I absolutely love small art scenes that seem to have the ability to catch you by surprise. It’s the beauty of the internet--the gift of being able to follow from afar scenes in cities we have never visited. Of course, there are interesting communities in Portland and Providence, Houston and Oakland, but I maintain that over the past two years or so, no non-native has been more interested than I have been in Kansas City. And, not only have I never been a resident, but I have never set foot within the city limits. Sure, the Steven Holl Bloch building addition at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art grabs all of the headlines (Time magazine ranked it #1 on the "The 10 Best New and Upcoming Architectural Marvels" list), but there is something about the funky artist collaborations and the multitude of interesting non-profits that makes the city seem like a utopia in the middle of Tornado Alley. In case you have not visited in person or haven’t had the online tour, here is the lay of the land: the Kansas City Art Institute cranks out creative kids, and houses the H&R Block Artspace, an incredibly interesting collegiate gallery. Recent grads used to hightail it for the greener pastures of fame and fortune in New York or Chicago. (A problem Kansas City shares with many a small city.) The development of the Charlotte Street Foundation, which provides unrestricted financial awards to individual artists (not to mention professional development support), has made it viable for a creative class not to just remain, but to flourish. Just down the road from the Art Institute and the Nelson-Atkins, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art has been mounting innovative exhibitions since 1994. Just when it looked as though the Crossroads, one of the largest arts districts in the U.S. and home to the city’s First Fridays, was about to lose its anchor warehouse building due to gentrification, the Kemper stepped in and opened the Kemper at the Crossroads. This is a completely new venture that is sure to solidify relationships with the young artists of the neighborhood and open the museum to wider audiences. Another new kid on the block sits just across the river in Kansas City, Kansas: the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, at Johnson County Community College. It is the largest museum of contemporary art within a four-state radius. You may be asking how I am able to follow all of this from Philly. It’s tough, but made easier with the help of the Kansas City art blog Shorttage (“Where funds are low and creativity is high”). My favorite posts are the reviews of opening night hors d'oeuvres.
Of course, there is one institution that has been conspicuously left out of this discussion, one of my favorite curatorial programs in the country: Grand Arts. I’ve always admired the imaginative work of the Artistic Director of this quintessential alternative space, Stacy Switzer, whose exhibitions attempt to confront current political/racial/ecological issues. Switzer and Grand Arts maintain a program that continually challenges artists and audiences alike in unexpected ways by treating galleries as laboratories, not pristine white boxes. When PEI announced the creation of our Curatorial Consultation Program, I instantly knew that it would be a tremendous benefit to our region to have Stacy involved. Luckily, Andrew Suggs, Director of Vox Populi, agreed, and our first match was made. It is our hope that Stacy’s ideas will be as inspirational to Vox as they have been to us. 
I was fortunate enough to have Stacy answer a few questions about the state of the arts in Kansas City, as well as her hopes for her upcoming experiences with Vox:
There is obviously a lot to know about this. I think you made some good points in Features also.
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