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4420 Warwick Boulevard
Kansas City, MO 64111

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Kemper Museum is a free art museum in Kansas City, Missouri that presents global contemporary art.

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art

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Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art acknowledges it resides on the ancestral territory of the Osage, Kaw, and Otoe-Missouria, among other tribal nations forcibly moved to the region such as the Shawnee, Wyandot, Delaware, Potawatomi, Sac and Fox and Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo) nations. We recognize and support the continued vibrancy of Native communities and cultures today who continue to thrive, as well as the inherent sovereignty of tribal nations. We are compelled to serve and advocate for these communities in accordance with our public mission.

Kemper Museum acknowledges and respects the diversity of Native people connected to this land today. Many recognize the land and all beings who live within it as relatives. We acknowledge the earth we inhabit, the waters of the Blue River, the Kansas River, the Missouri River, and the plants, animals, and people supported by them. 

We acknowledge our responsibility to be good caretakers of the land we occupy. 

Click here to learn more about our land acknowledgment process.

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Pattern is a common thread that connects these works from Kemper Museum’s Permanent Collection. Whether as imbedded designs in Polly Apfelbaum’s Squiggles (2018) and Thomasin Grim’s Deck (1990) or as a display configuration in Gio Swaby’s multi-panel Together We Bloom 2 (2023), these works draw on elements of pattern to convey a range of ideas and perspectives.

In Deck (1990) Grim creates what she calls a “symbolic narrative,” exploring the notion of fate versus will using black and white woven thread representations of tarot card drawings. This larger grid is structurally akin to Swaby’s silhouette portraits of women from her own close social circle, each one using varying patterns. While many of Swaby’s figures are known to her, Bisa Butler’s A Man’s Worth (2019) depicts with multiple fabric patterns a debonair Bill Hurley, a chauffeur for the white mayor of Charlottesville whose testimony in 1904 helped convict his former employer of murder. Paying homage to painter Alma Thomas, Butler uses small repeated light teal tick marks as the background for Hurley’s image. Apfelbaum also pays homage to a historical figure: Gilbert Baker, who originated the pride flag in 1978. In this large woven rainbow floor work, she incorporates the original flag’s hot pink color into her eight-stripe squiggled design, a color that was removed due to lack of fabric.

This exhibition directly connects to other fiber-based works on view throughout the Museum, in dialogue with Hangama Amiri: A Homage to Home in the Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery and Sarah Zapata’s So the roots be known, the eighth annual commissioned Atrium Project. Thread: Making Patterns is curated by Erin Dziedzic, former director of curatorial affairs at Kemper Museum.

Generous contributions of all sizes help keep the Museum FREE for all visitors.

At Kemper Museum there is no charge for admission, parking, special exhibitions, or programs. Your donation underwrites these expenses and inspires many thousands with contemporary art each year.

Thread: Making Patterns

Bisa Butler (American, born 1975), A Man's Worth, 2019, quilted and appliqued cotton, wool, and chiffon, 89 x 50 inches. Promised gift of Bill and Christy Gautreaux, PG.2019.09.01. Art and photo © Bisa Butler, courtesy of Claire Oliver Gallery.

New Acquisitions: In Celebration of Thirty Years of Kemper Museum

In 2024, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art celebrates its thirtieth anniversary. As the first collecting contemporary art museum in the state of Missouri, Kemper Museum is grateful to those who have helped grow and enhance the Permanent Collection through significant acquisitions. The exhibition New Acquisitions highlights a selection of acquisitions to the Museum since 2022, celebrating the artists who created them, recognizing their generous donors, and acknowledging Kemper Museum’s continued focus on collecting works by women and artists of color.

Ahead of Kemper Museum’s thirtieth anniversary, staff continues to deepen holdings by individual artists such as Frederick James Brown (American, 1945–2012) and Hung Liu (Chinese American, 1948–2021). Additionally, several new acquisitions are by artists who have had major exhibitions at Kemper Museum such as Aliza Nisenbaum (born 1977, Mexico City, Mexico), who created new works as part of the 2021 commissioned Atrium Project, and Natalie Frank (American, born 1980), whose major solo exhibition Unbound was presented in 2022. Kemper Museum also supports acquisitions by emerging contemporary artists including Reginald Sylvester II (American, born 1987) whose solo exhibition Green Gate at Kemper Museum in 2023 debuted new work. 

Since its inception, Kemper Museum has maintained its commitment to collecting and exhibiting work by underrepresented artists. The museum continues to fill gaps and broaden its Permanent Collection to include more works by women artists and artists of color. For three decades, generous donors have helped keep Kemper Museum on the leading edge of contemporary art in the region and beyond.

New Acquisitions is curated by Erin Dziedzic, former director of curatorial affairs of Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.

Featured Works

Frederick James Brown, Untitled, 1974, oil and acrylic on canvas, 36 x 60 inches. Collection of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, To Arnold Thall, who recognized Fred Brown's talent early on, and was gifted this work of art, 2023.5. © Frederick J. Brown Trust. Photo: E.G. Schempf, 2023.

Free contemporary art museum in Kansas City, Missouri

Kemper Museum is a leading presenter of contemporary art and ideas in Kansas City, Missouri. 

Welcome to Kemper Museum

Fall 2024 Opening Weekend

Infinite Regress: Mystical Abstraction from the Permanent Collection and Beyond

Join us for an evening of creativity and community at the museum.

September Open Drawing featuring Lucía Vidales

Sing songs, read books, explore art, and make your own art with a Kemper Museum educator and Kansas City librarian.

Totally Tots

Celebrate the opening of "Infinite Regress: Mystical Abstraction from the Permanent Collection and Beyond" and "Lucía Vidales: Hambre."

Fall Exhibitions Opening Night

Celebrate the museum's 30th Anniversary and the 9th Annual Atrium Project Artist Lucía Vidales

Purchase Tickets & Support Free Access to Contemporary Art

30th Anniversary Artist Dinner: Lucía Vidales + Ted Habiger

Join us for an artist and curator conversation celebrating the new exhibition, "Infinite Regress: Mystical Abstraction from the Kemper Museum Permanent Collection and Beyond."

Hambre Artist and Curator Conversation: Erin Dziedzic and Lucía Vidales

Infinite Regress Artist and Curator Conversation: Theodora Allen, Kevin Moore, and Panos Tsagaris

Join renowned soprano Renée Fleming and an esteemed panel of experts in neuroscience and music therapy at Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art for an enlightening discussion on the arts’ profound impact on the brain.

Music and Mind with Renée Fleming

Enjoy brunch and coffee while participating in a special professional development workshop for educators with art and inquiry expert Laurel Schmidt!

Educator Workshop with Laurel Schmidt

October Open Drawing

Visitors with sensory sensitivities are invited to enjoy exhibitions while the museum is closed in a quiet and low-stimulating environment with a hands-on activity.

Low Sensory Session

Dálida and Michael (Serennata del Tres Cubano)

Paintings

Carry III

Sculptures

Carbon, silver and gold

Works on Paper

Helen Frankenthaler and Alexander Liberman in her East 83rd Street studio, New York - 1967, with GUIDING RED

Photographs

Deck

Textile Installations

In Praise of Prairie Dogs

Prints

The Wedding

Film & Video

Untitled Escape Collage

Mixed Media

Keep admission, parking, special exhibitions, and programming free for everyone.

Home

Head to Kemper Museum the for an evening of community and creativity at this special session of Open Drawing with Monterrey, Mexico-based artist Lucía Vidales. 

Pick up a stool, drawing board, and provided drawing materials, or bring your own sketchbook and find a spot for open drawing at the museum alongside Vidales, who will be onsite working on on her forthcoming Atrium Project installation, Hambre, which features monumental-scale charcoal drawings applied directly to the gallery walls.

A special still-life display inspired by Lucia’s work and drawing prompts for inspiration will be available. At the end of each hour, Lucia will briefly engage with participants.

All levels of experience are welcome. Cash bar. (Members receive two free drinks.)

Attendees are allowed to bring their own sketchbooks, paper, and pencil. Otherwise, please use the materials provided by the museum.

Please use only graphite pencils, colored pencils, and crayons in all areas of the museum.

Markers, ink pens, charcoal, paint, watercolor, etc. are NOT allowed (nothing that is liquid-based or highly friable) in any areas of the museum.

Larger drawing boards can be used in the Atrium, but please use standard or smaller size clipboards if you enter one of the galleries.

Folding stools can be taken into the galleries. No easels, tables or drawing horses in the galleries.

Set up a minimum of 6 feet from artwork in the entire museum, and please do not blow or swipe graphite dust or eraser debris toward artworks.

Please dispose of any pencil shavings or any other debris in trash cans provided.

Click here for information on how to get to the museum and where to find our free parking lots.

Public Programs are free, thanks to Kemper Museum members and other donors. 

Public programs are always FREE for everyone, thanks to support from members and other donors. 

VIP Walkthrough Infinite Regress 5 p.m.–6 p.m. (members only)

Be the first to see Infinite Regress: Mystical Abstraction from the Permanent Collection and Beyond and the expanded ninth annual Atrium Project installation Lucía Vidales: Hambre.

Celebrate the new exhibitions with music, tarot readings, and a cash bar. 

Kemper Museum members get two free drinks and have the opportunity to join curator Kevin Moore for a preview tour of Infinite Regress to get the party started. 

K﻿emper Museum programs are FREE thanks to support from members and other donors. Join today!

Image Credit: Joseph Stella (American, 1877-1946), Dance of Spring (Song of the Birds), 1924, oil on canvas, 43 ⅜ x 32 ⅜ inches. Collection of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, Bebe and Crosby Kemper Collection, Gift of the Enid and Crosby Kemper Foundation, 2003.03.01. © No known copyright restrictions. Photo: Mike Jenson, 2023.

Public programs are always FREE for everyone, thanks to support from members and other donors. Join today to support free access to contemporary art. 

Support contemporary art and ideas in Kansas City and enjoy special access to an intimate dining experience created by Chef Ted Habiger celebrating Monterrey, Mexico-based artist Lucía Vidales and the debut of her major commissioned installation, Hambre.

Lucía Vidales is a painter who lives and works in Monterrey, Mexico. She is currently an Art Professor at University UDEM and has been awarded three times with the Jovenes Creadores grant by the Secretaría de Cultura, Mexico. Vidales’s layered paintings engage themes of materiality, the body, and the consequences of historical and colonial imaginaries. The beings that populate her paintings suggest the potential for confrontation, but seldom follow through. Instead they play with humor or anxiety, or seek consolation from ancient wounds. Vidales’s major commissioned installation Hambre (Hunger) is Kemper Museum’s ninth annual Atrium Project.

Ted Habiger is the chef partner for Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. A three-time James Beard Foundation Outstanding Chef Award nominee, Habiger is a chef, restaurateur, sommelier, and entrepreneur with a decades-long commitment to local farmers and sustainable practices. He led Cafe Allegro, Kansas City's top Zagat-rated restaurant (1996–2000), served as sous chef at Danny Meyer's Union Square Cafe in New York City (2001–2003). Habiger is the owner and chef at Room 39, which opened in 2004 and recently joined the new CPKC Stadium as a vendor for the Kansas City Current. In addition to Room 39, Habiger is chef partner at Ánima, a restaurant in Mérida, Mexico, and he owns a commissary kitchen in Kansas City that supports local food trucks and entrepreneurs.

Join the curators and artists in the new exhibitions for a pair of conversations that provide insights into the art and ideas enlivening the museum this fall.

At 11 a.m., Lucía Vidales will discuss her major commissioned installation, Hambre with curator Erin Dziedzic.

At 1:30 p.m., Artists Theodora Allen and Panos Tsagaris, whose works are on view in the exhibition, Infinite Regress: Mystical Abstraction from the Permanent Collection and Beyond will join curator Kevin Moore in a conversation about a shared vocabulary of mystical abstraction that has both historical and contemporary resonance, engaging periods of extreme transformation in nature and technology.

Between the two talks, participants are invited to enjoy a special menu at the cafe created by Chef Ted Habiger.

Public programs are free thanks to support from members and other donors.