Charlotte Street Foundation

Four Kansas City artists - Jorge Garcia Almodovar, Mike Hill, Beniah Leuschke, and Adolfo Martinez - were selected by a panel of local and national curators to receive unrestricted cash Awards of $10,000 each this year. Charlotte Street Foundation has now recognized 65 Kansas City based visual artists with Charlotte Street Awards, with a total of $392,500 in unrestricted cash grants distributed directly to the artists over eleven years. An exhibition of the work of the 2008 Charlotte Street Visual Artist Fellows opens at the new Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson County Community College opens November 21, 2008, 6-9pm, and runs through February 1, 2009.  Read the full press release.   Read Alice Thorson’s review in the KC Star.  Read Dana Self’s review in The Pitch.

Whoop Dee Doo, the faux public access television variety show directed by Kansas City’s Jaimie Warren and Matt Roche and made possible with support from Charlotte Street Foundation, is traveling to Deitch Projects in New York City for a special performance at the Deitch Annual Holiday Party, reserved for Deitch’s VIP list. Over a dozen Whoop Dee Doo collaborators will be traveling to New York to install, create and perform on December 23, sharing this Kansas City project with an entirely new audience. The show at Deitch Projects will, like all Whoop Dee Doo events, be filmed live with audience participation and made available for public viewing in the future.

In order to allow Whoop Dee Doo to seize this opportunity for national exposure, December Whoop Dee Doo events scheduled for Urban Culture Project’s la Esquina venue have been cancelled. Whoop Dee Doo will resume its activities at UCP’s la Esquina in January, with: New Year’s Bingo Party – Thursday, January 1, 2-6pm.

Read artforum.com review of “Weird Holiday” Whoop Dee Doo performance at Deitch Projects. Other recent Whoop Dee Doo press: Lawrence.com feature. Present Magazine.

The October issue of Art in America features a 6-page “Report from Kansas City” profile by New York-based writer Stephen Maine. “A supportive community of artists, respected museums, low rents and an innovative philanthropic apparatus are the big pluses of the Kansas City scene,” Maine writes.

Calling Kansas City an emerging “culture hub,” the article calls attention to CSF’s Awards for visual and generative performing artists, Urban Culture Project, and our new Art through Architecture program, a partnership with American Institute of Architects-KC.

To read the full Art in America article, click here.

Urban Culture Project is excited to present two new exhibitions together featuring recent work by nearly twenty Austin-based artists never before seen in Kansas City. The result of a collaboration with Okay Mountain, an artist collective and artist-run gallery in Austin, Texas, the shows open Saturday, November 22, 6pm at Paragraph gallery and Project Space, 21-23 East 12th Street in downtown KC.

TEXPOSÉ: NEW ART FROM AUSTIN at Paragraph gallery, curated by Kansas City-based painter Grant Miller and Charlotte Street Foundation Associate Director Kate Hackman, features the work of six Austin artists selected through image reviews and studio visits conducted in Austin this summer. Artists featured are Erin Curtis, Ryan Lauderdale, Erick Michaud, Jill Pangallo, Joseph Phillips and Virginia Yount.

IT’S GONNA BE REVERYTHING at Project Space is a group exhibition of artworks and site-specific installations by the Okay Mountain collective, who will spend more than a week in Kansas City prior to the opening. This new series of works seeks to highlight the collaborative way in which the group maintains its gallery and wealth of duties.   

Exhibitions run through January 10. Note extended gallery hours for these exhibitions: Wednesday+Thursday 12-5pm, Friday 12-6pm, Saturday 12-5pm. The galleries are closed November 27+28 and December 24-January 2 except by appointment. Read the full press release.  See media coverage: KC Star preview; Pitch preview. KCUR-FM podcast. 

View Jill Pangallo’s performance on YouTube.

In exchange, Okay Mountain hosts Slow Cooked: New Art from Kansas City , curated by Okay Mountain member Sterling Allen and featuring work by Marcus Cain, Colin Leipelt, Kacy Maddux, Jim Woodfill and Michael Converse. More.  See media coverage: Glasstire

Photos.

Creative Capital Foundation will conduct its third Professional Development for Artists Retreat in Kansas City, March 27-29, 2009.  This is a free and incredible opportunity for artists to learn from other artists about the business side of their practice…marketing/fundraising/public relations/strategic planning.

Learn more about the Creative Capital workshop from artists who have completed the retreat in the past at:

The Info Session, Wed, Nov 19th, 5p, Blue Room in the Jazz District, 1600 E 18th, KCMO.

Applications are due December 10, 2008 at 5p. Downloaded an application here.

This retreat is free for those chosen - and is geared toward “generative” artists - those artists (from music, theatre, dance, film/video and visual fields) who are creating and presenting new work. To a person, artists thought the experience was remarkable - transformational for many.  For more information, click here.

 Join CSF/UCP and Grand Arts for a public conversation about the dynamics of working collaboratively. This event will feature five minute presentations by Carnal Torpor (Kansas City, MO & Omaha, NE), Okay Mountain (Austin, TX) , SSION (Kansas City, MO) and spurse (dispersed),  followed by an informal discussion among participants  What are some models for artists and interventionists working collectively? What can be gained by working in a collective? What is lost? How are decisions made? Who or what speaks for the group? Are collectives sustainable? Should they aspire to be? What does evolution look like? These are a few of the topics that may be discussed. In addition, the event will feature a cathartic exercise courtesy of Carnal Torpor. Group-made snacks will be provided.  Read full press release.

A multi-disciplinary panel of performing arts professionals selected the first recipients of Charlotte Street’s new Awards to Generative Performing Artists earlier this year. Receiving unrestricted cash grants of $5000 each, the 2008 Fellows are choreographer/dancer DeeAnna Hiett; playwright/producer/director/actor Ron Megee; and composer/musician Mark Southerland. A celebration of the Fellows’ work, including live performances, is set for Friday, November 14, 8pm, at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre Copaken Stage, 1 H&R Block Way, in downtown Kansas City. This event is free and open to the public.

Envisioned as an annual program, these Awards intend to recognize outstanding, innovative performing artists in the fields of dance, theater, music, experimental music performance, theater/performance art, and hybrid/interdisciplinary versions thereof. Fellows will be generative artists, meaning that they are actively creating new work in their fields – i.e. they are composers, playwrights, choreographers – in addition to very often being performers as well. As with CSF’s Awards to Visual Artists, these new Awards for Generative Performing Artists seek to support the continued creative and professional development of the selected artists, provide the means for them to further focus on and develop their work, and increase exposure for their accomplishments.  Read the full press release.  

Featuring a mix of dancing, community acts, performances, games, skits, and contests, Whoop Dee Doo is

a kid-friendly faux public access television show that highlights a diverse array of participants from the

Kansas City community and engages audiences of all ages and cultural backgrounds.

What happens when a four year old and a Mexican biker create a high school backdrop together? What is the sound of an opera singer backed by the haunting howls of a six-year-old bloodhound? What does it look like when a teenage Christian fiddler, a drag queen, and members of the Midwest Cloggers create a giant wedding cake centerpiece, then dance their hearts out to oldies music all night? Find out! An unexpected convergence of talents and sensibilities informs the aesthetic basis of every aspect of the show, which is directed by Jaimie Warren and Matt Roche with assistance from hundreds of community participants and volunteers. Read full press release.