Artist talks, special tours, hands-on workshops, films, lectures, and performances are scheduled throughout the year, many in conjunction with exhibitions on display.
Groups of ten or more may schedule free docent-led guided tours of Kemper Museum’s Permanent Collection and special exhibitions; to see more information visit the Museum's Tours page.
A special panel discussion on the discourse of art in contemporary medical education and practice. Experience observation firsthand with a trained museum docent, and hear from museum educators and Kansas City University of Medicine and Bioscience students and faculty participants about the course, now in its second year.
Panelists:
RSVP on Eventbrite:
https://kempermuseum-art-observation-medicine.eventbrite.com
About Art, Observation and Medicine: An art museum can create a safe haven for health professionals to deepen their own relationships with one another, promote individual reflection, foster empathy, and increase appreciation for the psychosocial context of patient experience. Through this course students recognize the value of collaborative observation and team work, while discussion encourages the development of observation, interpretation, and diagnostic skills.
Ezra Shales, professor of art history at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, focuses on the productive confusion that lies at the intersection of design, craft, and art in everyday life. Shales is among the voices included in the new catalogue celebrating Polly Apfelbaum: Waiting for the UFOs (a space set between a landscape and a bunch of flowers).
RSVP on Eventbrite:
https://kempermuseum-apfelbaum-ezrashales.eventbrite.com
His book The Shape of Craft (Reaktion, 2017) fingers the wonder to be found in weaving and other tools we take for granted, from baskets to light bulbs.
A series of guided meditation and sound healing inside Kemper Museum galleries with Laura Frank of Inner Space Yoga. Participants will be guided through meditation, qigong, breathing instruction, and sound healing. Some blankets and mats will be provided, but participants are encouraged to bring their own blanket, yoga mat, and small cushion for meditation, if possible. No experience necessary. Space is limited.
RSVP on Eventbrite:
https://kempermuseum-apfelbaum-meditation-apr.eventbrite.com
Vocal ensemble KC VITAs perform a contemporary choral piece by New York-based composer Julia Barry, written in conversation with ensemble members on the theme of “Home.” Taking place as part of a nationwide initiative that encourages communication across our country's divides, this performance aims to constructively respond to the civic and environmental crises currently fracturing our homes, and encourage cultural democracy and empathy across the country.
RSVP on Eventbrite:
https://kempermuseum-apfelbaum-kcvitas.eventbrite.com
Standing for the “Kansas City Vibrating Internal Thyroarytenoids,” KC VITAs is a group of professional singers with the mission to promote the continued creation and performance of “contemporary-classical” vocal music. The choir is committed to performing new music, benefitting composers and performers alike.
Jackson C. Thomas is the founder and director of KC VITAs. Originally from Carrollton, Missouri, Thomas is a conductor, tenor, clinician, and teacher based in the Kansas City area, who currently serves as an Instructor at the University of Central-Missouri where he teaches Voice, Aural Training, Opera Workshop, and Women’s Choir.
Recorre el arte de Polly Apfelbaum con un docente de habla hispana, crea obras de arte con un artista local, y disfruta de algo de comida! Todo este evento, incluyendo la actividad de elaboración de arte, se presentará en español, y todos los materiales serán proporcionados.
RSVP on Eventbrite:
https://kempermuseum-diadeartefamiliarenespanol.eventbrite.com
Join us at the Kemper Museum for Spanish Language Family Art Day! Tour the art of Polly Apfelbaum with a Spanish-speaking docent, make some art with a local artist, and enjoy some food! This entire event, including the art activity, will be presented in Spanish, and all materials will be provided.
Enjoy coffee and a tour of the exhibition with Jason Pollen, Kansas City-based artist and teacher, as he reflects on the exuberance and layers in Apfelbaum’s work. Using connections between their careers, Pollen will focus on this uniquely colorful transformation of space.
RSVP on Eventbrite:
https://kempermuseum-apfelbaumtour-perspectives.eventbrite.com
Jason Pollen’s creations reconnect him with that exuberant world of children at play, but also with the slings and arrows to which we are all so vulnerable. With fervent determination and undiminished curiosity, Pollen manipulates dyes, brushes, fabrics, threads and twigs and coax them into what he hopes will be compelling compositions, conveying more than the sums of their parts.
Join us during the last weekend of Waiting for the UFOs for an unforgettable Earth Day-inspired event, including flash talks about indigenous plant-host relationships by artist Amanda Gehin, earth-conscious art-making activities, storytelling with the Kansas City Public Library, a live performance by Junkyard Orchestra, a Pressed Flower Workshop with Duplika Jewelry maker Wanda Wolmar, a sale at the museum shop, a brunch special highlighting ingredients from BoysGrow farm at Kemper Museum’s Café Sebastienne, and more!
Click here for a full schedule of events.
RSVP on Eventbrite:
https://kempermuseum-apfelbaum-extravaganza.eventbrite.com
Please join us to give a warm Kansas City welcome to the new Executive Director of Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Sean O’Harrow.
RSVPs are now closed; to attend please call 816-457-6102.
Afterwards, consider staying for dinner at Café Sebastienne! Book your reservation online or by calling 816-561-7740.
About Sean O'Harrow:
Born in Paris, France, and raised in Honolulu, Hawai’i, Sean O’Harrow is the new Executive Director of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. An expert in British and American art and architecture, he previously served as the director of the Honolulu Museum of Art, the University of Iowa Museum of Art, and the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa; and has also served as a member of the Iowa Arts Council Board of Directors. He holds a PhD from Cambridge University and a BA from Harvard University, both in Art History. Learn more...
In connection with the global Slow Art Day celebration, Kemper Museum encourages visitors to join us on Saturday, April 6, anytime during Museum hours 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. to slow down your museum experience, focus on slow looking, and experience its transformative power.
Come with a group, explore on your own, or sign up for a special Seeing Slowly Tour, taking place from 10:30–11:30 a.m. where participants will be docent-led to engage with art quietly, slowly, and mindfully. Experience the activation of the senses and the mind by being fully present in the process of viewing art, indulging in the unique opportunity of concentrating on just one thing... art.
RSVP for a Seeing Slowly Tour on Eventbrite:
https://kempermuseum-slowartday.eventbrite.com
Slow Art Day is a global event with a simple mission: help more people discover for themselves the joy of looking at and loving art. Select one or more works currently on view and challenge yourself to spend 5–10 minutes at each piece. Avoid the wall information. What observations can you make? Does the work of art remind you of anything? What interests you most about this work of art? How does this work of art make you feel? What new thoughts or ideas came up as you viewed this work?
Learn more about Slow Art Day here.
Valeria pens anonymous scripts for a successful screenwriter. One day, she is approached by a mysterious man who gives her an unusual gift: the plot for her next script. But that plot turns out to be a dangerous one; it is about the mysterious 1969 theft of the famous painting by Caravaggio, The Nativity. (Director, Roberto Andò, Drama, 2018, 110 min.)
RSVP on Eventbrite:
https://kempermuseum_italianfilmfest_the-stolen-caravaggio.eventbrite.com
Enjoy the local premieres of four recent, critically-acclaimed Italian films at the 2019 Italian Film Festival USA of Kansas City. All films shown in Italian with English subtitles. Sponsored by Volpi Foods and the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago; in collaboration with Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.
Giovanni and Monica are the most diverse people on the face of the earth. He is an intellectual living in the center of Rome; she is a former supermarket cashier living in a multicultural suburb. They would never have met if their children did not start dating. The two have a common goal: the friendship between their children must end! (Director, Riccardo Milani, Comedy, 2018, 98 min.)
RSVP on Eventbrite:
https://kempermuseum_italianfilmfest_like-a-cat.eventbrite.com
Enjoy the local premieres of four recent, critically-acclaimed Italian films at the 2019 Italian Film Festival USA of Kansas City. All films shown in Italian with English subtitles. Sponsored by Volpi Foods and the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago; in collaboration with Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.
Seven recent films—Filmesque, Magic Alps, Happy Hour, SugarLove, Day Labor, Elvis, and The World Cup in a Square—are in competition for your vote for best short film. (Comedy, Drama, Animation, 2018, 82 min.)
RSVP on Eventbrite:
https://kempermuseum_italianfilmfest_short-film-program.eventbrite.com
Enjoy the local premieres of four recent, critically-acclaimed Italian films at the 2019 Italian Film Festival USA of Kansas City. All films shown in Italian with English subtitles. Sponsored by Volpi Foods and the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago; in collaboration with Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.
Gabriele, the divorced father of 10 year-old Sofia, meets the woman of his dreams. But Mara doesn’t like children. How can he make the two most important women in his life happy? (Director, Guido Chiesa, Comedy, 2018, 87 min.)
RSVP on Eventbrite:
https://kempermuseum_italianfilmfest_let-me-introduce-you.eventbrite.com
Enjoy the local premieres of four recent, critically-acclaimed Italian films at the 2019 Italian Film Festival USA of Kansas City. All films shown in Italian with English subtitles. Sponsored by Volpi Foods and the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago; in collaboration with Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.
Kemper Museum’s fifth annual block party! Join us to celebrate the museum’s twenty-fifth anniversary with featured music, food trucks, exhibition tours, family activities, a Museum Shop trunk show, and outdoor movie screening on the museum lawn to close the evening.
RSVP on Eventbrite:
https://2019-block-party.eventbrite.com
Every Saturday from 1:00–2:00 p.m.
FREE | All ages
A casual opportunity for visitors to engage with artwork through informative conversations with Museum docents. Ask questions about the artwork on view and enjoy informative and lively dialogue.
No reservations required, just "drop in" and learn something new!
