Arts Alive!
What a fun night - and it wasn't even a weekend! A great Arts Alive event with my friend Deidre! Arts Alive is a non-profit organization that promotes the visual and performing arts in greater Kansas City through social events hosted by a different organization each month.
In other words - it's a bunch of people who want to learn more and enjoy the arts while eating and drinking! I like all three! And it's very simple to be a part of it. You just ask to be on the email invitation list and when the events are announced you buy a ticket to attend as quickly as possible. And I mean quick! There are usually only about 120 or so tickets available for each event - and the email list is over 2000 interested art lovers! Each event has 2 parts - typically an art event with appetizers and drinks, and then some type of a performance.
Part One for this event started at Kemper at the Crossroads. The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art has three locations - the main building on Warwick close to the Plaza, Kemper East which is across the street, and the Crossroads. The exhibit we got to see showcased 3 artists that won the 2016 Charlotte Street Foundation Visual Artist Awards.
And as always the museum is free!
The three artists were at the event and each got to speak about their works. With contemporary art that is always such a bonus for me as it helps me to understand what I'm seeing and experiencing. This is a tough competition with over a 100 artists entering and only 3 selected to receive the grants.
Madeline Gallucci and her beautiful patterned fabric and canvas works. Loved that she even painted designs on the walls of the gallery!
Shawn Bitters and his volcano conversations. Inspired by the active volcanos in Iceland. Very cool!
Rodolfo Marion III and his domestic shrines modeled from his past and present. Really interesting.
We had time to mingle and view the art while enjoying delicious appetizers from one of my favorite restaurants in the River Market - The Farmhouse. All farm to table and their weekend brunch is fantastic!
Next we headed over to Quixotic for a behind the scenes tour and special performance. I could barely contain my excitement as I have wanted to see this group for a long time. Quixotic is an innovative performance art collective that fuses imagination with technology, dance, projection mapping and live music to create fully-immersive, multi-sensory experiences.
I took that straight off their website as I was at a loss for words to describe it except to say AWESOME!!
The group is based in KC but has gotten so popular they are now performing around the world!
First stop - the costume room.
It has to look good on stage and be safe for the performers.
The show involves quite a bit of dance so they have a dance studio for classes and choreography- and then also a stunt room.
The stunt room. Really interesting with apparatus and pulleys.
Then we got to see a special performance put together just for our group. Featured dance with special visual effects, live music by an excellent violinist and contortionists/acrobats.
The performers introduces themselves post performance and told a bit about their background and how long they had been with the group.
Deidre and I with Megan Stockman - one of the lead performers and choreographers. She was incredible!
It was a fabulous evening from start to finish! So many great things to do here in Kansas City - I just need more time!! Happy Fall - I think it has arrived!