Sometimes on The Local Show, we are able to share stories about something fun that you might not hear about otherwise. This week, Randy Mason and Don the Camera Guy Mayberger went downtown to tell just such a tale as we introduce you to Sketch Artist Trey Bryan.
Jazz can be found at the Hotel Phillips on Thursday through Saturday nights. You never know whether the “illustrator in residence” will be there for sure, but some of Trey Bryan’s paintings are on display.
We begin this week with a question: Which is the largest institution of higher education in our bi-state area? Is it KU or MU? You might be surprised to learn that it’s actually neither.
With more than 50,000 students enrolled in credit and continuing education classes each semester, Johnson County Community College is now the largest institution of higher education in either Kansas or Missouri.
And after 5 years at the helm, JCCC’s President Terry Calaway has announced he is retiring. Along with increased enrollment, Calaway is credited with bringing a lot of novel programs to JCCC which is consistently ranked as one of the best community colleges in the country.
People no doubt have heard about the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art which was added during his watch, but the college is also getting national attention for its culinary program which will open its own culinary academy and innovative demonstration kitchen next year. Dr Calaway sat down for a conversation with Nick Haines.
In May, Mark Zieman resigned as publisher of the Kansas City Star as he was plucked to fill a slot in the bigger management structure of the McClatchy newspaper empire.
The question….who would replace him as head of our metro’s largest news operation? Which white grey suited male would they turn to to fill the job of publisher?
Au contraire. The job would go to someone totally different…young, vibrant, hip and for the first time in the Star’s history…a woman.
Mia Parrish officially took over as publisher of the Kansas City Star in late June. Prior coming to Kansas City, she had been publisher of the company’s Idaho Statesman newspaper in Boise.
She previously held reporting and editing posts in newsrooms from Virginia to California including stops at the San Francisco Chronicle, Arizona Republic and the Chicago Sun-Times. Nick Haines got a chance to sit down with her this week on The Local Show.
Union Station has been bringing in a lot of traveling exhibits over the last couple of years. You experienced the doomed ocean liner Titanic this summer, earlier it was the blockbuster Diana exhibit. Then of course we’ve had the Dead Sea Scrolls and who can forget Bodies Revealed? What all of these exhibits have in common though is that they all came from somewhere else, first.
Well Union Station’s latest offering has never been seen anywhere else before. Starting this week, Kansas City’s historic attraction brings you the world premiere of the “Science of Rock ‘n’ Roll” – a fresh look at the history of rock from the perspective of science and technology.
Now through May, you’ll be able to see how music has shaped the tools of rock–and how those tools have changed the music. And before you ask if you will just be reading and looking, rest assured that there’s a whole bunch of playing, strumming, and getting in touch with your inner rockstar.
Besides introducing popular products and amusements like the zipper, the Ferris wheel and the ice cream cone, the World’s Fair offered an opportunity for nations to polish their images before the world.
The fairs were the place for countries to show off their creativity and innovation, art and industry. So successful was the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, as it was properly named, that cities vied to host them throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The influence of these World’s Fairs in shaping consumer taste is the theme of a substantial new exhibition opening this Saturday at the Nelson-Atkins Musuem that’s getting some international attention.
Inventing the Modern World: Decorative Arts at the World’s Fairs runs through August 19th at the Nelson-Atkins Museum. By the way, like our Local Show Facebook page and look for a chance to win a pair of passes to the exhibit.
Traditionally, Memorial Day weekend marks the official beginning of summer activities. And in Kansas City, one of the best ways to observe it will be coming up this Sunday night. That’s the annual Bank of America’s Celebration At the Station, featuring the Kansas City Symphony. It’s a free event at Union Station, complete with fireworks to cap off the evening… but if you can’t get down there, you can watch it live right here on KCPT.
Every year, the orchestra plays a mix of patriotic favorites and music that Music Director Michael Stern thinks will be fitting for the occasion. They’ve had some great guest artists in recent times, like Mark O’Connor and Bobby Watson. This year, Kansas City’s own Oleta Adams will be featured with the band. The great Kansas City singer stopped by to give us an update on her musical journeys, and a preview of what’s in store on Sunday’s show.
You are always hearing about new art spaces opening in Kansas City, Missouri, but what about Kansas City, Kansas? If it has been awhile since you went to downtown KCK, we want to introduce you to the Epic Arts Studio, a ceramic studio where they’re firing up the kiln and a sense of community and making art accessible to a whole new audience.
Epic Arts is on 6th street in Downtown KCK and it provides classes for all ages and abilities.
February has been designated Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month. The Leopold Gallery in Brookside will feature the work of young local artists, many of whom have experienced the wounds of sexual and physical violence. It is all part of a benefit night for the women’s shelter, Newhouse.
Young people will also read original poetry at the Leopold Gallery event, including Newhouse community coordinator Chandra Clark.
Poetry and art for teen dating awareness month at the Leopold Gallery in Brookside this Saturday, February 25 starting at 7 p.m. There is a suggested donation of $10.
While she wasn’t at the Hyatt Regency when the skywalk collapsed in 1981, Rita Blitt’s fifth grade art teacher, Ruth Ann Angstead, was among the many people injured that night. Now, Blitt has the opportunity to pay tribute to her art teacher who inspired her to create as well as to the victims, rescuers and survivors of the tragedy. Randy Mason caught up with this Kansas City favorite just down the street at the Carter Art Center.
Blitt has installed over 45 monumental sculptures up to 60 feet in height, had 70 solo exhibitions and participated in many group shows. Her works have been shown and installed in Australia, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and the United States. It isn’t often that one artist is featured in three shows at the same time, but that’s what happened this fall when Rita Blitt had shows underway at both Longview Community College and Penn Valley Community College, as well as in the gallery at Central Missouri University in Warrensburg. Rita Blitt’s Penn Valley show runs thru Nov. 7. The show at Longview runs through Nov. 12th.
The memorial will be part of a larger park developed by Children’s Mercy Hospital partnering with the KCMO Board of Parks and Recreation. Visitors to the memorial will find a 36-foot plaza area illuminated by pinpoints of light. The pinpoints of light will symbolize the victims, rescuers and the ripple effect the tragedy has had on the community. The memorial will include a seating area surrounded by lush plants. The Skywalk Memorial will be installed in Hospital Hill Park at 22nd and Gillham Road.
Blitt will create with advisors L. William Zahner, Hon. AIA, A. Zahner Company and Lorie Doolittle-Bowman, AIA, Bowman Bowman Novick Inc.
In 2009, KCMO Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners approved plans for a memorial, and SMF announced the location in Hospital Hill Park, 22nd and Gillham in Kansas City, Missouri. The Hyatt skywalk collapse remains the deadliest structural collapse in U.S. history other than the World Trade Center. 114 people were killed, 216 were injured and countless lives were changed forever by the unprecedented disaster.
It’s a national historic landmark. Some say it is truly sacred ground in the annals of jazz history. It’s the Mutual Musicians Foundation in the 18th and Vine Jazz District where musical giants like Count Basie and Charlie Parker played long into the night. Grammy award winning singer and musical history enthusiast Michael Feinstein just brought his national PBS series to Kansas City to experience our town’s musical treasures and he stopped by the foundation to experience a jam session for himself.
It wasn’t just the Mutual Musician Foundation capturing Feinstein’s interest here in town. While he was here, Feinstein also headed to another Kansas City sound treasure on the campus of UMKC…the Marr Sound Archives.
You can see the next chapter in Feinstein’s series Friday night at 9 here on KCPT. Since you just got a peek inside the Marr Sound Archive, Sound Recording Specialist Chuck Haddix sat down with Randy Mason to give a bit more insight into the music history treasure trove at UMKC.
