On The Local Show, we like you to take places you never been before or haven’t been to in a while. Next up, we invite you to join us in the changing gallery at the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City’s historic 18th & Vine neighborhood.
Producer Sandy Woodson introduces us to local artist Ryan Haralson, whose work is featured in, “Bəyǿn♂ W☻®đs→”: {A Fusion of Poetry (+) Visual Art (+) Jazz}.
The exhibit Beyond Words runs through April 26th at the changing gallery at the American Jazz Museum at 18th and Vine.
Last year the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce released with great fanfare their 5 big ideas for moving the metro forward. They didn’t want to just talk about 5 ideas. They wanted to make 5 things happen that would make a difference in the metro.
After months of task forces and meetings and shrinking down its list from close to 200 big ideas, they decided to roll up their sleeves and propose relocating the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance to Downtown, develop a strategic plan to improve urban neighborhoods, make Kansas City a nationally recognized center for medical research, hold a world symposium on animal health, and transform Kansas City into “America’s Most Entrepreneurial City.”
Lots of groups come up with bold plans and ideas to improve the city, but do those noble visions just end up gathering dust on a shelf? On KCPT, we’re going to to track the Big 5 to see how these ideas progress.
In one area, momentum is already building. Over the holiday, UMKC was announcing plans to expand its concept of a new downtown arts campus. While initial reports were that UMKC was considering moving just its Conservatory of Music and Dance to a new site, possibly to the now vacant Lyric Theater, the university is now hiring firms to conduct a feasibility study into moving other arts programs such as the Kansas City Repertory Theater, KCUR Radio and the UMKC Theater program. This could potentially bring as many as a thousand students and faculty to a new arts campus downtown.
Nick Haines welcomes Leo Morton, the Champion for the arts campus initiative, to The Local Show to discuss the progress on this big idea.
Just recently, they got a whole lot closer to achieving that goal as the University of Kansas Medical Center was awarded National Cancer Institute designation.
Nick Haines gets an update from the man leading the intitiative, Dr. Patrick James.
It doesn’t get the same attention as Kansas City’s quest to become a mecca for the life sciences or our push to be America’s most entrepreneriurial city, but Kansas City’s zeal to be the global center for animal health research is far further along than any of those efforts.
Many people don’t realize that our region already is home to four of the top 10 largest animal health companies in the world.
Next week is a big week for entrepreneurs and wannabee entrepreneurs in Kansas City. Monday kicks off what is being called One Week KC…nine days of meet-ups, conferences, idea exchanges, speakers, parties and workshops to educate, inspire, encourage and celebrate entrepreneurship.
How can we become America’s most entrepreneurial city? As part of the Chamber’s Big 5 initiative, eight public forums are underway to get your views. We checked in on one of them this week at the Kauffman Foundation.
There are four more sessions just like this one going on in the metro. They are all free, but registration each session is limited to 50 people. For more information and to register, go to kauffman.org/big5conversation. By the way, we will check in with Pete deSilva, the head of UMB Bank who is leading the Chamber’s entrepreneurial Big 5 initiative, to see what they learned once they have them all wrapped up.
The Chamber’s Big 5 initiatives were announced last fall – each designed to create jobs and to raise “Big KC” to the next level. The entrepreneurship initiative is championed by Peter deSilva, chairman and CEO of UMB Bank.
The schedule for next week’s meetings:
Sprint Campus – 6300 building, Overland Park (Park in Lot P)
Monday, Feb. 20 – 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Kauffman Foundation – Conference Center, 4801 Rockhill Road, KCMO
Tuesday, Feb. 21 – 11:15 a.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Cerner – Vision Center, 2850 Rock Creek Parkway, KCMO
Wednesday, Feb. 22 – 11:15 a.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Metropolitan Community College – Mel Aytes Education Center, 500 SW Longview Road, Lee’s Summit
They’ve narrowed it down to three. Three sites that is for UMKC to build a new downtown arts campus that would include room for its Conservatory of Music and Dance, but also space for its theater and other arts programs. This was one of the Big 5 Ideas advocated by the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce last fall.
Even though the UMKC Conservatory has been a part of Kansas City’s cultural life for over one hundred years, many of us still know little about this hidden jewel, working hard to raise its profile both here and across the country. In fact, our story starts on a March night in New York City.
What would a UMKC Downtown arts campus mean culturally and economically to this city?
You can join UMKC and top civic and arts leaders in a panel discussion at the downtown library on Wednesday, September 5 at 6:30 pm.
What began in the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Board room in July 2011 with 100 business, civic and elected leaders and 182 ideas for creating a greater Kansas City has become five initiatives which seek to to bring better health, improved education, more jobs, increased investment and a better quality of life to everyone in the region. The Local Show gathered key decision makers from each of the Big 5 initiatives to find out how much progress has been made.
Our Think Tank of Experts:
Jim Heeter, President & Chief Executive Officer, Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce
Russ Welsh, Current KC Chamber Chair; Chairman & CEO, Polsinelli Shughart
Greg Graves, Past (2011) KC Chamber Chair; Chairman of the Board & CEO, Burns & McDonnell
Translational research is the hot new area in the life sciences. It means moving discoveries from the laboratory bench to the patient’s bedside.
Patrick James, managing director of Quest Diagnostics, is leading the Chamber’s Big 5 life sciences effort. He was the emcee at a major gala dinner last week to celebrate the work of the Kansas City Life Sciences Insitute. Over 600 guests gathered to hear from area scientists.
Sometimes though it takes an outsider to put your accomplishments into perspective. The gala’s keynote speaker was the deputy director of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center in Boston, Dr. David Livingston. Nick Haines sat down with Dr. Livingston to untangle the complicated subject of translational research.
For a long time in this city, people have lamented why so little progress, so little improvement and economic development has happened east of Troost Avenue–the symbolic, geographic and racial divide in this city.
Now, the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce has agreed to throw its entire weight and influence towards making big changes. As part of what it calls its Big 5 intitiative, the Chamber has picked the Troost corridor for unprecedented focus and civic attention.
The Urban Neighborhood Initiative is one of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce’s “Big 5” ideas announced in September 2011, aimed at creating economic opportunity and establishing a more vibrant Kansas City region.
The Urban Neighborhood Initiative seeks to collaborate with an interested East Side low-income neighborhood or area to identify and begin to address issues to improve the opportunities of its residents.
This initial effort will involve two phases of work – planning and implementation. Each phase will engage community-wide stakeholders and residents in a process to collaboratively identify issues and resources that can effect change.
Nick Haines sits down with Dianne Cleaver and Jim Heeter to discuss their plan of attack for the Troost corridor revitalization initiative.
Here’s a look at the focus area for the Urban Neighborhood Initiative:
