Charlotte Street Foundation

Artist-curators Anne Thompson and Nathan Boyer present an exhibition drawn from the vast archive of the multifaceted painter, printmaker, collector, and comic artist Frank Stack. Stack, who retired in 2003 after forty years as an art professor at the University of Missouri, Columbia, is also the graphic artist Foolbert Sturgeon. He created this pseudonym as a young man, allowing him to satirize politics and religion without running afoul of Midwestern conservative sensibilities.

Opening Reception: Friday, January 20, 6-9pm
Discussion: Saturday, January 21, 2:30pm, with Frank Stack and curators
Location: Project Space / 21 East 12th St. KCMO
Exhibit Runs: January 20 – March 3, 2012
Gallery Hours: Wed, Fri, Sat 12-5pm; Thurs 11am-6pm

In 1962, Stack published The Adventures of Jesus, considered many to be the first underground comic book. He went on to become an internationally renowned graphic novelist, collaborating with writer Harvey Pekar on the American Splendor comics and illustrating the critically acclaimed graphic novel Our Cancer Year (winner of the 1995 Harvey award for Best Graphic Album of Original Work), all the while continuing to produce conventional landscapes, portraits, and nudes under his real name.

With this exhibition, MU professors Thompson and Boyer explore the politics of artistic identity — both Stack’s negotiation of his artistic personae and the artist’s role more generally. The show combines Stack’s traditional work with rarely seen original drawings from his graphic novels, and considers both bodies of work in the context of Stack’s large personal collection of Old Master prints. Works by artists including Daumier address the problems of the artist in society, including the desire for fame balanced against the struggle to maintain creative integrity.

See all the details in the press release.

See work from the show in the online video.

Charlotte Street Foundation presents a KcEMA concert featuring Cheryl Melfi: Digital Reeds. Cheryl brings with her a program of new music including two world premiers of electro-acoutsic music for clarinet.

Date: Saturday, January 14
Time: Doors open at 7:30pm; concert begins at 8pm
Venue: City Center Square / 1100 Main 5th Floor KCMO
Tickets: $10; $5 students

The Missouri Bank Crossroads Branch, 125 Southwest Boulevard, KCMO, will debut four new large-scale commissioned images by Kansas City based artists Jon Scott Anderson and Derrick Breidenthal on its “Artboards” in time for First Friday, January 2012. Installed on the exterior, double-sided billboards rising above the bank, the “Artboards” are the latest installment of Missouri Bank’s Art Through Architecture project. The “Artboards” are visible to the public all hours of the day, and will remain on view for approximately four months.

Location: Missouri Bank Crossroads Branch, 125 Southwest Blvd

Get all the details in the press release!

The evening will feature live music performances by Brad Cox, Paul Rudy, and Mark Southerland, followed by the premier of the video documentary of WE!. See what you missed, or relive what you loved. The evening will conclude with a forum to meet the artists and discuss your experience of the project.

Date: Wednesday, December 14, 7pm
Venue: La Esquina, 1000 W. 25th St. KCMO 64108
Cost: $5 – $10 suggested donation

More details are in the press release!

Charlotte Street Foundation’s Urban Culture Project is excited to announce its first ever Biannual Open Studios Weekend, showcasing the work of artists in its Studio Residency Program for visual and performing artists. The 2-day event will include live music, dance, comedy improv, and cross-disciplinary performances, special sales, temporary installations, workshops, participatory activities, artist talks, and more, highlighting the work of 30 visual artists and 6 performing artists/ensembles awarded free studios for year-long terms through Charlotte Street’s competitive Urban Culture Project Studio Residency Program. All events are free and open to the public.

Dates: Friday, December 9, 5:30pm – 9:00pm
Saturday, December 10, 11:00am – 3:00pm

Studio Residency Venues:
Partnership Place / 906 Grand, 13th Floor
City Center Square / 1100 Main, 5th Floor
Town Pavilion / 1100 Walnut, 6th Floor

Visit theOpen Studios page for more information and a downloadable Open Studios program, including a map, brief descriptions of each artist’s studio, and a complete schedule of events and activities!

City Center Square and Charlotte Street Foundation are pleased to announce the upcoming debut of “AirMail,” a window installation by Kansas City-based artist Margaret Shelby.  To remain on view for approximately one year, the mail-themed installation was commissioned by City Center Square for its south-facing window on 12th Street, just west of Main, through an open call to artists facilitated by Charlotte Street Foundation.  It will be unveiled at a brief public ceremony on Friday, December 9 at 5pm.

The installation relates to the United States Post Office located within City Center Square, specifically taking as inspirations the personal nature of handwritten correspondence, the intimate process of folding and sending a letter, and the person-to-person transport and delivery of this correspondence via postal service.

Read all the details in the press release!

Charlotte Street Foundation’s Paragraph Gallery & Project Space present Augustina Eck (Ann Arbor, MI), Erika Lynne Hanson (Kansas City, MO), and Hillary Wiedemann (Oakland, CA).

Opening Reception: Friday, November 18, 6-9pm
Artists Talk: Saturday, November 19, noon
Exhibition Runs: November 18, 2011 – January 7, 2012
Gallery: Paragraph + Project Space / 21-23 East 12th St. KCMO 64105
Gallery Hours: Wed, Fri, Sat 12-5pm; Thurs 11-6pm

research, n.1

The act of searching carefully for or pursuing a specified thing or person; an instance of this.

At the core of these three artists’ works is a performative process: the artist self-consciously enacting the role of researcher, on a quest for new discovery. In all three cases, the artists are mining for information buried in original source material, which they pursue through acts of close interrogation, re-interpretation, and reenactment.The outcome of this searching takes the form of artworks including photographs, video and sound, sculpture, and installation. Though Eck, Hanson and Weidemann have focused on events and mediums that are disparate, themes of memory, notions of the sublime, perceptual shifts, and landscape connect their projects and form the bases for a conversation among their works.

Learn about all 3 artists, and their projects, in the press release!

Read a review from the KC Star.

Charlotte Street Foundation and The Pistol are pleased to present Wham City Comedy Tour. Having made their mark on the DIY music and art scene, Baltimore’s Wham City collective is heading back out on the road this fall to change the face of comedy. Their two-hour variety show covers experimental theater, performance art, video, and stand-up.

Venue: Paragraph Gallery, 23 E. 12th St, KCMO 64105
Date: Wednesday, Nov.9; Door open 7pm, Show 8pm
Cost: $10 suggested donation

Since their inception in 2004, a sense of humor has always been important to the art of Wham City. But they only began tackling comedy head-on in 2010 when they mounted the first ever Wham City Comedy Tour which earned coverage in Spin Magazine, and it got them an invitation to perform on stage with Second City in October. It also spawned the immensely popular Wham City Comedy Night, an off-the-wall amateur comedy night hosted each month by Ben O’Brien and Mason Ross at the Zodiac in Baltimore.

For more information go to the Wham City website.

This event honors the work of playwright/director Kyle Hatley and composer James Mobberley, who received Charlotte Street Generative Performing Artist Awards of $7,500 each earlier this year. Hatley and Mobberley were selected for the Awards by a panel of regional and national performing arts professionals through a highly competitive, two-phase process. The event will feature live performances of work by both fellows.

Performance Date: October 22nd, Curtain at 8pm
Venue: H&R Block City Stage at Union Station
Tickets: FREE and open to the public; however, ticket reservation required. Reserve tickets at www.unionstation.org
After-Party: Pierpont’s at Union Station!  Plus, if you have dinner at Pierpont’s the evening of the performance, 10% of your food check will be donated to Charlotte Street! Dinner reservations are recommended.

For full details, including performance descriptions, read the press release!

Charlotte Street Foundation’s Urban Culture Project presents a joint presentation by the Kansas City Max Users Group and the Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance.

Date: Friday, October 21, 8pm
Venue: La Esquina, 1000 W. 25th St KCMO 64108
Donation: $10 donation is suggested

A Cup of Jamoma: A Collage of Music, Video, and Discussion featuring the artists and programmers behind Jamoma.

If you are a Live Music or Live Video Artist who uses or is interested in using Max/MSP/Jitter, you need to see what Jamoma is capable of.  Jamoma is a series of easy-to-use modules for use in Max/MSP/Jitter. They were designed around the principle that you want to spend more time creating you art and less time programming, debugging, and documenting.

A Cup of Jamoma features Jamoma contributors Nathan Wolek, Trond Lossius, and Cycling ‘74 Research Engineer Timothy Place. Come hear, see, and discuss what Jamoma can do and why it should be part of your creative process.

Find out more at www.kcema.net and www.jamoma.org