It’s early July in Kansas City, Missouri and the sun is beating a mean rhythm on my still winter worn bones.On a map, Kansas City, MO does appear to be dead center in the American landscape, hanging on the western edge of the state and mirrored by its brother, Kansas City, KS, just over the border. If the Heartland is the giant, general landmass that is the Midwest, KCMO (and KCK) are the spine from which the rest of the nation fans. It feels solid and centered to me, for a number of reasons I suppose – the heat might have some part in that, pinning the body in place, or it could be the stoic and squat buildings that make up the core of the town. Perhaps it is the fact that I feel oddly exposed yet comfortably in place at once, a feeling inspired by inability to locate a towering marker on the horizon (mountains, a skyscraper) or sense one on the breeze (a body of water, salty or fresh).

I made this trip west to meet with Kate Hackman of the Charlotte Street Foundation with whom threewalls is collaborating in 2010. This was the first leg of a series of studio visits (Shannon, meet Kansas City; followed by Kate, meet Chicago) before she and I devised a meaningful artist exchange. My trip was three days, and three days too short (my fault): meeting artists, visiting studios, galleries, not-for-profits and museums, along with eating good food and drinking good cocktails. What I found in Kansas City was inspiring from the position of arts administrator and advocate, and prompted me to encourage you all to visit – especially those of you who might consider yourself patrons – as the relationship between artists, administrators and the business community there was creative and strong. Although the city is small, with a population hovering around 450,000, there are a number of visionary models worth considering for Chicago.

Kansas City boasts a number of major institutions: the Kansas City Art Institute with its H&R Block Artspace, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. Although these larger institutions hold some sway in the city, it was the smaller or independent organizations and their collaborations with the business community that seemed to be making the most immediate and interesting impact.

Charlotte Street Foundation, my host, is a not-for-profit founded over a decade ago by David Hughes, to fund artists with individual cash grants at a time when financial resources were rarely allocated to individuals. Responding to the needs of local artists and working to keep Kansas City from losing its creative capital, Charlotte Street offered essential recognition for emerging and mid-career artists.

Charlotte Street started out with a vision for Kansas City visual arts – envisioning support between the business and artistic community, collaboration across disciplines and leadership in promoting Kansas City artists outside of the region. Their website describes this vision as “a vibrant artist-friendly, artist-supporting city where artists are cultivated, respected, and admired by leaders in the business, political, philanthropic, and civic communities, as well as by a significant segment of the general public.” They believe that this positive feedback loop results in attracting artists to live and work in Kansas City, which was made evident in the number of young artists I met who had returned after BFA and MFA programs to set up studio. This vision was surely infectious, as my trip only illuminated the cooperation and shared goals of the Kansas City community. Apart from Charlotte Street’s “foundation,” they also coordinated the Urban Culture Project where through donated real estate in Kansas City’s core, artists can apply for exhibitions at one of three exhibition and performance sites (le Esquina, Paragraph and Project Space) or for fully subsidized studio space (Bonfils and partnership Place). Their Art Through Architecture program further unites artists with the community by collaborating with the American Institute of Architects-Kansas City (AiA-KC) to place work by Kansas City artists in new construction, awarding firms who dedicate a percentage of their budget to this effort. Art Through Architecture aims to raise community appreciation of visual artists and increase market demand for local work.

Other fantastic programs in Kansas City include the Review Studios (a program stemming from the local visual arts magazine, Review, now online) that specifically funds studios for midcareer artists through a studio patrons program. Artists are matched with patrons who underwrite a year’s operating costs for an approximately 3,000 square foot studio space in return for a gift of work. Artists share a fabrication studio and exhibition space in Review Studios that maintains an exhibition schedule. I visited a number of the Review residents while in Kansas City and the impact of 3,000 square feet of studio space on a practice is immediately evident. Artists in Kansas City are comfortable pushing boundaries and taking risks that artists bound by studio size might not otherwise be able to take.

Finally, calling themselves a “laboratory rather than a residency,” Grand Arts is a commission based exhibition program that is a too frequently overlooked by the nation’s press. A not-for-profit founded in 1995 by Margaret Hall and funded by the Margaret Hall Silva Foundation, Grand Arts is about generosity, support, and experimentation. Boasting a fully staffed fabrication studio and apartment on-site, artists are given everything they need, whether financial, technical, or logistical, to complete a major project for exhibition at Grand. Working for up to three years with individual artists on completing these works, Grand Arts creates an intimate, focused experience, dedicated to bringing ambitious artistic vision to life.

Who wants to step up and provide visionary leadership

On the heels of the Artists Run Chicago show at the Hyde Park Art Center, its timely to consider why artists run Chicago, and how we can better engage the business and patron community. I am all for DIY energy, and constantly encouraged by the activity artists generate for themselves in our region, but patrons might consider the same. It can be scary to take risks with your money or support activity with a shorter track record – but looking at Kansas City’s projects should prove the innovation that can happen on the part of patrons. A donation to a major institution might fund a portion of a program, but the same sized donation might provide seed money for a much needed foundation like Charlotte Street in Chicago. We are all grumbling about the loss of the Driehaus Awards, so who wants to step up and provide visionary leadership in their stead? Complaining about the constant attrition in the visual art community does nothing to bolster it or bring attention to the work that does get done here. How can we support our mid-career artists and cultivate their practices, encouraging projects that go beyond the commercial realm? Would 3,000 square feet of studio space change the scope of work in the city, would it enable artists to create work that would impact their career positively, differently, than producing for the flat file? To see the latter happen would require a marriage between developers and/or landlords with the arts community and someone willing to build that bridge. Is there someone willing to take up the charge?

Chicago, with a population over 3 million and a number of visual arts programs, more than deserves support on par with what I’ve described here. I am well aware of the number of programs we have and the capacity with which they operate, but the requirements of our artists, by sheer numbers alone, appears to exceed the advocates, or at least, reliable, collaborative patronage. Patronage and support that will help give this city the same sense of solid centeredness I felt on the streets of Kansas City.

by Shannon Stratton