He has led Kansas City’s foremost opera company for the past 25 years…now he is exiting the stage.
Evan Luskin has announced that he is retiring as general director of the Lyric Opera…just as the company prepares to move to its new performance space at the Kauffman Center For The Performing Arts. Luskin, the Company’s general director since 1998, will be retiring on June 30, 2012. Mr. Luskin’s retirement will come at the conclusion of the Lyric’s first year of residence in the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, which will open this fall.
A lifelong fan of opera, Mr. Luskin received an MBA with a specialization in Arts Management in 1977 from the State University of New York at Binghamton. He then served as Assistant Director of the Tulsa Opera from 1977 to 1979, Managing Director of the Chattanooga Opera from 1979 to 1982, and Vice President for Finance and Administration of Michigan Opera Theatre from 1982 until coming to Kansas City in 1986. Mr. Luskin joined the Lyric on June 1, 1986 as its managing director, and became general director in 1998. He is looking forward to spending more time with his wife Andrea and his grand children in Topeka and Washington, D.C. He also plans to become involved in volunteer activities with children, take up the piano after a hiatus of many years, and travel.
The Lyric Opera of Kansas City was founded in 1958 by Russell Patterson. In 54 years the Company has produced numerous works including 3 world premiere operas. In the fall of 1998, the Company began performing operas in the original language, a tradition which continues today with all operas being performed in the original language with English subtitles.
On November 4, 2010 the Lyric Opera of Kansas City announced a capital campaign for the renovation of property on 18th and Charlotte in the Kansas City Crossroads Arts District for its new Opera Center.
The Opera Center complex will consist of two buildings: a Production Arts building and an Administrative building with set rental inventory storage. The Production Arts building will include a rehearsal space that will match the footprint of the stage of the Muriel Kauffman Theatre at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The Production Arts building also will house a full wig, costume and set construction shop and facilities for educational and community outreach programs. Such an integrated and dedicated production facility does not exist in Kansas City; the Company envisions the Production Arts building becoming a resource for other local performing arts companies.
The second building on the property will be adjacent to the Production Arts building. It would provide the Company with set rental inventory storage, parking lots and outside green spaces for the Opera Center, and house the administrative staff.
In the summer of 2011, the production and administrative offices of the Lyric Opera will be moving from its home of 40 years at the Lyric Theatre to a temporary home in downtown Kansas City at 1616 Broadway. The production and administrative offices will move to the headquarters on 18th Street when construction is completed in 2012.
Opera lovers can be fans of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City on Facebook or follow us @kcopera on Twitter.
Nick Haines talks to Kansas City Zoo Director Randy Wisthoff about what’s in store for visitors this year and what people can look forward to seeing at the zoo in the near future.
The mission of the Kansas City Zoo is to conserve and provide access to wildlife to entertain and educate our visitors in order to instill a respect for nature. We will accomplish this by:
• Offering outstanding, year-round, affordable, high-quality guest experiences;
• Demonstrating the diversity of wildlife;
• Enhancing the care and survival of wildlife through research, education and conservation;
• Operating a financially sound zoological park;
• Offering our employees a fun, rewarding work environment;
• Contributing to the cultural life of the Kansas City community and region; and
• Achieving full community support.
Vision: To be the most family friendly Zoo in the country, anchoring Kansas City as the “edu-tainment” capital of the Midwest.
The Kansas City Zoo is …
• a private non-profit
• an accredited member of the AZA (American Zoo & Aquarium Association)
• operated in agreement with the Kansas City, Missouri, Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners.
Cynthia Wheeler-Linden sits down with Art Fillmore to discuss his role in local veteran’s causes.
Art became interested in law in the eighth grade after reading Clarence Darrow for the Defense: A Biography. His book-inspired law career spans more than 31 years and includes being named by The Daily Record as one of the 10 Legal Leaders in the Kansas City metropolitan area for 2007. The award recognizes attorneys who have made significant contributions to their professions and their communities.
Professionally, Art is credited with developing a legal practice dedicated to developing renewable fuels. Clients will tell you he is adept at finding points of resolution rather than conflict in any legal situation. That edge helps him facilitate and close complex business transactions that are at times adversarial. His accomplishments include guiding clients in creating ethanol plants in Iowa and Illinois and biodiesel plants in Kansas City, Kan., Belize and southern California. Art’s legal counsel also helped found a company which builds ethanol 85 and Liquid Propane Gas dispensing stations in countries ranging from Mexico to India.
Personally, Art is dedicated to veterans’ causes and is a decorated veteran himself. He served in the U.S. Army as a forward observer in the 25th Infantry Division and later as a U.S. Army nuclear weapons advisor to the Belgian Air Force.
For more information about the Heart of America Stand Down, click here.
Randy Mason welcomes UMKC Conservatory’s Zhou Long to The Local Show to discuss his Pulitzer Prize winning opera, Madame White Snake.
Zhou Long (b. July 8, 1953, Beijing) is internationally recognized for creating a unique body of music that brings together the aesthetic and musical elements of East and West. Deeply grounded in the entire spectrum of his Chinese heritage, he is a pioneer in transferring the idiomatic sounds and techniques of ancient Chinese musical traditions to modern Western instruments and ensembles. His creative vision has resulted in a music that stretches Western instruments eastward and Chinese instruments westward, achieving an exciting and fertile common ground. Zhou Long was born into an artistic family and began piano lessons at an early age. During the Cultural Revolution, he was sent to a rural state farm, where natural scenes of roaring winds and fierce wild fires made a profound and lasting impression.
He resumed his musical training in 1973, studying composition, music theory, and conducting, as well as Chinese traditional music. In 1977, he enrolled in the first composition class at the reopened Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Following graduation in 1983, he was appointed composer-in-residence with the National Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra of China. He came to the United States in 1985 under a fellowship to attend Columbia University and received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 1993, having studied with Chou Wen-Chung, Mario Davidovsky, and George Edwards. After more than a decade as music director of Music from China in New York City, he received ASCAP’s prestigious Adventurous Programming Award in 1999.
Zhou Long is currently Visiting Professor of Composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. He is the recipient of the 2003 Academy Award in Music, a lifetime achievement award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In May 2002, he was Music Alive! Composer-in-Residence of the Seattle Symphony’s “Silk Road Project” Festival with Yo-Yo Ma, supported by the American Symphony Orchestra League and Meet the Composer. He has received fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, in addition to recording grants from the Mary Flagler Cary Trust and the Aaron Copland Fund for Music. His awards include Masterprize (BBC, EMI, London Symphony) and the CalArts/Alpert Award in the Arts, as well as winning the Barlow International Competition, with a performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Madame White Snake, a classical transformation myth, is the story of a powerful white snake demon who transforms into a beautiful woman so as to experience love. She meets her true love, Xu Xian, at the Broken Bridge on the West Lake in Hangzhou and marries him. So widely celebrated is their love that a curious Abbot investigates. He sees right through her human form to the snake. When the Abbot learns that Madame White Snake is pregnant, he is horrified by what he considers a violation of all of the traditional taboos of race and religion, the divine and the profane. He decides to intervene and he confronts her husband. Not surprisingly, disaster strikes. Madame White Snake is betrayed by her husband and in the moment of betrayal, she is tragically transformed back into a snake.
In its long journey through the centuries, this simple myth has become an icon in the hearts and minds of the Chinese people. The deadly white snake demon gives up her immortal existence to assume human form in the pursuit of the most human of all emotions – love. She holds love dearly for one moment; and then love is lost forever. A powerful metaphor for each individual’s struggle to dream, the myth has spoken deeply to all who have dared to dream. The question of what it means to be truly human is always timely and each generation answers this question in its own voice.
The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce President and CEO, Jim Heeter, and the Kansas City Area Development Council President and CEO, Bob Marcusse, sit down with Nick Haines to discuss the efforts being made to market Kansas City to other parts of the country to attract business, tourism and conventions to the metro.
Jim Heeter brings a diverse set of skills and experience to his new position as President & CEO of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.
He has more than 30 years of corporate legal experience, representing a diverse range of companies and business entities. He served as Managing Partner of the law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal from 1995 until February, 2010.
In addition, he was “Councilman” Jim Heeter from 1983 – 1987, representing Kansas City, Missouri’s Fourth District At-Large.
The Chamber – A Part of Greater Kansas City’s History
It was the first meeting of the “Commercial Club,” a small group of businessmen determined, as businessman Frank Faxon put it that night, “to make Kansas City a good place to live in.” The minutes from that first meeting – written in spidery 1800s penmanship – are shown at right.
It was the middle of July in Kansas City, so we can figure it was probably hot and humid. The year was 1887, ten days following annual Independence Day celebrations.
The men met at the Brunswick Hotel, making their way along warped wooden sidewalks, dodging mudholes, and carrying lanterns to light their way back home. They knew what good could come of collaboration – they’d seen it in action twenty years before as civic and business leaders worked to build the first railroad bridge across the Missouri River. (Losing towns along the river might have said those leaders conspired.)
In its first century, the Commercial Club supported the City Beautiful Movement, resulting in the parks, boulevards, and fountains so carefully placed throughout the city and its suburbs today. In 1900, when the city’s brand new convention hall burned down 90 days before the Democratic Party was to hold its national convention there, the business and civic community collaborated with others to get a new hall built. The convention opened on time.
With 30 years of development experience, Bob Marcusse has an extensive background working with international companies, specifically from Asia and Europe. He has spearheaded major growth initiatives for the KC region in the life sciences — creating the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute — as well as transportation and logistics — founding KC SmartPort. Bob leads a team of 17 development professionals who represent 50 major cities in 18 counties that comprise the KC metro (MO/KS) of 2 million residents. Bob has led the attraction of companies such as Transamerica Life (HQ), EDS, Harley-Davidson, Honeywell, Kansas Speedway, and Quintiles to KC.
The Kansas City Area Development Council is a private, non-profit organization. We are charged with representing the economic interests of the entire two-state, 18-county region of Greater Kansas City. Our mission is to:
Brand the region as one product to stimulate economic growth.
Enhance awareness of our metro’s assets to create positive perceptions.
Promote the region as the business location of choice.
Position the region competitively against other major metros for the retention, expansion and attraction of jobs and investment.
Equally support all regional communities.
Assist companies from outside the region to find the best KC location for their needs.
Facilitate final negotiations between the company and its selected community.
Rainy Day Books is a full-line full-service bookstore, carrying an array of hand-selected Hardcovers and Paperbacks for adults and children alike. They also carry a selection of boxed and individual greeting cards. Among the personal services: they special order Books daily, provide complimentary high quality gift wrapping, and they hand-select appropriate gifts for pick up or shipment.
The Rainy Day Books Author Events schedule is one of the best in America. Each year they welcome hundreds of authors to Kansas City, from debut novelists destined for greatness, to prize-winners, bestselling legends, and the biggest names in the news. Most of these Events are held off-site, at venues that comfortably seat the large crowds they draw.
Rainy Day Books is a member of IndieBound, the national community of independent booksellers. Join Indiebound’s social network, download the IndieBound app for your IPhone, and be a part of the conversation about books.
Vivien Jennings is the Founder & President of Rainy Day Books, Inc., Kansas City’s community bookseller, and the oldest independent bookstore in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Since 1975 Vivien has led Rainy Day Books in promoting a Legacy of Literacy throughout Kansas City. In the early 1990s, Rainy Day Books began placing a greater emphasis on author events as a form of community outreach. Through community partnerships and innovative Event planning, the store quickly became known nationally for the new strategy. Authors and publishers alike began to solicit appearances in Kansas City.
Rainy Day Books has developed an intricate marketing network of corporate partners, community leaders, and non-profit organizations in Kansas City. By matching special interest groups with touring authors, the company maximizes the benefits to all parties. Partners receive publicity and exposure to new markets, and many save money by delivering top-quality presentations to their membership without having to incur a speaking fee.
The community as a whole benefits by having a regular slate of authors who otherwise might not make an appearance in the Kansas City area. Today, serving third-generation customers and anchoring the same shopping center where it started in 450 square feet, the business is internationally famous for its knowledgeable staff, exceptional customer service, and commitment to the Kansas City community. Rainy Day Books also helps provide support for dozens of metro area book clubs. Store employees assist book club members with suggested reading, tips and suggestions for developing engaging discussions, and occasionally lead discussions for both newly formed and long-term groups.
Vivien Jennings serves on the Advisory Council for Reach Out and Read Kansas City, a bi-state coalition of 38 sites, having helped found the project and having provided support at cost for the initial launch period of almost two years. Rainy Day Books is also a partner in the Hooked on Books Project collaboration between the Kansas City Star and the Junior League of Kansas City. Though the League and the Star collect books during their annual drive in the fall, Rainy Day Books collects books for the project all year long, and at their Events. Vivien serves on the Advisory Council for Saint Luke’s Breast Cancer Center, and personally helped them build a substantial library that is available to patients on a lending basis for information and support in their fight against breast cancer. Vivien serves on the Program Committee for Rotary Club 13, and provides a variety of speakers to them for discussion and enlightenment on timely subjects that may impact the community.
Rainy Day Books is considered one of the leading independent booksellers in the country, profiled in the national Publishers Weekly for having “set the gold standard” for the industry for Author Events, which Rainy Day Books averages 300 per year. The business has been nominated for national Bookseller Of The Year by the American Booksellers Association, on whose Advisory Council Vivien has served. Rainy Day Books has also been recognized by Fortune Small Business as a Winning Workplace.
Rainy Day Books has served as a case study for the Entrepreneurial Program at the Block School of Business at University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), which included students from UMKC, University of Kansas (KU), and Rockhurst University. The case study was subsequently published in a textbook which is used nationwide in business curricula at many leading colleges and universities. The study focuses on how independent businesses have adapted and compete with national and online competitors. Vivien was a speaker in 2008 for the Entrepreneurs Speakers Program (ESP) at the UMKC Institute held at the Polsinelli Law Firm.
Vivien Jennings is a regular source for stories on books and publishing for both trade publications, and mainstream media, notably including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. Vivien has also been a consultant and packager for the major publishers, and consults on retail trends and strategies for major corporations.
Vivien was honored by the Kansas City Business Journal as one of the “Top 25 Women Who Mean Business” in 2001,” and was named “Business Executive of the Year” in 2002 by Rotary Club No. 13 of Kansas City, Missouri, the first woman to be so honored. Rainy Day Books was voted 2009 Best Independent Bookstore by the readers of KC Magazine. Rainy Day Books was also recognized as one of the Top 25 Under 25 winners for 2009 by KC Small Business Magazine.
Vivien and her partner Roger Doeren participated by special invitation from Steve Forbes of the Forbes Magazine, 2009 Global CEO Forum in Scotland to cover the topic The Global Innovation Machine: Fueling New Growth in Tough Times.
Since Vivien opened the doors on November 4, 1975, Rainy Day Books has provided the Greater Kansas City community with a gathering place, a wellspring for ideas and creative thought, and an ongoing voice for literacy and awareness. Vivien and her partner Roger Doeren support many local charitable and civic organizations in raising both funds and awareness through many of the community Author Events. Their philosophy is: “Bigger isn’t better. Better is better.” They are interested not so much in what they have done, but more in what they still want to do. Vivien finds it thrilling to watch people leave their Events with the knowledge that authors and their books can expand the attendees’ awareness, improve health, make them laugh, touch hearts, and encourage people to achieve a better life in a better world. This is truly the spirit of the ‘Legacy of Literacy’ that Rainy Day Books hopes to contribute to the community.
George Guastello was named President and Chief Executive Officer of Union Station Kansas City in December 2008 to lead the effort to build a strategic business and financial plan for the future of the Station. He manages an annual budget of $9 million and is responsible for operation, management and development/growth of the Station and surrounding property it owns. Union Station, a historical landmark and civic asset, was renovated and reopened to the public in 1999. A bi-state cultural sales tax, the first of its kind in the country, funded nearly half of the $250 million renovation. The Station features a science center, planetarium, rail museum, national traveling exhibits, one of the largest 3D giant screen movie theaters, live theater, shops, restaurants and offices. The organization also manages the Kansas City Museum.
Prior to joining USKC, Guastello’s previous positions included President and CEO for the American Royal Association, Vice President Marketing and Business Strategy for the Starlight Theatre Association and Senior Vice President of Marketing & Strategic Development for the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.
Guastello has amassed noteworthy accomplishments in many endeavors from association management to economic and community development. As a consummate community volunteer, he has been recognized for his commitment to civic and cultural endeavors with numerous awards.
Guastello, a native Kansas Citian, earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration in Marketing and a Masters Degree in Business Administration in Finance, both from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.
There is no place in Kansas City – or any city – quite like Union Station. This fully restored landmark is Kansas City’s most prominent destination for cultural and entertainment activities.
Built in 1914, Union Station encompasses 850,000 square feet and originally featured 900 rooms. In its prime as a working train station, accommodated tens of thousands of passengers every year. At its peak during WWII, an estimated one million travelers passed through the Station. The North Waiting Room (now the Sprint Festival Plaza) could hold 10,000 people and the complex included restaurants, a cigar store, barber shop, railroad offices, the nation’s largest Railway Express Building (used for shipping freight and mail) as well as a powerhouse providing steam and power.
Closed in the 1980s, the Station sat empty and neglected, escaping demolition on several occasions. In 1996, a historic bi-state initiative was passed to fund the Station’s renovation, which was completed in 1999.
The Station is once again a popular destination for the surrounding community just stopping by for lunch or to mail a letter from the post office in the west end of the Grand Hall. The station also draws tourists from all over the world who marvel at the Grand Hall’s 95-foot ceiling, three 3,500-pound chandeliers and the six-foot wide clock hanging in the Station’s central arch.
Today’s Union Station is filled with fine restaurants and unique shops. And just like in 1914, you can catch the train at Union Station’s Amtrak stop.
Union Station also houses the permanent collections and archives for Union Station Kansas City, Inc./Kansas City Museum. To find out more about the collections, visit the Collections & Curatorial Services Department.
To this we’ve added a permanent rail exhibit called the KC Rail Experience, exhibit spaces for traveling exhibits produced by the Smithsonian and other national organizations, a planetarium, an interactive science center called Science City and a vibrant Theater District featuring giant-screen movies and live theater, and much more.
This week, Nick Haines sits down with David Hawley to discuss some of the exciting new developments at the Steamboat Arabia Museum.
The steamboat Arabia was a side wheeler steamboat which hit a snag in the Missouri River and sank near what today is Parkville, Missouri, on September 5, 1856. It was rediscovered in 1988 by a team of researchers. Today, the artifacts recovered from the site are housed in the Steamboat Arabia Museum.
In the 1860s, Elisha Sortor purchased the property where the boat lay. Over the years, legends were passed through the family that the boat was located somewhere under the land. In the surrounding town, stories were also told of the steamboat, but the exact location of the boat was lost over time.
In 1987, Bob Hawley and his sons, Greg and David, set out to find the boat. The Hawleys used old maps and a proton magnetometer to figure out the probable location, and finally discovered the Arabia half a mile from the river and under 45 feet of silt and topsoil.
The owners of the farm gave permission for excavation, with the condition that the work be completed before the spring planting. The Hawleys, along with family friends Jerry Mackey and David Luttrell, set out to excavate the boat during the winter months while the water table was at its lowest point. They performed a series of drilling tests to determine the exact location of the hull, then marked the perimeter with powdered chalk. Heavy equipment, including a 100-ton crane, was brought in by both river and road transport during the summer and fall. 20 irrigation pumps were installed around the site to lower the water level and to keep the site from flooding. The 65-foot-deep (20 m) wells removed 20,000 US gallons (76,000 l) per minute from the ground. On November 26, 1988, the boat was exposed. Four days later, artifacts from the boat began to appear, beginning with a Goodyear rubber overshoe. On December 5, a wooden crate filled with elegant china was unearthed. The mud was such an effective preserver that the yellow packing straw was still visible. Thousands of artifacts were recovered intact, including jars of preserved food that are still edible. The artifacts that were recovered are housed in the Steamboat Arabia Museum.
On February 11, 1989, work ceased at the site, and the pumps were turned off.
Bob Petersen’s background reflects a lifetime commitment to agriculture. Most recently, he has operated his own consulting business which provides management services to various agricultural trade associations, including the Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City. From 2000 to 2004, he served as president and CEO of the Kansas City Board of Trade. For 20 years prior to that he worked for the Washington, DC-based National Grain Trade Council, serving as its president for the last 18 years of that stint. He is a native of Nebraska where he grew-up on a family ranch.
The first American Royal started in 1899 as the National Hereford Show, the first nationwide show for the exposition and sale of purebred cattle. It was held in a tent in the West Bottoms from Oct. 23-28, 1899, and featured 541 registered Herefords. During the 3-day sale, 300 Herefords were sold, at an average price of $334. The estimated attendance was 55,000.” Printed in the KC Star, 10/13/1908: “A small young lady was among the spectators in the ‘big top’ yesterday. With intense interest she watched the great cattle led into the ring by their attendants. Each of the men who led the entries wore placards, sandwich-man fashion, showing the number of the animal entered, its age and weight. The little girl puzzled over the cards for some time. At last turning to her father she said, in a loud whisper, ‘Papa, those men must have got their cards all mixed up. That little man there must be more than two years old, and he can’t possibly weight 1,430 pounds.’” On November 7, 1921, the cornerstone was laid for the first American Royal building. The building was dedicated on November 19, 1922. The estimated cost of the building was $800,000. The floor area was 7.5 acres.
Here is a look at the history of this Kansas City institution:
The purple power of Kansas State University is growing. The school in Manhattan, Ks. is on a roll. They’ve just recorded the highest enrollment in the university’s history and they’re getting a lot of national attention after the Department of Homeland Security announces they will build the federal government’s new bio-terrorism and food safety laboratory on the K-State campus. Now the school is expanding its footprint in Kansas City. In April, K-State will open a new 38-acre campus in Olathe. Business Journal columnist and Local Show guest interviewer Fred Logan talks to K-State’s fresh faced new president, Kirk Schulz.
Kirk H. Schulz currently serves as the 13th President of Kansas State University. Immediately prior to his appointment as President, he served as Vice President for Research and Economic Development at Mississippi State University. He has also served on the faculty at Michigan Technological University and the University of North Dakota.
President Schulz is active in the Boy Scouts of America, and serves on the Executive Board of the Coronado Council. Kirk also serves various roles on the boards of Cereal Food Processors, the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation, the Kansas BioSciences Authority, and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology.
President Schulz is active in several professional societies including the American Institute for Chemical Engineers and the American Society for Engineering Education. In recognition of achievements in the field of Chemical Engineering, Dr. Schulz was selected as a Fellow in both the American Society of Engineering Education and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum has recently experienced some changes in leadership as well as potential competition as other cities look to open similar exhibits. Nick Haines sits down with Dr. Raymond Doswell, Board President and Vice President of Curatorial Services, to discuss what the future holds for this Kansas City institution.
Through the inspiration of Horace M. Peterson III (1945-1992), founder of the Black Archives of Mid-America, a group of local historians, business leaders, and former baseball players came together to create the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in the early 1990s. It functioned out of a small, one room office in the Lincoln Building, which is located in the Historic 18th & Vine Jazz District of Kansas City, MO. It quickly incorporated, built a board of directors and staffing, and created a licensing program to support operations.
In 1994, it expanded to a 2,000 square-foot space in the Lincoln Building, which include a number photographs and interactive displays. Designed by ESA Design of Abilene, KS, this exhibit became the flagship for redevelopment in the historic district. Several hundred visitors, including school groups and dignitaries, marveled at this once “untold American history.”Highlights of our stay in the Lincoln Building included the 75th Anniversary Reunion of the Negro Leagues and a visit from Vice-President Al Gore.
The 18th & Vine historic district was the center for black culture and life in Kansas City from the late 1800s-1960s. It was the hub of activity for homeowners, business, jazz music, and baseball enthusiast. Just outside of the district stands the Paseo YMCA building, which was built as a black YMCA in 1914. It served as temporary home for baseball players, railroad workers, and others making the transition to big city life in the Midwest. It was here that the Negro National League was founded in 1920. Although the district and the YMCA building were becoming blighted by the 1980s, they were recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.
During the late 1990s, plans were underway by city officials to create a new home to showcase Kansas City’s jazz heritage and to revitalize the Historic District. City officials and the mayor worked to raise over $20 million in bonds to build a new facility to host the new American Jazz Museum and a new, permanent and expanded, home for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. This new 50,000 square-foot building opened in September 1997 and the Baseball Museum opened in November.
Our permanent home uses 10,000 square feet of the new space. Also designed by ESA Design, the new exhibit features multi-media computer stations, several film exhibits, hundreds of photographs, Field of 12 bronze sculptures and a growing collection of baseball artifacts. The museum raised over $2 million dollars to complete design and construction of this space. It has also welcomed several thousand visitors and dignitaries since, including Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, General (Ret.) Colin Powell, Jesse Jackson, Maya Angelou, Judith Jamison, Mike Dukakis, Walter Cronkite, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Barry Bonds, Tony Larussa, Isaac Hayes, Ossie Davis, Sinbad, and many, many others.
In 1995, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum appointed Raymond Doswell as its first curator. He has played an increasingly integral role in the growth and development of the museum since his appointment. As the interim President, Doswell oversees all museum operations, programming, development, marketing, and curatorial responsibilities. The museum’s collections include a few hundred photographs and artifacts. Doswell also directs all education initiatives and partnerships with universities and school districts.
Doswell was born in St. Louis, MO and spent his adolescent years in East Saint Louis, IL. He earned a Bachelors of Arts degree in History from Monmouth College in Illinois, where he was also trained to become a teacher.
He received his Masters of Arts Degree from the University of California at Riverside in Historic Resources Management in 1995. The program featured graduate course work in 19th & 20th Century American History with specialized training in museum curatorship, archival management, and historic preservation. Before completing graduate studies in California, he served as an intern for the Anacostia Museum, a division of the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C.
Doswell earned a doctorate from the College of Education at Kansas State University, where he researched the links between museums and education.
Doswell received a gubernatorial appointment to the Missouri Historical Records Advisory Board in 2003 and has served as a grant review panelist for the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2006, Doswell served on the special selection committee for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, where 17 new Negro Leagues veterans were selected for induction. Doswell also serves as a board member for the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, and an Education Committee member for the National World War I Museum. In addition, he serves on the editorial board for Black Ball: A Journal of the Negro Leagues and is a member of Rotary International.
Dr. Doswell travels extensively as a public speaker/lecturer and has appeared on several national media outlets on behalf of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, including ESPN, NPR, Showtime, and the BBC. His publications also include contributions to the Kansas City Star newspaper and Memories & Dreams Magazine for the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
You can follow the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum on Facebook. Just click on the logo below…
Henry and Thomas Bloch join Randy Mason for a discussion about the new book Many Happy Returns and the documentary No Shortcuts which chronicle the story of America’s Tax Man.
Henry W. Bloch is the co-founder and honorary chairman of the board of H&R Block, which he and his brother, Richard, founded in 1955. Based in Kansas City, Mo., H&R Block is the only major company with subsidiaries offering a full range of software, online and in-office tax solutions. As the world’s largest tax services company, H&R Block in 2009 served over 24 million clients at more than 13,000 retail offices and through its digital tax solutions.
Thomas M. Bloch is an author, speaker, educator, entrepreneur, former CEO of H&R Block, and son of Henry Bloch.
Tom worked closely with his father at H&R Block for nearly two decades. Henry was Chairman of the Board when Tom was President and Chief Executive Officer. Their offices were next to each other. With the exception of Marion, his wife of 59 years, no one knows Henry Bloch better than Tom.
Tom Bloch’s career change in 1995 from CEO of H&R Block to inner-city teacher drew national media attention. Five years later, he cofounded the University Academy, an urban college preparatory charter school of 1,100 Kansas City students, where he taught middle school math and served as board president. Tom’s highly acclaimed book, Stand for the Best, chronicles his journey from the corporate boardroom to an inner-city classroom.
Tom Bloch is Vice Chairman of the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) Trustees, an he is President of the Endowment Board of the Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration.
Stay tuned to KCPT after The Local Show to watch No Shortcuts in its entirety on Screentime:
With the help of Hollywood hit maker Matt Damon, Gary White and water.org continue to provide something many take for granted: clean drinking water. Nick Haines speaks with the homegrown hero who provides solutions to countries in need all over the globe from right here in Kansas City.
Co-Founded by Gary White and Matt Damon, Water.org has transformed thousands of communities in Latin America, Africa and Asia. The organization’s vision: We envision the day when everyone in the world can take a safe drink of water. It is easy to take for granted ready access to a safe supply of drinking water. Yet nearly one billion people lack this most basic commodity. Creating accessible, safe water supplies in developing countries liberates people to live healthier, fuller, more productive lives.
The organization’s mission:
Water.org is challenging the traditional approach to assisting people in developing countries. Our goals are to draw attention to the world’s number one health problem, unsafe and inadequate water supplies, and to raise funds to help fight this immense problem – one community at a time.
Our mission is to inspire people to act:
Donors – to provide consistent financial resources with a sense of solidarity for those in need of safe water
Staff and volunteers – to seek innovative and efficient solutions to meeting the global water supply needs of today and tomorrow
People in need of safe water – to take the lead in meeting their own needs
Together, these people form the “waterpartnership” that will allow us to realize our vision.
Develop high quality, sustainable water projects. We use our expertise to foster high-quality, sustainable, community-level water supply projects. We promote innovative solutions that enable communities to take a leading role in solving their own water supply problems.
Enable donors to invest wisely. We exist to create a global awareness of the water supply crisis and to help people respond. We carefully invest donors’ funds in only the highest quality projects through locally-based water development organizations. We hold ourselves accountable to donors and to people who benefit from the projects they support.
Matt Damon appeared recently on the Late Show with David Letterman and talked about his work with Gary White and water.org. Here is a look at the interview (The conversation turns to water.org at approx. the 5 minute mark):
Here are a few more video links of Gary White in action:
In the 1950s, they perfected the candy coating for M&Ms and developed the first autodrip coffeemaker. Midwest Research Instituteis an independent, not-for-profit organization that performs contract research for government and industry. Founded in 1944, MRI has built a reputation for innovation, technical excellence, and problem solving.
Today, as one of the nation’s leading research institutes, MRI conducts programs in the areas of national security and defense, life sciences, energy and the environment, agriculture and food safety, and engineering and infrastructure.
With headquarters in Kansas City, MRI also has facilities in Rockville and Frederick, MD, and Palm Bay, FL. In addition to operating its own laboratories, MRI operates laboratories for the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Defense.
MRI is one of two entities in the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, which manages and operates the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, CO, for the U.S. Department of Energy. MRI has managed NREL since its inception in 1977.
Skip the studio. Miss the museum. If you want to see Stan Herd’s artwork, you’ll have to stand on a rooftop or peer out of a plane.
The world’s preeminent representational earthwork artist, Herd has been creating art for more than 30 years – by digging, disking, plowing and otherwise manipulating acres of green space. His subjects range from American folk hero Will Rodgers to Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta to commercial products like Absolut Vodka and Papa John’s Pizza. And his canvas is the great outdoors – literally, a farmer’s field, an abandoned park or even a soil-capped landfill.
"Amelia" Photo by Jon Blumb
"Medicine Wheel" Photo by Jon Blumb
Stan Herd is currently part of the Visions of the Flint Hills Show at the Buttonwood Art Space through November 20.
For five decades, the DiCapo family greeted visitors to the Italian Gardens. During that time, the restaurant become a Kansas City favorite. Italian Gardens hosted countless local and national celebrities over the years, many of whom were members of the Sabenadica Club. Derived from the restaurant’s so-called Sabenadica Table, a place where lone travelers could sit together rather than occupy a table that could otherwise be used for a larger group, the club grew to over 2,000 members and consisted of local regulars as well as celebrities such as Yogi Berra, Rocky Marciano, “Cinderella Man” James Braddock, John Cameron Swayze, Basil Rathbone, Mayor H. Roe Bartle, and Lenny Dawson.
In April, there was all the publicity surrounding mobs of teens running rampant through the tony shopping area.
Then there was the brouhaha over plans to tear down a cherished part of the tony shopping area’s Moorish-look architecture to make room for an eight-story office tower.
There was the massive jewelry heist undetected by Plaza security in September…
And now some big name retailers are heading to Kansas City and they’re staying away from the place long thought of as the biggest magnet for the best and most exclusive….
This week we’ve gone straight to the top…. Ed Fritsch, is CEO of Highwoods Properties nationally, that’s the North Carolina based real estate company that owns the Plaza, and Glenn Stephenson, a company Vice-President and Division Manager with responsibility for the Plaza, to find out what is behind the company’s strategy for the Plaza.
Glenn Stephenson, Vice-President and Division Manager
In late 2006, while working for an interactive advertising agency, Justin Graves, now Infegy’s CEO, had a vision to develop a system which could collect as much social content as possible and analyze it on-demand to garner a wealth of insight in to consumer thought and opinion. Justin left the agency to begin development work on this concept, and shortly after he partnered with Adam Coomes, Infegy’s President, for his expertise in Web and business development. Infegy, a combination of the words Information and Strategy, was officially founded and work on the project now known as Social Radar was well under way to becoming the powerful yet elegant solution it is today.
Social Radar has continued to evolve at a rapid pace, chasing the original vision of automated generation of as much insight as possible from its enormous and ever-growing collection of content. This philosophy has allowed Social Radar to revolutionize the way companies listen to their consumers, greatly surpassing beliefs about what can be done, and yet this is only the beginning.
Twenty-five thousand people in our region will be diagnosed with cancer this year. Ten thousand of them will die. This week on The Local Show, we take a closer look at efforts to make Kansas City a cancer fighting mecca. Leading the effort is Dr. Roy Jensen.
Ryan Lefebvre is the celebrated broadcaster for the Kansas City Royals. A three-time all-Big Ten outfielder from the University of Minnesota, Ryan was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in 1993 in the 27th round. An active member in the Kansas City community, Ryan is the founder of Gloves for Kids, which raises money for youth programs in Kansas and Missouri. Ryan and his wife, Sarah, reside in Lake Winnebago, Missouri.
“I am alone, trembling on the floor in my closet. It is dark. There is no sound. I picture the cars driving away. They are leaving…that image. I begin to sob, breaking the silence. They are leaving. I am alone.”
Kansas City Royals’ broadcaster Ryan Lefebvre seems to have it all – a dream sports job of announcing Major League Baseball, a huge house on a lake, plenty of expensive toys, good looks, and the admiration of friends and fans. But depression is seldom deterred by such superficial trappings. And depression’s grip on Ryan was so strong and so unyielding that he nearly ended his life.
In one moment, he’s a glib play-by-play announcer…the next, he’s a tormented soul on the floor of his closet. And that’s just the beginning of The Shame of Me, the spell-binding story of Ryan’s descent into the darkness of depression, his courageous struggle to recover, and his new perspectives on living a balanced and healthy life.
Told with intimacy and immediacy, Ryan’s story is a must-read for anyone who has ever struggled with inner doubts. It is especially powerful for men who may be feeling lost, but are too embarrassed to confront their problems. Ryan, the son of former Major League player and manager Jim Lefebvre, and co-author Jefferey Flanagan take us through living hell before Ryan’s recovery and redemption give us hope for anyone who suffers from the debilitating disease Major Depressive Disorder.
TheShame of Me represents Ryan’s sincere wish to help others by sharing his shocking story.
Here is a closer look at Ryan’s battle with depression:
The concept for the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts began with civic leader and philanthropist Muriel McBrien Kauffman as early as 1995. Mrs. Kauffman, Ewing Kauffman’s wife and partner, discussed her vision with her family and many in the community, and upon her death her, Ewing and Muriel’s daughter, Julia Irene Kauffman, carried the idea forward. As chairman of the Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation, Julia Kauffman has been the energetic force to turn her mother’s dream into one of the most technically and architecturally perfect performing arts centers in the world.
Currently under construction in an area connecting downtown with the revived Crossroads District in Kansas City, Missouri, the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts is scheduled to be open for the 2010-2011 performance season. A world-class team of architects, acousticians, theater designers and other technical experts is creating a state-of-the-art performance venue, featuring the very latest technology in acoustics, theater and lighting equipment, staging and sightlines, and comfortable ergonomic seating.
The center will include a 1,600-seat concert hall and a 1,800-seat proscenium theate, and will be the performance home for the Kansas City Symphony, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and the Kansas City Ballet. The Kauffman Center will also feature a diverse range of performances in both halls including dance and music of all types from pop to rock, light classical to country, jazz groups to bands, and gospel to folk music, as well as smaller Broadway and off-Broadway touring productions.
Nick Haines talks to John McDonald of Boulevard Brewing about remaining independent and competing with the beer giants and to Stacia Stelk of Ripple Glass about keeping it local in the glass recycling business.
The Local Show is designed to highlight artists and entrepreneurs, leaders and overachievers from all walks of life – and in the process, help Kansas Citians discover substantially more about this place we call home.
“The Local Show is really going to allow us to tackle areas of the news that rarely get much television coverage in the metro. At KCPT, we tackle local politics and public policy well, but what about the arts and entrepreneurship, education, health and science? Finally, we have a place to regularly tell those stories.” Nick Haines, Executive Producer, The Local Show
Nick Haines is the show’s host and executive producer. Assisted by Randy Mason (and other guest interviewers from time to time), Nick will sit down for fast-paced chats with people who are making a genuine difference in fields as varied as education, health services, technology, and the arts.
The pilot episode, for example, features Kathleen Collins, retiring this year as president of the Kansas City Art Institute; and Bryan Hansel, whose company, Smith Electric, is manufacturing electric powered trucks right here in Kansas City. KCPT’s The Local Show will also spotlight “difference makers” in the community. In this first program, KCPT goes inside Operation Breakthrough, the nation’s largest low-income daycare facility. More than 600 kids a day are served at the facility on Troost Avenue. But with rising poverty, 1200 children are on the waiting list.
The Local Show will also feature segments showcasing items from the WWI Museum at Liberty Memorial, and from time-to-time, some aptly named “Start-Up Stories.” These profiles will peek behind the scenes at fledgling ventures across the metro, and then with the aid of expert analysts, pinpoint the companies’ strengths and weaknesses.
KCPT President & CEO Kliff Kuehl conceived The Local Show after spending much of his first year on the job meeting business and civic leaders all over town. “I was amazed at how many fascinating stories I heard, and how much of it might not be known by a lot of our audience,” he says.
As The Local Show launches in July and August, each half-hour program will air once a month. Beginning in September, it will have a more frequent presence on KCPT, agile enough to accommodate special editions of Imagine KC and other newsworthy topics as the need arises.
Submissions to The Local Show
If you have a suggestion for a Local Show interview, video segment or if you have some interesting HD video you would like to share, please contact us at thelocalshow@kcpt.org.
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Evan Luskin has announced that he is retiring as general director of the Lyric Opera…just as the company prepares to move to its new performance space at the Kauffman Center For The Performing Arts. Luskin, the Company’s general director since 1998, will be retiring on June 30, 2012. Mr. Luskin’s retirement will come at the conclusion of the Lyric’s first year of residence in the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, which will open this fall.
The center will include a 1,600-seat concert hall and a 1,800-seat proscenium theate, and will be the performance home for the Kansas City Symphony, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and the Kansas City Ballet. The Kauffman Center will also feature a diverse range of performances in both halls including dance and music of all types from pop to rock, light classical to country, jazz groups to bands, and gospel to folk music, as well as smaller Broadway and off-Broadway touring productions.
