KCAI students show work at 6th National Collegiate Handmade Paper Art Triennial

Two Kansas City Art Institute Students, Lauren Chasten (’16 fiber) and Kara Dunbar (’15 ceramics), will have work featured in the upcoming 6th National Collegiate Handmade Paper Art Triennial, a competition in artworks created in handmade paper. After taking Marie Bannerot McInerney’s, Fiber to Form fiber elective, these students were among five selected by the department to compete nationally.

Anne Q. McKeown of the Brodsky Center of the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey and Lynn Sures of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, George Washington University, Washington, DC, co-direct the Triennial. The distinguished juror, Joan Hall, put together a selective exhibition of 21 works from over 170 competitive images she viewed. These were submitted by 12 papermaking programs at undergraduate and graduate universities, colleges and art schools nationally.  The show will be a diverse and high-quality representation of art currently being made of handmade paper. The traveling show begins with an opening February 18 at 5pm at the The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in Washington, D.C. and will travel to the Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland, OH.

Kara Dunbar, In Pursuit of Permanence, 2015, cotton and porcelain (all pieces except one incorporated cotton pulp at some point in the process), 4″ x 72″ x 3″

Lauren Chastain, Trues Bruise,2015, pulp painting, watermarks, abaca, cotton, and hand stitching, 15″ x 18″

 

Web: http://corcoran.gwu.edu/PaperArtTriennial

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CorcoranGW

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CorcoranGW/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gwcorcoranschool/

 

 

The Silent Type

PRESS RELEASE
November 18, 2015

LEEDY-VOULKOS ART CENTER
Lower Level Gallery
2012 Baltimore Avenue
Kansas City, MO. 64108, USA

Gallery Hours: Thursday-Sunday
11am-5pm
www.leedy-voulkos.com

Rochelle Brickner
The Silent Type

December 4th-26^th, 2015
(closed from December 24th-26th)
Opening Reception: Friday, December 4th 2015, 6-9pm

The Silent Type is Rochelle Brickner’s KCAI Senior Thesis Exhibition, as well as her second solo exhibition in Kansas City, Missouri. The installation is comprised of biomorphic forms that are inspired by the textures, colors, and life cycles characteristic of various species of fungi. Reinterpreting the environments they inhabit in natural and controlled compositions references their various stages in life.

Brickner’s preferred materials are wool and paper intermingled with other natural mediums. Like human hair, wool is a shapeless, fibrous material that can be endlessly manipulated, in this case through the process of felting. While transforming the wool into mimicked fungi forms and then later reinterpreting environments they inhabit with their installment, de-installement, and re-installment accompanied with new additional forms, Brickner is in essence mimicking a nutrient cycle, referencing their various stages in life: growth, rebirth, decomposition, and symbiosis in nature.

The choice of materials used and the processes of construction and transformation are intimately connected to the visual, conceptual and narrative aspects of the work.

Hyper-relevant to Brickner’s work, Andrew Cowan N.D.Arb. relays in his article Fungi- Life Support for Ecosystems, “One particularly crucial role of fungi is in the transport, storage, release and recycling of nutrients. Nutrient cycling [is] the continuous supply, capture, replenishment and distribution of carbon, nitrogen and minerals [and] is fundamental for the ongoing health and vitality of all ecosystems. As a result, soil organic matter and nutrient availability to plants is entirely dependent on the activity of soil organisms such as fungi.” (www.ictorganics.com)

Rochelle Brickner (b.San Antonio, TX, 1973) is a Kansas City based mixed-media artist. Her other interest articulating environmental awareness has inspired her to lead youth directed environmental art workshops in Kansas City with Greenworks KC, Boy Scout Troop 25, and the Plaza and Central Public Libraries. She has exhibited in several venues within the Kansas City Metropolitan area, including a solo show at Contours Hair Salon, and group shows at Mattie Rhodes Art Gallery, Little Miss Elegant Gallery, and Kemper at the Crossroads. Brickner will graduate with a BFA in Fiber from the Kansas City Art Institute in December 2015, and thereafter pursue the post-baccalaureate art education certification program at the Kansas City Art Institute.

Brickner is also known for making fine art and utilitarian textiles, and more specifically, features a line created by using up-cycled materials known as Repurpose Me. Repurpose Me has been featured in Ink Magazine, the Kansas City Star; and interviewed on 90.1, Kansas City public radio. Some of Brickner’s textiles can be found in the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art museum shop and in her RoBO Textiles Etsy shop.

 

For more print quality images available upon request and/ or further information, please contact Rochelle Brickner at robotextiles@gmail.com or at 816.590.2792.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We Start Here

The Facts:

WHERE: Cornerstones Of Care
300 E. 36th Street, Kansas City, MO
6411
WHEN: Friday, November 20, 3:00pm- 8:pm
Sunday November 22nd 10:00am-5:00pm 2015
COST: Free

WHAT: We Start Here: The Fort Festival!

Cornerstones of Care 300 E. 36th Street Kansas City, MO 64111

Contact Olivia: oclanton@kcai.edu

 

We Start Here is an explorative collaboration between young men at the Gillis school and local artist Olivia Clanton.

Each project begins with a student imagining his dream fort, and then the child works with the artist to translate his images and stories into a space they build together. This project aims to provide a creative release for the child, encouraging him to become an active problem-solver, and enabling him to re-imagine a future in which he is the architect.

The project encourages the child to travel to a space of trust and creativity. Children who are provided with individual attention and the opportunity to insert something they have imagined into the world can experi- ence uplift and a sense of self-confidence.

It also challenges the way people interact with at-risk children. Visitors are invited to listen to persons they might have otherwise overlooked and to discover places they might not otherwise have come to know. These resourcefully imagined spaces offer an opportunity for greater connectivity in our community, and empower young people to celebrate their individuality and creativity.

CALL FOR ARTWORKS! > “LA REINA: Our Lady of Guadalupe” Exhibition

Mattie Rhodes Center Art Gallery 

Presents

La Reina: Our Lady of Guadalupe
December 4, 2015 – February 13, 2016

For the month of December we are happy to bring back this very popular exhibit and excited to celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in our gallery.  La Reina (or the Dark Virgin) is both a religious icon and cultural symbol that goes beyond words in both traditional and contemporary significance. This exhibition is looking for works that explore the meaning, context and translations of this figure as it has been used religiously, socially, and throughout our pop-cultural landscape. We accept submission from all artists, both local and national that hope to extend the conversation, interpretations and vision of Our Lady/La Reina.

 

EXHIBITION AND FESTIVAL INFORMATION:
*Opening Reception: December 4^th2015, from 6:00pm-10:00pm

SUBMISSION DEADLINE & Drop-Off INFORMATION:
*Artwork Submission DEADLINE/DROP-OFF thru NOVEMBER 27^th, 2015

 

Download the Call for Artworks/Artists packet for La Reina: Our Lady of Guadalupe below, via one of the two links.  Please consider submitting something amazing to a very popular exhibition that shows annually at Mattie Rhodes Center Gallery , closing out the year nicely.
LaReina2015_ExhibitionPacket_Call_For_Artists– PDF
LaReina2015_ExhibitionPacket_Call_For_Artists– DocX

 

Anthony Marcos Rea
Cultural Arts Coordinator

Mattie Rhodes Center Gallery
919 West 17^th Street
KCMO – 641008
www.mattierhodes.org
P. (816)221-2349

 

Basketry Mastery

The junior class, led by Marie McInerney, learned basketry techniques earlier in the semester.

Ha en härlig

….and have a nice week!

inte fan gör det det

söndag!

( have a nice sunday! )

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Dark Days, Bright Nights: Contemporary Paintings From Finland.

Sirpa Särkijärvi
Viides sukopolvi (Fifth Generation), 2011
acrylic on canvas
41 1/2 x 55 1/8 inches (105.5 x 140 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Gallery AMA, Helsinki​
© Sirpa Särkijärvi, Courtesy Gallery AMA, Helsinki

International Painting Exhibition Opens October 2 at Kemper Museum.
Opening and Artist Panel: Jarmo Mäkilä and Vesa-Pekka Rannikko
Free | Friday, October 2, from 5:00–6:00 p.m. is a CASH bar and FREE live music. 6:00 p.m. continues a FREE artist panel.
Exhibition curator Barbara O’Brien moderates a discussion with artists Jarmo Mäkilä and Vesa-Pekka Rannikko. Enjoy live improvisational electronica music by Kansas City–based Mnemosyne Quartet, and talk with docent guides in the exhibition throughout the evening.

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PRESS RELEASE

Friday, October 2, 2015 to Sunday, February 21, 2016
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
4420 Warwick- Kansas City, Missouri

Dark Days, Bright Nights: Contemporary Paintings from Finland gathers together and investigates the inspirations, methods, and practice of Finnish painters. Dark Days, Bright Nights presents 43 works of art—stylistically disparate and often visually dazzling—from 13 artists ranging from the post-WWII generation to those who have come of age squarely in the 21st century. The exhibition features 41 two-dimensional paintings, a sculptural installation, and a projected video installation.

Dark Days, Bright Nights: Contemporary Paintings from Finland will be on view at Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art from October 2, 2015, through February 21, 2016. With days of 24-hour darkness in the winter months and 24 hours of sunlight during the summer, what is real and what is a dream can seem a narrow distance apart in this most northern of the European countries. Dark Days, Bright Nightsis curated by Barbara O’Brien, executive director Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri. “My travels in Finland allowed the opportunity to create a portrait of a time and place where support for the arts has been strong, and the notion of the painter as a respected cultural worker is palpable,” said O’Brien. Admission to the Kemper Museum and this special exhibition is free.

The 13 artists represented in Dark Days, Bright Nights were all born in Finland, and now work in locations including the city and countryside of Finland as well as Berlin, New York City, and Stockholm. Artists include Jani Hänninen, Heikki Marila, Marika Mäkelä, Jarmo Mäkilä, Rauha Mäkilä, Reima Nevalainen, Leena Nio, Vesa-Pekka Rannikko, Mari Rantanen, Mari Sunna, Nanna Susi, Sirpa Särkijärvi, and Anna Tuori. The artists selected represent a wide range of experiences and painting styles, but are connected by the Kemper Museum’s philosophical focus on investigating the history of the gesture in painting and in creating a conceptual and art historic bridge from the 20th to the 21st century in both exhibition program and the Permanent Collection.

Jarmo Mäkilä’s narrative tales of country life in the shadow of WWII are a counterpoint to the 21st-century inspiration of cityscapes and graffiti in works by Jani Hänninen. The relationship to the natural world, so important to the Finnish people, is vividly realized in the paintings by Lapland artist Sirpa Särkijärvi. The space between waking and sleeping seems to come to life in the snow-globe-like paintings by Anna Tuori. The desire to control and genetically manipulate nature is explored in a video installation by Vesa-Pekka Ranniko.

Anna Tuori
Things I’ve Seen I Can See No More, 2013
acrylic and oil on MDF board
84 x 120 1/8 inches
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
© Anna Tuori
Photo: Jussi Tiainen

A full-color catalogue accompanies the exhibition, and is available for purchase in the Kemper Museum Shop. The catalogue provides art historical scholarship and cultural context to the exhibition and includes essays written by Peter MacKeith, Honorary Consul General to Finland; Timo Valjakka, an independent writer, curator, and critic based in Helsinki and London; and curator O’Brien.

Support for the Kemper Museum is generously provided by members and donors, especially Frame Visual Art Finland, and The Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Consulate General of Finland. Financial assistance for this project has been provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Bag Sale @ The Studio (Knitting and Needlepoint)

Thought some of you might like to know about the…..

 

$5.00 a bag
(stuff in as much as you can)

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Also, some other things to consider…….

WAVERLY WOOL

 

This 100%Wool Persian Yarn is ideal for needlepoint. The plies can easily be separated to cover the different sizes of canvas. One strand of the three ply yarn will nicely cover a 13-count canvas.

Although this product is designed expressly for needlepoint, it is also a wonderful knitting yarn. It knits at 3 stitches per inch on size 10 needles. There are approximately 164 yards in the four ounce skein.

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And……

Overstock Sale
There are over 100 colors to choose from.  Some of the hanks are cut for needlepointing and some of the hanks are still whole.  Full skeins can not be cut.

Knitters – don’t miss this.  Get a sweater or poncho’s worth for next to nothing.  Consider hats and fingerless mitts.

 

The Studio Knitting & Needlepoint
9555 Nall Ave.  –  Overland Park, KS  –  66207
www.thestudiokc.com

An Exquisite Corpse

There’s only a few more days left  to go see KCAI at SACI: An Exquisite Corpse, an exhibition featuring work from the summer 2015 Kansas City Art Institute program in Florence, Italy.  The exhibition is currently on view in the Dodge Painting Galleries – 3A space (take the elevator to 3A), located on the Kansas City Art Institute campus, and closes September 11th, 2015. Especially if this program has ever been of interest to you, this exhibition might offer a taste of what the experience would be like with KCAI at Studio Art Centers International (SACI), per the artwork of the students exhibited. KCAI at SACI: An Exquisite Corpse features the work of: Katie Pilmaier (ceramics) Davin Roberson (painting) Lauren Seider (illustration) Natalie Spicker (fiber) Lauren Taylor (design) Fazida Yathali (painting) If you would like more information about the summer 2016 program, please contact Misty Gamble at mgamble@kcai.edu For more information about Studio Art Centers International (SACI), please visit: www.saci-florence.edu

Kansas City Art Institute receives a record donation of $25 million

BY MARÁ ROSE WILLIAMS

mdwilliams@kcstar.com

Tony Jones came from Chicago to be interim president at the Kansas City Art Institute eight months ago and brought along dreams to renovate some buildings, beef up the school’s endowment and help more students afford to attend the private college.

On Tuesday afternoon, to a champagne toast, Jones announced that a generous benefactor has now given the school the means to make some of those dreams come true.

The 130-year-old college of art and design has received the largest single donation in the school’s history — $25 million from an anonymous donor.

“This gift to the Kansas City Art Institute means that someone believes very strongly in what this institution is trying to do,” Jones said in an interview before Tuesday’s announcement. “It is a vote of confidence. The gift is a pillow on which we can dream about the future of our college and know our dreams will become reality.”

Jones called the gift “transformative” and said it will touch faculty, community and students. Students like Natalie Spicker, a junior double majoring in fiber and art history at KCAI.

Spicker, a native of Covington, Ky., said more than three-quarters of her college education is being paid through scholarships she received from the art institute.

Getting those scholarships, she said, meant she could attend the first school on her college hope list without having to take on a load of debt or lean heavily on her parents.

“I know a lot of students who if they hadn’t gotten scholarships would not have been able to come here to school,” Spicker said.

Tuition at KCAI is about $34,000 a year. Jones said that 95 percent of the 610 students attending the four-year institution are getting part of their education paid through grants and scholarships.

The record gift to KCAI is critical to increasing need-based and merit scholarship funds, Jones said. Six million dollars of the gift, in the form of a two-for-one challenge grant, will be used for student scholarships, endowed professorships and visiting professors.

Through Dec. 31, 2016, a fund established by the anonymous donor at the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation will match and double every dollar donation KCAI receives from outside sources up to a total of $6 million. To get the full $6 million, the institute will need to raise $3 million.

Jones said a two-to-one match is unusual.

“Most donation matches are a dollar for dollar. I have never seen anything like this in the arts education industry,” he said.

The spring 2016 applicants will likely be first to reap the benefits of the new gift, in the form of hefty scholarship offers, Jones said.

Under the school’s plan, $14 million will go into a general endowment and $5 million will go toward campus improvements, including deferred maintenance on buildings and landscaping projects.

In the last 20 years, the Kansas City Art Institute has completed campus improvements totaling more than $27 million, and right now it’s finishing one of the most important projects — a $750,000 renovation at its ceramics building. The new funds will help the school bring state-of-the art equipment and technology into that building.

Jones said there’s more to be done on the campus on Warwick Boulevard, and KCAI administrators, faculty and students will begin meeting once classes get underway in a few weeks to brainstorm ideas for improving the campus using the big gift of money.

He said that what happens at the art institute complements other recent investments in Kansas City’s arts culture, including the construction of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts and the $30 million already donated toward construction of a $96 million University of Missouri-Kansas City downtown campus for the performing arts.

“It will take a while to realize what a gift of this scale can do to transform student lives and the physical look of the campus,” Jones said.

But it certainly has him dreaming again.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article31463165.html