We are excited to announce that PBS has chosen Kansas City’s own Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Conductor Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony, and Joyce DiDonato for their Summer Arts Series. This nationally distributed arts series will profile our award-winning symphony and DiDonato’s return to her hometown for a thrilling Kauffman Center debut. Our team has been working behind the scenes with PBS, national producers and the Kansas City Symphony since the summer to help make this happen. KCPT hosted a special dinner and tour of the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts with PBS CEO Paula Kerger in October. I think that seeing the stunning, state of the art Kauffman Center in person helped in PBS’s decision to bring the Summer Arts series to Kansas City.
I think viewers will be amazed at what Kansas City has to offer. The fact that, in this economy, our city has such a thriving arts scene is a real testament to the community and the creative and entrepreneurial spirit here. This project brings a well-deserved national spotlight to Kansas City, the Symphony, and the new Kauffman Center. It is a privilege to help tell our community’s arts stories and keep Kansas City “top of mind” as an arts destination and as a city on the move.
KCPT has another national program on the horizon – a horizon with a not so typical tree, “Ferment.” Executive Producer, Randy Mason is working on a national documentary following the story of Roxy Paine and his craft. As noted by Randy, “It’s been almost a year since “Ferment” arrived to take root on the Nelson’s front lawn. Thanks to the Hall Family Foundation and The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, our documentary about the sculptor, Roxy Paine, and the process of installing his 56 foot “dendroid” is almost complete.” You may remember watching a segment about the artist on The Local Show in June. If you missed it, you can watch it online at http://cove.kcpt.org (episode 6/16/11).
You may have noticed a little special attention being given to local arts organizations. KCPT has teamed up with Townsend Communications to feature six arts organizations on both The Local Show and KC Studio magazine. Featured organizations are: The Coterie Theatre, Kansas City Chorale, Quality Hill Playhouse, Kansas City Actors Theatre, Paul Messner’s Puppet Company, and The Charlotte Street Foundation. The Coterie Theatre, the first of our features, has reported great success with the coverage given to them. They were happy to report that, due to this special attention, they were able to break all box office records with their performance of Seussical. This mixed-media campaign was made possible with the support of the Richard J. Stern Foundation, Commerce Bank, Trustee and the John W. and Effie E. Speas Memorial Trust, Bank of America, Trustee.
In addition, we are working with major stations across the country to help build a regular national arts program that will curate content from stations across the USA, including our arts content. KCPT is committed to ongoing local arts coverage. We are grateful for the tremendous financial support to continue telling the stories of the people and organizations who make Kansas City a great arts and culture community. As you can see, we’re not just sharing these stories to fellow Kansas Citians, we’re sharing them with the world!
Warm regards,
Kliff Kuehl
