Living in Kansas City
Designers, artists and scholars who join the faculty of the Kansas City Art Institute will discover that Kansas City provides a rich and nurturing environment. Kansas City, Missouri, is the center of a metropolitan area of over 1.5 million people. The city has a strong business community with numerous corporate headquarters, including H&R Block, Hallmark Cards and AMC Theatres. An active communications design, industrial design and architecture community is part of this, with American Institute of Graphic Arts, Industrial Designers Society of America and American Institute of Architects chapters.
The KCAI campus is uniquely situated between the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, both with internationally recognized collections and architecture. The KCAI library contains over 30,000 volumes specific to all aspects of art and design and is part of a library network linking the collections of nine area colleges.
Kansas City is a vibrant center for the visual and performing arts. In a recent article entitled “Art Boom in the Heartland,” The New York Times described the “remarkable concentration of museums in Missouri that together offer an extraordinarily rich trove of late-20th century art.”
The world-renowned Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art recently opened their $200 million expansion by acclaimed architect Steven Holl, immediately east of the Kansas City Art Institute. Opened in 1933, the museum is best known for its extensive collection of Asian art and 17-acre sculpture garden of 20th century masterworks. The Kansas City Art Institute is the oldest arts institution in Kansas City, founded in 1885. The campus anchors the community’s cultural district, situated between the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. The college recently completed $15 million in campus improvements, including the award-winning H&R Block Artspace at KCAI, a gallery dedicated to contemporary art and visual arts education, and the new Jannes Library and Learning Center.
The Crossroads and Freight House Districts, located just north of the historic Union Station/Science City project in downtown, have emerged as a vital community of galleries showing national and international artists.
The area also is home to Grand Arts Gallery, the Margaret Hall Silva Foundation, and to the Charlotte Street Foundation, nonprofits in support of artists. The West Bottoms neighborhood in the old Kansas City stockyards is a thriving area of inexpensive studio/living and alternative gallery spaces. KCAI alumni, faculty and board members figure prominently in these districts.
A major Performing Arts Center will open in downtown Kansas City, designed by Moshe Safdie & Associates. The new complex encompasses a 2,200-seat theater/opera house, a 1,800-seat orchestra hall and a new school and studios for the Kansas City Ballet. Kansas City has a multitude of parks and fountains located through the metropolitan area. Many of these fountains can be seen in the Country Club Plaza, a thriving entertainment district rich with restaurants and shops. The city is blessed with abundant Arts & Crafts era neighborhoods with beautifully crafted historic and surprisingly affordable homes. Historic warehouse districts are experiencing a wave of loft conversions.
Many jazz musician greats got their start in Kansas City, including William “Count” Basie, Charlie “Bird” Parker and Orin “Hot Lips” Page. The city continues to add its unique voice to jazz in clubs all over town, listed on the Jazz Ambassadors’ Hotline. Kansas City’s jazz district at 18th and Vine streets is home to the Kansas City Jazz Museum and live performances at the Gem Theater, as well as the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Professional sports teams Chiefs (football), Royals (baseball), Comets and Wizards (soccer), and Explorers (tennis) also make Kansas City their home.
Affordable housing and the cost of living are some of the best in the country. Kansas City and the KC/MO area offers everything from urban loft living to historic residential neighborhoods with a housing stock of exceptional craftsmanship and plush suburbs with excellent public school systems. Kansas City is nationally recognized as one of the most vibrant art scenes in the US and offers a variety of galleries, one-of-a-kind restaurants and cafés, parks, farmers markets, lakes and rivers, jazz clubs, art-house movie theaters, ballet, symphony, opera, major-league sports teams, as well as diverse retail/shopping environments. The Kansas City airport is easily accessible and offers direct flights to most of the US.