When they officially became a monthly occurrence in Kansas City more than 14 years ago, First Fridays revolved around art. They still do. Throw in a little wine and a bite to eat, live music and an inviting, laid-back vibe, and the gatherings now pull in upwards of 10,000 people and sprawl beyond their original, one-square-mile home in the Crossroads Art District.
A few blocks to the north, they’ve spilled into the Kansas City Public Library’s downtown Central Library.
Libraries, of course, are well into redefining themselves as community gathering places and not mere, voices-low repositories of books. The Kansas City Public Library has been at the forefront of that movement, offering a wide-ranging menu of cultural and civic programming, hosting up to a dozen exhibits a year in the Central Library’s two gleaming art galleries, and partnering in Art in the Loop, the West 18th Street Fashion Show and other events.
It opened its doors to First Fridays in June, when 150 people browsed the two galleries, dropped kids off for activities in the second-floor children’s library, and took in the folk-tinged music of the local band Ruddy Swain on the rooftop terrace. Singers Mikal Shapiro and Louise Thiolon performed in August.
The Library bills itself as a First Friday starting point, with its own streetcar stop and easy access to the Crossroads District and other venues, and has adopted the theme Art Starts at the Library. For now, it is joining the festivities from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. every other month. If the move gains momentum, Deputy Director Joel Jones says, the Library may jump in monthly.
“We have great galleries, great exhibits. I think it’s a terrific environment for First Friday,” Jones says.
“The first one we had, greeting people at the door, we found that a lot of them were from around here. Somebody who worked in the office building next door looked down and saw that we were setting things up on the rooftop terrace, and they came over after work. I think it was the same for some people who lived (in condos) across the street. I see this as an opportunity to introduce or reintroduce people who live downtown to their public library.”
The foray into First Fridays comes in the wake of a yearlong revamping of the first floor of the Central Library, capped by the April opening of the new ONENORTH learning and technology hub. The Library’s premier art space, the adjacent Genevieve Guldner Gallery, also received a recent facelift, and the new Rocky and Gabriella Mountain Gallery opened on the mezzanine level in March 2015.
The latter space will feature the exhibit “Cuba Bound: Photographs by Jesse A. Fernandez,” a selection of evocative photos taken by the renowned Cuba-born photographer, when First Friday comes around again in December. It’s part of a three-venue exhibition staged in partnership with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the American Jazz Museum.
The Crossroads District’s galleries, shops and restaurants remain the First Friday epicenter. Businesses in the West Bottoms also have bought in, and the historic 18th & Vine Jazz District joined the observance this past May.
Now, Jones says, “we’d like for people to think of the Library as a place where they can park and start their evening off right with a glass of wine or a beer, see the Library, and then hop on the streetcar and head off into the night.”
David Johnson, president of the Crossroads Community Association, welcomes the expansion of interest and participation.
“It’s good for the city. It’s good for downtown,” he says.
“It gives people an opportunity to sort of pick and choose. They used to kind of fixate on 20th and Baltimore. Now, they’re more adventurous and they’re exploring more.
“It’s not exactly what we had in mind, but it’s certainly something we appreciate.”
Learn more about the Kansas City Public Library’s exhibits and cultural programming at kclibrary.org.
–Steve Wieberg
