar and sing two songs that were recorded onto a lacquer disc. That assembler was 18-year-old Elvis Presley, and this self-financed session on July 16, 1953 (more than $37 in today’s dollars), eventually led to his signing to Memphis Recording Service’s record label, Sun Records.
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June 29, 2018

Editor’s Letter, July/August 2018

The arts are now in summer mode. As the Ballet, the Symphony and the Opera take a much-needed break to recharge for next year, many..
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June 1, 2018

A Job to Remember: Victoria Patrick

Victoria Patrick, manager of artistic relations for the Kansas City Symphony, took it upon herself to safeguard Joshua Bell’s prized instrument...
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May 22, 2018

All Musicians on Deck!

The blues is a voyage both personal and universal. So it’s fitting that Roger Naber, founder of the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise, has navigated such waters to move himself and other blues lovers. Move where? Forward, despite pain. Forward, inviting gain. Always and forever, forward. “This is my passion and this is something that I do,” Naber says. “And it’s not because (legendary blues vocalist) Bobby Bland once said, ‘Roger, never stop promoting the blues.’”
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May 21, 2018

Heartland Men’s Chorus Production Ponders the Identity of the Unknown Soldier

In 1921, Sergeant Edward F. Younger stepped into a room with four flag-draped coffins, filled with the remains from four American soldiers, each from a..
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May 15, 2018

Arts News: Kansas City Print Society Going Strong for Four Decades

John Mallery has a warning for new collectors of prints. “Buying a print can be a gateway drug,” he cautions. “You might even end up..
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May 14, 2018

Arts News: Central Library Exhibit Collects Wishes

The whole idea started with a rock. “THIS ROCK GRANTS WISHES,” written on the side, a tangible, weighty object infused with mythical promise. “I picked..
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