Kansas City Rising
Peregrine Honig
In 1966, I moved from San Francisco, California to Kansas City, Missouri, and, to my amazement, was embraced by a history of working artists determined to define themselves without a coast. The Kansas City art scene is familial yet critical. We have no subway, but space is less precious. Kansas City is central, even umbilical. Our audience is more conservative than some larger American cities and this resistance breeds a seasoned work ethic. Kansas City is inclined to merit people based on their production and development. The "artist" title is less ordained. Missouri is the "show me state," and the line is quoted in many studios with cheeky candor–who you are is not nearly as important as what you do. Because of this attitude, the generations and categories within the culture are competitive and interactive, collaborative and synergistic. Curation, criticism and production are more expected than assumed.
Three years ago, three galleries from Kansas City arrived in Chicago for the Stray Show, an alternative art fair. Tim Brown took the Telephone Booth, Hesse McGraw packed up the Paragraph, and Marcus Cain and I boxed up the Fahrenheit. Brown’s deconstructionist curation of amazing work, McGraw’s sleeker design-heavy groupings, and Cain’s and my traveling "Gun and Knife Show" could have come from three different cities. We shared a rented van and represented our artists and attendees were surprised at the quantity and quality of work our galleries showed. Tour guides would have all San Franciscans riding trolleys and surfing, New Yorkers wearing black and drinking martinis, and Kansas Citians sporting overalls and raising livestock. Though Kansas City’s rural Midwestern roots define many aspects of its demography, its history is raw, drunk and nasty. A stopping point between more urban destinations in the 20s, Kansas City was a burlesque, jazz and entertainment center. On a more contemporary note, Kansas City is more sophisticated than the smaller towns that surround it. We have a significant and active gay and lesbian community and a chunk of amazing eccentrics who have moved from larger, brighter lives to grow old and pay lower rents.
Kansas City celebrates and supports its artists through Urban Culture Projects, a curatorial placing of shows and performances in large downtown spaces by a diverse committee of established writers, collectors and community leaders. The Charlotte Street Fund is an annual grant awarded to a group of local artists and the resulting work is displayed together in an accessible gallery space. Avenue of the Arts funds yearly public proposals. Review, Kansas City’s seven year-old independent art magazine, is a slickly-printed 9" x 9" magazine which features regional, national and international critical responses to exhibitions in both commercial and alternative galleries, as well as international biennials. Located in a warehouse of raw studio space (Review Studios), Review maintains a strong stable of traveling contributors with intelligent perspectives. The Nerman Museum opens in a year and video game displays of the developing museum are shown at different events. Watch the screen and goofy hypothetical corners turn into virtual rooms filled with already purchased work. Civic pride is based on history and, in the case of the new museum, something to look forward to.
Corporate collectors, big city curators and dealers show up at alternative galleries and the studios of emerging artists, not just as vampires and vultures, but to chat and discuss work. Who do we have to support our lifelong bad habits? Thank you Kansas City Art Institute, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Hallmark, Sprint, Johnson County Community College, the Oppenheimers, the Nermans and Belger Art Center. Just like artists and curators everywhere, we hold our breath and cross our fingers.
