Happy 2013 and welcome to KC Studio Magazine. For those of you new to our magazine, KC Studio is designed to inform the public about some of the coolest visual, performing, cinematic and youthful art in the metropolitan area. As supporters of the arts, you are now receiving this magazine which advocates and is dedicated to each and every arts organization, great and small.
The Year of the Snake slithers into the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art with the annual Chinese New Year celebration. This year, heightened attention will be paid as a contemporary Chinese artist, Xu Longsen, will take up residence and bridge the centuries with his work and the scrolls from 11 centuries ago. And according to Chinese Curator, Dr. Colin Mackenzie, these ancient and fragile scrolls will be on display for the next few months and then they will go off exhibit.
For performing arts, American tenor Michael Fabiano comes to the city to make his American recital debut as part of the Harriman-Jewell Series in Kansas City Jan. 19. The Unicorn Theatre will be busy the first half of 2013 with lots of diverse shows, starting with BlackTop Sky by playwright Christina Anderson, a native of Kansas City, Kan. There’s the Modern Night at the Folly where modern dance takes center stage. The Kansas City Repertory Theatre team offers up Arthur Miller’s iconic American tragedy Death of a Salesman.
Let’s not forget the cinema. The 20th anniversary of the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education includes a unique film festival that examines how Hollywood has looked at the death of 6 million Jews and the use of the word “Holocaust.” To continue the historic strains, Resistant History and UMKC professor Caitlin Horsmon take a look at the history of segregation and other hot issues in our own backyard.
You will find expanded coverage with our newly formed Arts Consortium: the Kansas City Ballet, the Kansas City Public Library, the Kansas City Repertory Theatre, the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance with support from the Arts Council.
There are also new columnists adding their flair such as KCUR radio host Bill Shapiro, art appraiser Nan Chisholm, author and illustrator Shane Evans and Porter Arneill, the director of the Municipal Arts Commission in Kansas City.
So stick with us as KC Studio continues to evolve and impact our metropolitan area as we move toward our fifth anniversary in May, we thank you for all those who support the arts!
–Kellie Houx, Editor and Guy Townsend, Publisher/President
