What impacts us? What influences us? Sure, the ever-pervasive technology and equally rapid changes in media impact us, but what about art? To many, that question is just full of malarkey. However, how many of us really stop and look around or listen?
As one shining example, try the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art on the visual arts-enriched campus of Johnson County Community College. Executive Director Bruce Hartman is gratified that he gets to continue moving a museum and a campus art program forward more than 30 years after the initial conversation to begin collecting art. Now, if visitors are willing to walk around 240 acres, not only will they find one of the leading contemporary museums in the Midwest, they will find pockets of art throughout the campus. On top of that, the museum and the campus tours are free.
Did we mention listen? How many of us truly sit and listen with our whole hearts? That’s what the Heartland Men’s Chorus wants us to do. The spring show, Falling in Love Again, looks at gay culture in the 1920s to the start of World War II when a thriving gay community fell under the heavy boots of the Nazis. It’s not a story readily told, but one to be heard.
Or let’s hear it for Musical Theater Heritage and the first professional run of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George in at least 30 years in the area. The concert-style staging rather than the traditional costumes and sets is different, but once people hear the lyrics and music without the other trappings, it’s simply a fantastic experience.
Then we have all the excitement brewing at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art with a silver exhibition or the electricity being created at the former Union Station power plant, now operating under the name Todd Bolender Center for Dance & Creativity – the exciting home and rehearsal space for the Kansas City Ballet. While these are just a few of the wonders of the city, by no means is this it. Look through the pages; take the time and learn.
Every city, every metropolitan community has thousands of stories to tell, either through its visual media or through auditory means. We at KC Studio want our readers to take a note from writer Ernest Hemingway, who spent a few months in Kansas City, “When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.”
