Charlotte Street Foundation

Back to the Source Code, a Kansas City Music and Arts Alliance concert on Saturday, February 19, 8pm, at la Esquina, 1000 West 25th, features Bassist Jeremy Baguyos, who grew up in Overland Park and now lives in Omaha. Baguyos returns to the Kansas City area to perform works for Bass and Digital Audio, including pieces by McGregor Boyle, Andrew May, and Kirsten Volness, alongside works by Kansas City‐based composers Jason Bolte and Andrew Seager Cole. 

“Back to the Source Code is an acknowledgement that my creative output includes the sum total of all experiences stretching back to my earliest memories, musical and non-musical,” says Baguyos. “My interest in music technology can be traced to the early Apple computers, recording weird noises on a Fostex X-15 multitrack tape recorder, and playing Rush and Devo tunes on consumer-level Yamaha and Casio synths at a local Service Merchandise.”

Doors open at 7:30pm, Concert begins at 8:00 pm. Tickets $10; Students $5

Read full press release.

Charlotte Street hosts an art-packed Art Downtown event the evening of Friday, December 10, 6-9pm (on Second, rather than UCP’s typical Third Friday, with respect to the holidays). All free and open to the public, the evening features open studios at three locations , including 30+ artists and a series of artist talks, live performances and one-night activities; plus exhibitions on view at Paragraph and Project Space.  Highlights include a performance of new music compositions by Black House Improvisors’ Collective at City Center Square studios, 7:30pm, and holiday card printing with Nicholas Naughton at pARTnership Place, supplies provided, all evening.

GUIDED TOURS to the STUDIOS will leave from Paragraph gallery, 23 East 12th Street, at 6:30 and 8pm. Maps of the studios will be available at Paragraph, sign boards will be placed at each studio building, and hosts at each location will guide visitors up to the studios.  Paragraph will also feature Wonder Fair of Lawrence, KS presenting‘zines made to order – taking orders and cranking out handmade, one-of-a-kind ‘zines assembly line style in an interactive art event and performance, from 6-9pm. And at 9pm, Paragraph presents a poetry and prose reading by Kansas City Art Institute Creative Writing faculty Robert J. Baumann, Cyrus Console, Chloé Cooper Jones, and Jordan Stempleman.

Click here for much more information, including a list of residents, locations, and full schedule of events.

Read The Pitch’s preview of visual artist Sean Starowitz’s Yard Sale

For three seasons, the Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance (KcEMA) has been introducing audiences to the cutting edge of electronic music and video being created in the Kansas City area.  For Current Trends, KcEMA is looking further, bringing examples of the most innovative work composed across the U.S. and internationally to Urban Culture Project’s La Esquina, 1000 West 25th Street, KCMO, for an exciting evening of sound and image on December’s First Friday, December 3, 8pm. Doors open at 7:30. Admission is free; donations suggested.

The concert features works by Mike McFerron, Bret Battey, Matthew Burtner, Jeffrey Hass, Christopher Burns, Robert Ratcliffe, Elainie Lillios, and Bonnie Mitchell.

Read more.

In neighborhoods from coast to coast, fallen rap heroes like Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G and Big Pun are immortalized in painted murals. Using visual arts to honor hip-hop’s dearly departed, Hip-Hop is Undead —a one night, free event on Friday November 5, 6-10pm at la Esquina, 1000 West 25th Street, KCMO—unites the feel of those organic, street-art tributes with a traditional, Dia de los Muertos-style celebration.

Hip-Hop is Undead, curated by Phil Shafer, aka Sike Style, will combine all four elements of hip-hop. Shafer has commissioned over a dozen Kansas City artists to contribute works in mediums from sculpture to spray paint. Featured will be pieces by Jason Sierra, James Ramirez, Amanda Zeitler, Jeremy Madl, Daniel “Lucid” Bartle, Phil “Sike Style” Shafer, Shannon Moore, Luke Rocha, and Two Tone Press. In addition, the event features DJ Ataxic on the turntables, a special performance by the Tiger Style b-boy crew, and an interactive graffiti wall. Viewers are invited to participate by lighting a candle or placing an offering on a memorial altar and, for those wishing to add to the ambiance, come dressed up as your favorite ghost of hip-hop’s past.

Read full press release.

Premiering Friday, October 22, 8:30 pm and recurring nightly at 8:30pm through Monday, October 25 at la Esquina, 1000 West 25th Street, SEE SAW is an installation-based performance (or a performance-based installation) created by director/composer/musician/performer Mark Southerland, and choreographer/dancer Jane Gotch. Co-collaborators and performers, in addition to Southerland and Gotch, include Shay Estes, Tuesday Faust, Shawn Hansen, Mike Stover, and Matt Tady.

The piece will last approximately one hour and fifteen minutes. Doors open at 8pm each night. Admission is $15/$10 for students and seniors. Note, seating is limited – first come, first served.

Through movement, sound, and installation, SEE SAW will examine the moments when the body meets the mind—self realization, personal epiphanies, and modern coming-of-age stories. Told using an array of tools – often elaborate and abstract; other-times pointedly simple and straight forward – this tale involves a large seesaw and a “trophy playground,” from which music and movement will evolve. Situated in-the-round, the audience itself will become part of the installation and actively engaged in the event.

Read full press release.

Read KC Metropolis Review.

Read University News Review.

On Friday October 15, Urban Culture Project hosts Open Studios at its three UCP Studio Residency Program facilities, which are currently providing free studios to 32 visual and performing artists and groups.  This fall UCP is taking Open Studios to a new level, with MORE studio spaces, MORE artists, MORE activities including live performances, and GUIDED TOURS leaving from Paragraph gallery, 23 East 12th Street, at 6:30 and 8pm.  Maps of the studios will be available at Paragraph, sign boards will be placed at each studio building, and hosts at each location will guide visitors up to the studios.

OPEN STUDIOS OCTOBER 15 FEATURES:
PARTNERSHIP PLACE, 906 GRAND, 13TH FLOOR -  featuring Visual Artists Erika Lynn Hansen, Cory Imig, Paul Smith, Nicholas Naughton, David Carlisle, Julie Malen and Luke Rocha.

NEW STUDIOS AT TOWN PAVILION, 1100 WALNUT, 6TH FLOOR – featuring Visual Artists Brandon Barr, Diane Burchett, Erin Hinz, Katherine O’Hara, David Rhoads, Phil Shafer, Russell Shoemaker, and Jeff Tackett.

CITY CENTER SQUARE, 1100 MAIN, 5TH FLOOR – featuring  Performing Artists Susan Rieger (940 Dance Company), Leralee Whittle,  Jane Gotch, Maura Michelle Garcia, and Black House Improvisors’ Collective; and Visual Artists Terry Campbell, John Carroll Davis, Christina Dostaler, Abbe Findley, John Hilger,  Misha Kligman, Carmen Moreno, Natalie Poserina, Sean Starowitz, Cheryl Toh, Anthony Baab, Clayton Skidmore, Frank Norfleet.

LIVE PERFORMANCES + SPECIAL ACTIVITIES AT CITY CENTER SQUARE:

6:45pm – Jane Gotch will present a preview of her upcoming SEE SAW performance (running October 22-25 at la Esquina and co-created with Mark Southerland.)

7:30pm – 940 Dance Company will perform an improvisation and new works in progress.

8:15pm – Leralee Whittle and Paul Sprawl share excerpts from WorkArtOut, improvise new work, and share videos, dances and songs from their repertoires.

All evening: visual artist Sean Starowitz debuts The Office, a site-specific alternative studio at City Center Square, featuring the curatorial project co-workers, bosses, and supervisors: a design show.

+ other special events at Town Pavilion + pARTnership Place to be announced.

For more about UCP’s current studio residents: Performing Artist Residents; Visual Artist Residents.

Read Third Friday Art Downtown press release with more info about Open Studios + other UCP events on October 15.

Charlotte Street Foundation is pleased to announce the 2010 Charlotte Street Generative Performing Artist Awards Event on Monday, October 11, 8pm at Johnson County Community College’s Polksy Theatre, 12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park, KS.

Free and open to the public, the event will include live performances featuring  the work of actor/creator/writer/singer/songwriter/musician/teacher Stephanie Roberts and composer/musician Brad Cox, who received unrestricted cash awards of $6500 each from Charlotte Street Foundation earlier this year.

Stephanie Roberts’ presentation  will present a short segment of her one-woman film-noir mask play, The Mask of the Broken Heart,  as well as a new theatrical clown piece devised by herself, Matt Weiss and fellow Dell’Arte grad, Gulshirin Dubash.  Brad Cox’s presentation will feature new compositions, structured improvisations, and excerpts from a larger work, “I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream,” written originally for Owen/Cox Dance Group. Performing will be a nonet featuring Rich Wheeler (tenor saxophone), Matt Otto (tenor saxophone), Jeff Harshbarger (bass), Gerald Spaits (bass), Scotty McBee (drums), Kent Burnham (drums), Sam Wisman (percussion and samples), Patrick Alonzo Conway (percussion and baritone saxophone), and Brad Cox (rhodes).  The performance will conclude with a collaborative piece involving both artists and several of their colleagues.

Through its Awards to Generative Performing Artist and Visual Artist programs, CSF seeks to contribute to the vitality of Kansas City’s art community and to enhance Kansas City’s desirability as a place for artists to work and live. Since 1997, the Charlotte Street Foundation has now recognized 78 Kansas City based artists with unrestricted cash Charlotte Street Awards, with a total of $490,500 in unrestricted cash grants distributed directly to artists.

Read full press release.

Read The Kansas City Star review

View photos from the event

Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance (KcEMA) opens its Fourth Season with electro<>acústico, a concert featuring clarinetist Mauricio Salguero. The concert is Saturday, October 2, 8pm at la Esquina, 1000 West 25th Street. Doors open at 7:30pm; admission is $10/$5 students. Salguero, an old friend of KcEMA, has interacted considerably with their members in the past years; Electro<>acústico is the result of that collaboration.

Salguero will present world premieres of pieces written specifically for him by composers Rodolfo Acosta, Andrew Cole, Jason Bolte and Eric Honour plus pieces by Jorge Sosa and Mark Snyder. The program combines a cutting edge mix of video, electronic sounds and high tech with the emotional intensity and technical dexterity of Mauricio’s playing. Guest artist Rebecca Ashe will join Mauricio on flute performing Asha Srinivasan´s Bapu; an exciting piece based on Indian traditional music.

Read full press release.

Live Streaming by Ustream.TV

In the four-day performance Kill to Hunt, Hunt to Kill, Kansas City-based artist and UCP Studio Resident Jason Dixon dares to call all artists liars and unveils the truth for the first time in art history through a monumental work entitled “The Truth.” A live performance and webcast from La Esquina / 1000 W 25th Street, Kansas City, MO 64108 at 8pm on Friday, August 20 (also live streaming at www.ustream.tv/channel/kill-to-hunt-hunt-to-kill)  begins this journey as “The Truth” is stretched in the gallery through absurd presentations and playful theatrics.

The event on August 20 will culminate in a tribal celebration and performance from musician/composer Hunter Long, following which the artist will take to the isolated woods of Missouri for three days with no food, shelter or basic amenities on an actual hunt using only tools formed from “The Truth” in an effort to salvage its namesake.  Photographer Josh Ferdinand will document this part of the performance only until his camera runs out of memory.

Finally, on August 24, 2010, 7pm, guests should bring their appetites as Dixon returns to La Esquina straight from the woods for a BBQ and potluck to share his kills, stories, and experiences from the hunt. Guests who don’t believe in the artist’s hunting prowess are welcome to bring their own food, and even feed the artist.

Read full press release.

As part of Third Friday Art Downtown June 18, UCP presents Event Horizons, a touring program of new work by film, video, and new media artists Thomas Comerford (Chicago), and Sabine Gruffat & Bill Brown (Madison, Wisconsin), at Project Space, 21 East 12th Street, 8pm (suggested donation, $5). The event will run approximately 2 hours.

This program includes a screening of Comerford’s The Indian Boundary Line, which follows a road in Chicago, Rogers Avenue, that traces the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis boundary between the United States and “Indian Territory.” In doing so, it examines the collision between the vernacular landscape and the symbolic one, and suggests how this land and its history are an index for the shifting inhabitants, relationships, boundaries and ideas of landscape — as well as the consequences — which have accompanied the transformation of the “New World.”

Also featured is Gruffat & Brown’s Time Machine, a multimedia live performance in which the artists explore new way of telling stories with technologies that are both cutting edge and obsolete, including slide projector, analog video switcher, record player, digital video projector, and computer.  During the performance, the stage becomes the control panel for an immense ship and the projection screen a window through which different spaces and times are visualized, as Gruffat and Brown assume the role of space-time tourists driven by an exploratory urge.

Read full press release.