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Kansas City, MO 64111

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Kemper Museum is a free art museum in Kansas City, Missouri that presents global 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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Angela Dufresne

Me and Johnny Depp in a Still from Rififi

Vermeer Alteration

Tom Hück

Mornin'

Nooner'

Night-Nite'

Michelangelo Lovelace

Trigger Happy

John Mackiewicz

Grocery

Leonard Pryor

Paper Boy

Third Person: Storytelling as Cultural Construction

Third Person Exhibition Checklist_FINAL_10-05-2022.pdf

The art of storytelling has been passed down for centuries through oral tradition, music, literature, theater, cinema, and visual art. A good storyteller can illuminate, warn, impart moral lessons, and raise questions about the nature of life. Third Person: Storytelling as Cultural Construction evaluates how narrative art—a form of storytelling by which an artist communicates historic or fictionalized accounts—can impact our collective consciousness through vivid imagination or a restaging of events.



In his 1936 essay “The Storyteller,” philosopher Walter Benjamin suggested that our society is struggling to pass along the art of storytelling or to tell meaningful stories due to the explosion of information and modern mass media. While “The Storyteller” is a contentious essay, particularly because of its critique of forms such as the novel and film, Benjamin’s analysis of information overload continues to prove timely in the age of internet and social media. This exhibition highlights visual artists whose use of narrative tactics slows us down, focuses our attention, and allows us to construct cultural meaning through strategies of illustration, imagination, and dramaturgy. 

Third Person: Storytelling as Cultural Construction is organized by Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and curated by Krista Alba, Kemper Museum assistant curator.

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.

Leonard Pryor (American, 1924-2015), Paper Boy, 1949, oil on canvas, 42 x 29½ inches. Collection of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, Gift of Renée Pryor Newton and Craig Pryor in loving memory of their parents Leonard and Maxine Pryor, 2022.1.1. © Renee Pryor Newton and Craig Pryor. Photo: E. G. Schempf, 2022.