Time for weekend calendar picks from KC Studio editor Alice Thorson. This afternoon, stop by the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art for an artists presentation from Rena Detrixhe and Kahlil Robert Irving, both featured in the current Ephemera exhibition open through January 28. Stick around for the opening reception for the 2017 Charlotte Street Foundation Fellow exhibition on the second floor through March. Tonight at 6:30 pm, Truman Library Institute in partnership with Rainy Day Books presents The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World with author A.J. Baime. Friday night, the Harriman-Jewell Series presents a Free Discovery Concert with cellist Pablo Ferrandez at the Folly; The Writers Place presents readings from four local poets; and Kansas City Repertory Theatre‘s new production of A Christmas Carol opens at the Spencer. Tomorrow night, artist Linda Lighton hosts the annual fundraiser for Owen/Cox Dance Group. Looking for more ideas? Visit Kansas City’s most comprehensive arts calendar at kcstudio.org/events.
Visiting Artists Presentation: Rena Detrixhe and Kahlil Robert Irving
November 16, 2017 @ 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm | Free
Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art
The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson County Community College will host a visiting artists presentation on Thursday afternoon, November 16, 2017 from 3:30-4:30 p.m. in the museum’s Hudson Auditorium, with guest artists Rena Detrixhe and Kahlil Robert Irving and JCCC faculty moderators Allison Smith (Professor and Chair, Art History) and Samuel Davis (Adjunct Assistant Professor/Lab Aide, Fine Arts). The program is free and open to the public. No tickets or reservations are required.
Rena Detrixhe works with natural materials, namely the red soil of Oklahoma to create rug forms imprinted with elaborate patterns. At once beautiful and compelling, Detrixhe hints at the uneasy tension between nature and humanity. Her site specific work references both the ubiquitousness and preciousness of the earth just below our feet. Rena Detrixhe works with natural materials, namely the red soil of Oklahoma to create rug forms imprinted with elaborate patterns. At once beautiful and compelling, Detrixhe hints at the uneasy tension between nature and humanity. Her site specific work references both the ubiquitousness and preciousness of the earth just below our feet.
Kahlil Robert Irving’s work derives reference from decorative arts traditions, post-war industrial design, and contemporary urban culture. Through an amalgamation of popular and autobiographical symbols, Irving’s mastery of material and image produces a reflection on the experience of living in America’s cities today.
Both artists have works on view in the Nerman Museum’s exhibition Ephemera which is open Oct 19, 2017 to Jan 28, 2018.
Charlotte Street Foundation Fellows · 2017
November 16, 2017 – March 4, 2018 | Free
Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art
Charlotte Street Foundation annually honors three outstanding Kansas City based visual artists with unrestricted cash awards. These Charlotte Street Awards recognize locally based artists who are creating outstanding artwork and provide financial support, critical attention, and increased exposure for Award Fellows with the aim of fostering their continued artistic and professional development. Through the Awards program, Charlotte Street Foundation seeks to contribute to the vitality of Kansas City’s arts community, making Kansas City alive with collaboration, passion, ideas and surprise.
The 2017 recipients were selected by a panel of local and national curators.
Karen McCoy earned a BA from Northeast Louisiana University in 1972, an MA from Northern Illinois University in 1977 and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1978. She is an associate professor of art in the sculpture department of the Kansas City Art Institute. Recent projects have included a residency at the Wintergreen Music Festival in Virginia and an exhibition at Chroma Projects in Charlottesville, VA. Her work on paper Two Scoops for Meniscus (1989) is part of the Oppenheimer Collection at the Nerman Museum.
Stephen Proski was born in 1988 in the Bay Area, California, and raised in Phoenix, AZ. In 2010 he graduated with a BFA in painting and creative writing from the Kansas City Art Institute, and he currently lives and works in Kansas City, MO. Proski has shown locally in Kansas City at 50/50, Bunker Center for the Arts, and Epsten Gallery and nationally at Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and Red Fox Gallery in Bedford, NY.
Samara Umbral was born in 1987, raised in St. Louis, MO, and graduated in 2009 with a BFA in painting from the Kansas City Art Institute. Soon after graduating, Umbral relocated to New York City. Her solo show Kids at the Nerman Museum in 2012 featured Felicity and Eileen, a painting from the Oppenheimer Collection. She has had solo exhibitions at Haw Contemporary, and in 2010 she had an exhibition at ATM Gallery in New York. She currently lives and works in Kansas City.
Reception and Opening will be held on Nov. 16 starting at 6 p.m.
The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World
November 16, 2017 @ 6:30 pm | This event is free but RSVPs are requested.
Unity Temple on the Plaza
On April 12, 1945, Harry S. Truman received an urgent summons from the White House. When he arrived, Eleanor Roosevelt told him, “The President is dead.” Truman asked, “Is there anything I can do for you?” Mrs. Roosevelt responded, “Is there anything we can do for you? For you are the one in trouble now.”
The next four months included the fall of Berlin, victory at Okinawa, the controversial decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the eventual end of World War II, the famine in Europe and the beginning of the Cold War. Harry Truman—a Midwesterner with no college degree, little money, and the prototypical ordinary man, who was not briefed by his predecessor—was thrust into the presidency in the midst of this tumultuous time.
In The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World, acclaimed author A.J. Baime takes us on the wild ride of Truman’s first few months in the White House. His captivating storytelling invites readers into the Oval Office with Truman during this high-stakes period of history.
Join us for this free public program, book sale and signing featuring A.J. Baime sharing about Truman’s presidency and the many parallels to our current events. This program is presented in partnership with Rainy Day Books.
This program is funded in part by the Missouri Humanities Council and with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Free Discovery Concert: Pablo Ferrández and Julio Elizalde, cellist and pianist in free recital
November 17, 2017 @ 7:00 pm | Free
Folly Theater
Spanish cellist Pablo Ferrández, 26, is poised to become the Pablo Casals of his generation. He has been racking up international awards and garnering praise from the world’s finest musicians, and now he will make his Kansas City debut in a free Discovery Concert. Noted for his expressive playing, Ferrández is sure to make his 1696 “Lord Aylesford” Stradivarius cello sing.
Ferrández, who began playing cello at the age of three, was given lessons by his father, a cellist with the Spanish National Orchestra. His innate talent and hard work led to a scholarship from the Pablo Casals Foundation, as well as prizes from many prestigious cello competitions. He is the first cellist to be loaned a Stradivarius from the Nippon Music Foundation. The cello is one of the oldest Strads in the world, dating from 1696.
American pianist Julio Elizalde, praised as a musician of “compelling artistry and power” by the Seattle Times, has appeared with many leading artists of our time.
An audience/artist conversation from the stage will immediately follow the concert.
TWP READING SERIES PRESENTS: BONNIE BOLLING, KATIE MANNING, JASON RYBERG AND JERMAINE THOMPSON
November 17, 2017 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
The Writers Place
Bonnie Bolling’s first collection of poetry, In the Kingdom of the Sons, won the Liam Rector First Book Prize for Poetry, and her second, The Red Hijab, won the John Ciardi Poetry Prize. She was awarded fellowships by Bread Loaf Writers Conferences, Prague Summer Writers and the University of California, Riverside, where she received a MFA. Her play, The Red Hijab, was produced at UCR by Playworks in 2010. Bonnie is editor-in-chief of Verdad and lives in southern California and the Persian Gulf.
Katie Manning is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Whale Road Review and an Associate Professor of Writing at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. She is the author of four poetry chapbooks, and her first full-length poetry collection, Tasty Other, is the 2016 winner of the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award. She has received The Nassau Review Author Award for Poetry, and her writing has been published in Fairy Tale Review, New Letters, Poet Lore, So to Speak, Verse Daily, and many other journals and anthologies
Jason Ryberg is the author of twelve books of poetry, six screenplays, a few short stories, a box full of folders, notebooks and scraps of paper that could one day be (loosely) construed as a novel, and, a couple of angry letters to various magazine and newspaper editors. He is currently an artist-in-residence at both The Prospero Institute of Disquieted P/o/e/t/i/c/s and the Osage Arts Community, and is an editor and designer at Spartan Books.
Jermaine Thompson is from Louisville, Mississippi. He fell in love with language and its effects one day while watching Days of Our Lives with his mother. Bo had returned to Hope; he was wearing a mask which frightened Hope. Young Jermaine said to his mother, “She shouldn’t be scared. He’s just wearing a disguise.” This made his mother proud—disguise was a big word for the boy who struggled in Head Start. Jermaine’s work has appeared in Number 1 Magazine, The Pinch, & Memorious: A Journal of New Verse and Fiction. His writing strives to retain the vocal registers of his agrarian upbringing and seeks to address the intersections of race, politics, and religion. He holds a BA in English from Stillman College and an MA in English from Mississippi State University. He is now a resident of North Kansas City, MO and is an MFA candidate at the University of Missouri Kansas City.
A Christmas Carol
November 17, 2017 – December 24, 2017
Kansas City Repertory Theatre-Spencer Theatre
Kansas City’s favorite holiday tradition is back for its 37th season, with an all-NEW adaptation by KCRep Artistic Director, Eric Rosen! A ripping good telling of the classic story of Ebenezer Scrooge, the curmudgeonly businessman who requires the intervention of a few spectral guides to understand the true meaning of Christmas and life. Complete with lively musical numbers, ornate costumes, and dashing stagecraft, Dickens’ classic tale of hope and redemption continues to remind us what’s really worth celebrating – at the holidays, or any time! A Kansas City Holiday Tradition!
For the Love of Dance
November 18, 2017 @ 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm | $125
Studio of Linda Lighton
Owen/Cox Dance Group is excited to announce a rare opportunity to host our annual fundraiser at the studio of internationally known artist Linda Lighton.
You’ve seen her ceramic sculpture at the Nelson-Atkins Museum, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and the Nerman Museum. Her art is also in museum and private collections throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Now you have the chance for a behind-the-scenes visit to her Kansas City loft, where her ceramics, paintings and drawings will be for sale, with 20% of the proceeds donated to Owen/Cox.
The evening will also feature an exclusive live auction featuring art works from Linda, Lester Goldman, and others. A silent auction will also offer entertainment and service options.
There will be an open bar, heavy hors d’oeuvres, and live music.
