Kansas City in the New York Post

photo from: nelson-atkins.org

Sure KC is known for its BBQ, but in an article by the New York Post, it seems our museums might be even better. We have two outstanding museums of contemporary art (Nelson-Atkins and Nerman) as well as a thriving art scene in the Crossroads. The writer also touches on a number of historic and Kansas City landmarks.

Read the entire article here: 50 States: Missouri - Art Attack! In Kansas City, the museums might be better than the BBQ.

For all you've ever wanted to know about Kansas City, check out visitkc.com or thinkkc.com.

Young Friends of Art: Hallmark Art Collection

Young Friends of Art comes to Hallmark:

One of my favorite places in Kansas City is the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and like most Museums, the Atkins lives on memberships support. One membership group is called Young Friends of Art. It's a great group to meet young adults in the area, have fun and support the arts and culture community here in our city. They meet on the second Friday of every month for drink specials, free appetizers, socializing, and appreciating art around Kansas City.

The group conducts fund raisers that help raise money for the Museum's education programs. I was excited to hear about their next event coming up next month...The Young Friends of Art will go on a Tour of Hallmark's Fine Art Collection!

The Tour is open to members ($20) and nonmembers ($25). The Hallmark Fine Art Collection began in 1949 and includes major works by Andy Warhol, Picasso, Edward Hopper, Toulouse-Lautrec, Norman Rockwell, Charles Sheeler, Jack Youngerman (and many many others!). The tour is then followed by a cocktail reception!

I think one of my favorite's from the Fine Art Collection is the Takashi Murakami print in the Rice Center. What I find amazing, is the fact that they're just hanging all over the campus! This event sounds awesome, and can't wait to go on the tour. I'll blog more about it after!

"What do you like about living in Kansas City?"

This is the question I get the most when talking with students and professionals about coming to work at Hallmark. This question, as well as, "So where is Kansas City located?"

A recent article in The Beeswax (a newsletter publication by a top local creative firm Willoughby Design Group) touches on a few of the reasons people love it here in KC. It's a great city (we're not biased or anything)! Here's the top ten from the article for your reading pleasure. Click the links to learn more and to see for yourself why KC is great!

10. Two words: Swing state. (Our vote counts!)
9. Three-hour flight to either coast.
8. “More boulevards than Paris, more fountains than Rome.”
7. The new Bloch Building at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
6. The up-and-coming Power and Light District. (Welcome, Sprint Center!)
5. Parking: It’s cheap — and usually free.
4. Nothing like KC barbecue and jazz, local legends that have stood the test of time.
3. Thriving (not starving) artists, thanks to Hallmark, the Kansas City Art Institute, Johnson County Community College and more.
2. Breathtaking stars in 45 minutes or less.
1. The intelligence, compassion and creativity found throughout this community...

Oh, and the answer to the 2nd most asked question: Kansas City is located in Missouri and Kansas. Hallmark is located in Kansas City, Missouri, on the Missouri side of the state line.

Kansas City: Modest metropolis in midst of mighty renewal

My friend from Atlanta, GA sent me the following article this morning. It caught her eye a few days ago in USA Today's online edition. After reading it, I thought it was worth more than just a link -- so read on (click the links to learn more about KC highlights). Might I say before you read on, that I am so excited and so proud to live here in KC!

By Gene Sloan, USA Today

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Reed Cordish has watched one city center after another make a comeback over the past two decades. Indeed, his family's firm, the Cordish Co., is credited with reviving several of them, including downtown Baltimore, where it developed the now-vibrant Inner Harbor.

But he has never seen a city blossom quite like this one.

"What's remarkable is it's all happening so quickly," says Cordish, looking across a sea of construction cranes from his company's 30th-floor offices. "What you see happening this year in Kansas City is what you'd see happening in other cities over 20 years."

Early next year, the Cordish Co. will cut the ribbon on the Power & Light District, a massive redevelopment of a nine-square-block chunk of Kansas City's long-dilapidated downtown. Like Baltimore's Inner Harbor, it will feature restaurants, bars, shops and live entertainment.

But the $850 million project is only one piece of a citywide makeover that is adding to the allure of a destination already well known for jazz clubs and barbecue.

Not far from the nearly complete Power & Light District, Cordish points out a major construction site that will house the $326 million Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, scheduled for completion in 2009. Off in another direction is the $276 million Sprint Center, an 18,500-seat arena for concerts and sporting events opening in October with a concert by Elton John. And next door is the new College Basketball Experience, including the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, also opening in October.

Still, one of the most notable additions in the city is a recently opened $200 million expansion of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Heralded by The New Yorker as "one of the best (expansions) of the last generation," the new Steven Holl-designed wing cascades down the side of the museum's sloping sculpture gardens.

Even before the addition, the Nelson was highly regarded for its collection of Asian art and Henry Moore sculptures. But the semi-subterranean new wing, topped with glass-walled "lenses" on the sky that The New York Times described as "breathtaking," cements the city's art standing.

The light-filled expansion adds 65% more exhibit space in a succession of soaring galleries — no two alike — filled with post-World War II and contemporary art, African art and photographs. There are noteworthy pieces by the likes of Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Donald Judd and Sol Lewitt, as well as a whole room for the museum's famed collection of Isamu Noguchi sculpture.

"There are cities three times our size that would kill for something like this," Marc Wilson, the museum's longtime director, says of the new building. "It allowed us to do many things that the community has wanted."

The Nelson expansion is just the newest art-related site in the city, which also is home to the nearby Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and the growing, gallery-rich Crossroads Arts District. In October, yet another art museum, albeit a smaller one, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, opens in suburban Overland Park, Kan.

Kansas City, despite its modest size (metro population: 1.97 million, making it the 28th largest in the USA), lures nearly 17 million visitors a year.

Among the more established draws is the 18th & Vine Historic Jazz District, home to the American Jazz Museum and nightspots such as The Blue Room. But tourism also has gotten a boost from another significant new museum that opened in December, the National World War I Museum.

Built underground at the site of Kansas City's iconic Liberty Memorial — a 22-story obelisk-like war monument that is one of the city's most imposing structures — the new museum offers a comprehensive history of the Great War, with thousands of rare historical objects ranging from battle flags to biplanes.

"I can guarantee that this is the only place where you can touch the tube of a Bavarian field howitzer," says curator Doran Cart, rubbing his hand along one of half a dozen howitzers on display.

The designer of the $26 million museum, Ralph Appelbaum, is perhaps best known for his work on the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. And like that museum, the new World War I museum is a reminder of the man-made horrors of the last century — and a not-so-subtle plea not to repeat them.

"The war was an awful thing, but it's part of history," says Cart, crossing a glass bridge entryway built over 9,000 silk poppies — one for every 1,000 of the 9 million soldiers and sailors killed in the war (there were also an estimated 5 million civilians killed). "And you can learn from history."

Despite such new museums and other attractions, the city's core area has continued to struggle — at times almost appearing abandoned. But that, too, is changing, Cordish says.

"This time next year, it's going to be so active and full of life, you won't believe it," says the developer, pointing out everything from historic theaters under renovation to the site where his company is building a hipsters' bowling lane. "It's going to feel like a big city should."



Source: USA Today Photos: Top-Kansas City's expanded Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, by Timothy Hursley, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; Bottom-Digital rendering of the Power+Light District, currently in development, rendering by the Cordish Co.