Here are this week’s calendar picks from KC Studio editor, Alice Thorson. This evening, learn about the art of the snapshot at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, and tomorrow listen to artist Huma Bhabha talk about her work at the Kemper. Kansas City Symphony performs Tchaikovsky’s Third Symphony Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, the educational Body Worlds exhibition opens at Union Station. This is also your final weekend to see Kansas City Repertory Theatre‘s New Works Festival, featuring plays by Rinne Groff and Eric Rosen. For more ideas, visit Kansas City’s most comprehensive arts calendar at kcstudio.org/events.
The Art of the Snapshot
May 19 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
This program is connected with the exhibition An Anonymous Art: American Snapshots from the Peter J. Cohen Gift.
Join Keith Davis, Senior Curator, Photography, as he discusses the American snapshot with collector Peter J. Cohen. Cohen will talk about the process of collecting, with visuals and actual examples from his vast archive, as well as some of the contemporary artistic ideas stimulated by these historical artifacts.
New Works Festival
May 19 @ 7:00 pm
May 20 @ 8:00 pm
May 21 @ 3:00 pm
May 21 @ 8:00 pm
May 22 @ 2:00 pm
May 22 @ 7:00 pm
Kansas City Repertory Theatre-Copaken Stage
Two new plays presented in rotating repertory. Appropriate for ages 16 and up.
FIRE IN DREAMLAND
Written by Rinne Groff
Directed by Marissa Wolf
Past and present converge in the battered landscape of Coney Island, New York when a young woman’s boardwalk revitalization project leads her to seek refuge in the seductive vision of an unknown Dutch filmmaker.
LOT’S WIFE
Written by Eric Rosen
Adam Mace, a promising playwright with a troubling past, has written his first new play since the tragic death of his wife and infant child. Set as a 1930s noir thriller, his script raises suspicions that its author is actually confessing to a murder.
Artist Talk: Huma Bhabha
May 20 @ 6:00 pm | Free
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
Huma Bhabha’s sculptural works incorporate materials such as Styrofoam, Plexiglas, chicken wire, and clay. Her curious figures feel ephemeral and otherworldly, recalling figurative traditions from a range of cultures and historical periods—a kind of neo-primitivism yet decisively contemporary. In her talk, the Pakistani-born American artist discusses her unique choice of materials, her influences, and what it is to make art now.
Kansas City Symphony Classical Series – Tchaikovsky’s Third Symphony
May 20 @ 8:00 pm
May 21 @ 8:00 pm
May 22 @ 2:00 pm
Composed around the same time as Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky’s Third Symphony, “Polish,” celebrates the spirit of the dance, culminating in a brilliant Polonaise, the source of the work’s nickname. Hymne à la justice is French composer Magnard’s powerful and heartfelt musical protest of the conviction and imprisonment of Alfred Dreyfus. The Kansas City Symphony is pleased to present baritone Stephen Powell as soloist in the world premiere of a symphony by gifted American composer Jonathan Leshnoff. Tickets start at $25.
Michael Stern, conductor
Stephen Powell, baritone
MAGNARD Hymne à la justice
JONATHAN LESHNOFF Symphony No. 3 (KCS commission, world premiere)
Body Worlds & The Cycle of Life
May 21 – October 23 | $14 – $25
Union Station Kansas City
Dr. Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS & The Cycle of Life is a world-class, educational exhibition revealing the human body’s transformation through time. View more than 100 human specimens preserved through the remarkable process of Plastination, and see firsthand how the choices we make each day impact our incredible bodies – at work, at play, in health and in illness.
