KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI—July 18, 2018—Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art invites everyone to a FREE evening filled with food, fun, festivities, friends, and film—it’s the fourth annual Summer Block Party taking place on Saturday, August 18, 2018, from 6:00–10:30 p.m.

Kemper Museum Docents will be welcoming gallery-goers throughout the evening and answering questions about works currently on display. The Museum Shop will be joining in the art-filled-festivities by hosting “Pop Up at the Museum Shop: Block Party Edition” where visitors can explore locally-made jewelry, ceramics, textiles, and more. There will be artmaking activities both indoors and outdoors, and at sundown (approximately 8:30 p.m.) everyone will be encouraged to find a spot on the Museum Grounds for this year's outdoor film screening featuring the 1984 hit, The NeverEnding Story.

Performances

6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Live Music | KC Latin Jazz All-Stars

7:00 – 8:30 p.m. DJ Leo Nightus

8:30 – 10:30 p.m. Outdoor Film Screening | The NeverEnding Story

Food and Drink

Enjoy a bite to eat at some of Kansas City’s favorite food trucks, including Jerusalem Cafe, Kona Ice, and KC Smoke Burgers stationed on the North side of Kemper Museum. Come early and enjoy complimentary items for a limited time.

Café Sebastienne will host a cash bar with ice cold beer, wine, and cocktails available for sale.

Activities For Kids

Indoors: Enjoy an all-ages artmaking activity inspired by the new Atrium installation by Paul Henry Ramirez. Choosing between a circular base or small canvas, add circles, circles, and more circles from a variety of materials to create your mixed media masterpiece!

Outdoors: Chico Sierra’s expressive line work and bold colors reflect his sense of blurred borders and the cultures he has experienced while living in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Germany, and the Philippines. He’ll be on-site for this year’s Block Party, drawing and teaching chalk games from around the world, sponsored in-part by KC Healthy Kids. Through advocacy and youth programs, KC Healthy Kids rallies the people in our schools and communities to improve access to affordable fresh food and safe places to walk and play.

Pop Up at the Museum Shop: Block Party Edition

Now an annual tradition taking place as part of the Summer Block Party, the Museum Shop is excited to host area artists for "Pop Up at the Museum Shop: Block Party Edition” beginning at 6:00 p.m. Participating artists will include: Cheryl Eve Acosta, copper and enamel jewelry; Jordan Crozier, hand-dyed silk scarves; Evie Englezos, ceramic pots, cups, and jewelry; Anthony Pack, small sculptures; Gary Rockhold, printed pillows; and Manda Wylde, ceramic jewelry. Museum members will receive DOUBLE their discount storewide, ranging from 20-40% off! Not a member yet? Join now online or in-person at the Shop to help keep the Museum free for everyone all year long.

Featured Art Exhibitions

Worlds Otherwise Hidden features the work of three international artists who interpret the complexities—both beautiful and challenging—of cultures shaped by migration, immigration, displacement, and exile. Nevin Aladağ (b. 1972), Kimsooja (b. 1957), and Nari Ward (b. 1963) combine and transmute specific objects, designs, and symbols from divergent cultural contexts in their video and sculptural installations. They explore issues of fractured geography, creating new space for dialogue and revealing worlds otherwise hidden.

Flaw(less) explores themes of identity, stereotypes, and perception across cultures in works from the Kemper Museum Permanent Collection, curated by the Kemper Teen Arts Council. These works, dating from 1920 to 2013, present an opportunity to consider our shared experiences in the ways we present ourselves, how we are perceived, and what we may consider to be flaws in our appearance as we are subjected to the gaze of others through generations.

Water Music, an exhibition of works from the Permanent Collection of Kemper Museum, is inspired by the poem “Water Music” by American poet and feminist literary critic Sandra M. Gilbert. The poem describes qualities of water—clear, shapeless, changing—and its connection to our bodies. Just as the words of Gilbert’s poem elicit water’s connection to people, the paintings on view expand on water’s presence in the landscape. Both poem and paintings engage perception, particularly how we may see ourselves reflected in the world around us, and how water can be a metaphor for the fluidity of life.

Kathy Butterly: For its participation in Open Spaces: A Kansas City Arts Experience, Kemper Museum presents a combination of new and older works by New York-based artist Kathy Butterly. Since the early 1990s, Butterly (b. 1963) has created distinctly evocative sculptures that contribute to and expand upon the tradition of studio ceramics. Through her practice, Butterly engages with concepts ranging from scale, materiality, and line to the history of the handmade vessel.

Sweet On is a site-responsive installation by Texas-born, New Jersey-based artist Paul Henry Ramirez. Over the past two decades Ramirez has embraced beauty in his art and has sought to bring joy to those who view it. In 2010, Paul Henry Ramirez coined the term biogeomorphic abstractionto describe his own bold style, a fusion of biomorphic and geometric forms. In his site-specific installations, Ramirez approaches architectural space as an empty canvas pushing the boundaries of painting and how the viewer experiences it. Sweet On is the third in a series of commissioned atrium projects, and will be on view August 17, 2018–July 28, 2019.

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About Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art

Kansas City’s renowned FREE contemporary art museum, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art opened in October 1994 anddraws 100,000 visitors each year. The Museum boasts a rapidly growing Permanent Collection that uniquely bridges modern and contemporary works of art featuring artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Helen Frankenthaler, Willem de Kooning, Georgia O’Keeffe, Keltie Ferris, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Richard Mosse, and Ursula von Rydingsvard. The Museum regularly hosts special exhibitions, installations, and lectures, as well as programs and workshops for youth, teens, and families.

About Café Sebastienne

Recognized as one of Kansas City’s premier dining venues for outstanding cuisine since it opened in 1994, Café Sebastienne is nestled within Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art giving diners a spectacularly unique view of the region’s finest modern and contemporary art collections. The Gunnar Birkerts architectural design, floor to ceiling works of art, bustling museum atmosphere, top-notch service, and eclectic wine list are just a few notables that continue to give guests a wonderful dining experience. Café Sebastienne is the perfect setting for intimate and grand affairs, business outings, events, and all your special dining needs.

For more information about Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art or Café Sebastienne, visit kemperart.org.



For interview requests and general media inquiries please contact:

Breeze Richardson, Director of Marketing and Communications

brichardson@kemperart.org | 816-457-6132



Download: KEMPER MUSEUM’S ANNUAL BLOCK PARTY RETURNS (pdf)