The new 515 Music Hub in a spruced-up formerly vacant storefront at 515 Southwest Blvd. is shared by KC Jazz ALIVE and Music Across Borders as part of Open Doors! (courtesy of Emily Behrmann)
This summer, more than 20 once-vacant storefronts in some of the city’s busiest areas are getting new life (at least temporarily) thanks to help from the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City.
With World Cup crowds in mind, an initiative called Open Doors! has hooked up small businesses looking for bigger spaces with local landlords hoping to fill theirs.
Nearly 500 applications were received by the EDCKC. Foremost among those chosen for the three- to six-month pilot program are food, drink and retail operations. But the arts are represented too. The 515 Music Hub, in a building at 515 Southwest Boulevard owned by Andrea Buettner Wardell, is a performance and rehearsal space that can hold around 100. It’s being shared by a pair of arts organizations — KC Jazz ALIVE and Music Across Borders.
Jazz ALIVE board treasurer Emily Behrmann says the Hub’s origins lay in panel discussions the group hosts for fans and musicians. “We’ve heard repeatedly that there aren’t enough listening rooms in Kansas City,” she explains. “There are a lot of bars and clubs where music is not the focus. So we’ve wanted a space where music was primary. Open Doors! seemed like a good way to possibly make that happen.”
Turns out that Lindsey and Nick Jarrett, co-founders of Music Across Borders, had much the same idea. A coffee with Behrmann quickly led to the two groups banding together. “I think it’s going to be really fun to showcase local musicians that are presenting global music,” Lindsey Jarrett says. Her violin-playing husband echoes that, adding that it speaks to their mission of “taking musicians and audiences that would otherwise never have been in front of each other … and with the World Cup being here, make that happen.”
A flashy new sign on the Boulevard will help attract jazz, classical and world music lovers, but Behrmann knows that “marketing is going to be key. We’re lucky that we have a couple of strong folks on our board that can help with that.” Both she and Jarrett say they’ve been enthusiastically welcomed by neighbors along the Boulevard. And though it’s only a pilot program, Behrmann hopes the Hub can stick around, “because there really is a need for it, especially for a space of this size.”
While visual art plays a role in several shops selected for Open Doors! (Birdies, RAW Art, Studio Cheeks) only one is focused on the work of a single artist. In mid-May, Megh Knappenberger hustled to move paintings from her studio and garage into a newly renovated storefront at 108 Missouri in the River Market. “I lucked out with the space because it is very long and narrow,” Knappenberger says happily. “So it’s like a gallery. Also, there’s tall windows, so you’ll see the large original works hanging at the front. I think people will get a sense that it’s a store with art quite quickly.”
Knappenberger paints sports imagery (especially the KU kind) as well as figures from music and movies, local landmarks and a new series she hopes to debut over the summer. For World Cup souvenir hunters, she’s even repurposed an old cigarette machine to dispense small art pieces commemorating the event and its host city. Color her proud and optimistic. “I hope that people walk into the space and learn about my work and my process,” Knappenberger says. “And see something new that was created by an artist who lives and works in Kansas City and is inspired by the region.”
