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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.

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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Kemper Museum and the KC Streetcar Authority are thrilled to partner in celebration of the museum's 30th anniversary. The collaboration has resulted in the first ever art museum KC Streetcar wrap, which features details of work by artists in the Kemper Museum Permanent Collection on Streetcar #802 and celebrates free access to contemporary art and public transportation.

For the Kemper Museum Streetcar, Kansas City-based agency BarkleyOKRP designed an energetic pattern featuring of details of works by artists that riders may recognize from past exhibitions at the museum. QR codes inside the car provide opportunities to see images of the full artworks and learn about each of the artists: Polly Apfelbaum, Betty Blayton, Joiri Minaya, Aliza Nisenbaum, Gilda Snowden, and Summer Wheat. The featured artwork represents the museum’s tradition of amplifying the work of influential emerging artists who inspire viewers of all ages and backgrounds to engage new questions and ideas through their work, and several have important local connections.

The installation spans the exterior and interior of KC Streetcar #802, and will cruise through Downtown Kansas City from the River Market to Union Station until the end of the year. We're inviting riders to see new art, ask new questions, and see the world in a new light. 

Kemper Museum x KC Streetcar

Squiggles

Dream Forms #3

Shedding

Dálida and Michael (Serennata del Tres Cubano)

Imaginary Landscape

Watermelon Seeds

Featured Artworks

Squiggles was created as part of a 2018 series of works that commemorates forty years of the pride flag as a symbol of pride and activism for the LGBTQ+ community, drawing on the flag's color palate for inspiration. It is one of Apfelbaum's famous textile floor works, which she describes as "fallen paintings."

The work was part of Apfelbaum's 2019 exhibition at Kemper Museum titled, Waiting for the UFOs (a space set between a landscape and a bunch of flowers).

Betty Blayton was an artist, educator, and cofounder of important institutions including the Studio Museum in Harlem, Harlem Children's Art Carnival (where a young Jean-Michel Basquiat studied), and Harlem Textile works. 

Her work Dream Forms #3 was celebrated in the groundbreaking 2017 Kemper Museum exhibition, Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today, the first exhibition in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to the formal and historical dialogue of abstraction by women artists of color.

Joiri Minaya is a New York-based artist working across video, installation, and performance, often using botanical and landscape imagery as a means to reclaim agency and visibility. Patterns in the work Shedding reference the a visit to the Quindaro Townsite, a historically significant area of the abolitionist community in Kansas City, Kansas. 

Shedding was part of a major commissioned installation for Kemper Museum's 2020 Atrium Project, Joiri Minaya: Divergences.

Aliza Nisenbaum is known for her brightly-colored paintings and community-based approach to portraiture. Nisenbaum has exhibited her work across the world, working with locals in each city as her subjects—from transit workers on the London Underground, to airport workers at the new La Guardia Airport in New York City. 

Dálida and Michael (Serennata del Tres Cubano) is part of Aliza Nisenbaum’s series of portraits spotlighting individuals connected to Kansas City salsa music and dance communities commissioned for the 2021 Atrium Project, Aliza Nisenbaum: Aquí Se Puede (Here You Can).

Gilda Snowden was a Detroit-based artist, gallery director, and curator whose colorful practice offers an autobiographical glimpse into the artist’s life growing up in Detroit and her childhood recollections. Bold, textural, and dramatic strokes of paint were characteristic of Snowden’s works, which almost always drew from her memories and interior life.

Imaginary Landscapes was celebrated in the groundbreaking 2017 Kemper Museum exhibition, Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today, the first exhibition in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to the formal and historical dialogue of abstraction by women artists of color.

Summer Wheat's vibrantly colored paintings, including Watermelon Seeds, depict a community of women wearing what they want, eating what and how they want, relaxing with each other, and taking care of each other. 

Kemper Museum presented Wheat's solo exhibition Blood, Sweat, and Tears in 2020, and she is currently working on a major commissioned installation for the Kansas City Museum.

Celebrating 30 Years

When Kemper Museum opened in October 1994, it was the only museum in the state dedicated to modern and contemporary art. Over the past three decades, it has become a cultural cornerstone in Kansas City and a leading presenter of contemporary art and ideas in the region. And at 30 years young, and with the support of our communities, we're just getting started. 

30th Anniversary programming is made possible in part by a generous gift from the Kemper Family Foundations.

Gattermeir Family Fund
Jack and Karen Holland
The McDonnell Foundation, Inc.
Jo Ann and William Sullivan