Arts Archives

Unicorn Theatre audiences have come to expect shows with provocative themes that delve into sex, drugs, and rock and roll. In short, subject matter decidedly NOT for young audiences.

By Steve Walker

Kansas City, MO – Take away the drugs and rock and roll, and you've got the entire plot of its season opener, "My First Time," a collage of scenes and monologues from web-based social history of sexual initiation that brings a dash of the Kinsey report to the internet age.

For artist Juniper Tangpuz, play is at the center of his work. An exhibition of his paintings and sculptures at the Thornhill Gallery explores two sides of his persona: the private and the public, as KCUR's Laura Spencer reports.

By Laura Spencer

Kansas City, MO – "The Unusual Dreams of Juniper & T.J. Tangpuz"

August 28 - September 30, 2009

Halloween is still several weeks away, but Kansas City's big haunted houses are already up and running. KCUR's Alex Smith stopped by the Beast in the West Bottoms just before opening day to watch new and veteran employees prepare for another season of scaring.

By Alex Smith

Like many other opera companies around the country, each season, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City usually creates one set and rents the others. Here, the Lyric's Director of Design and Technical Production Keith Brumley talks about creativity in challenging economic times.

By Laura Spencer

In 1987, Michael Jackson became the first artist to release an album with five songs that made it to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was also the year that Alexander Austin found his way to Kansas City, and he's been transforming windowless and scarred walls of neglected Kansas City buildings into works of art ever since.

By Susan B. Wilson

The Hand-in-Hand Folk Art Collection officially goes on display at Partnership Place on Grand Street next year, but part of the collection will be in a show, opening Friday, September 4th at the Mattie Rhodes Gallery on the Westside.

By Sylvia Maria Gross

By Susan B. Wilson

By Sylvia Maria Gross

By Alex Smith

When the Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence received a collection of 180 of Andy Warhol's photographs in 2008, it wasn't long before the museum's staff felt compelled to spotlight the gift within the context of Warhol's New York circa the 1980s.

By Steve Walker

Juniper (or TJ) Tangpuz, is a sculptor and inventor of objects, animals, and instruments. Many of his works are crafted from paper or corrugated plastic. Here, Tangpuz talks about why he encourages people to interact with his sculptures.

By Laura Spencer

Kansas City, MO – "The Unusual Dreams of Juniper and TJ Tangpuz"

With special guests Kacico Dance

August 28 - September 30, 2009

Opening Reception Friday August 28th, 5-8 pm

Kansas City's Sammy Jo Claussen was recently named the Best Teen Chef of 2009, at a national competition held in Charlotte, NC. Find out how to make her award-winning meal and hear how she began cooking as early as age seven.

By Annie Walsh

Long before pop artists started writing musicals, country cross-over artist Roger Miller shifted from chart-toppers like "Dang Me" to the Broadway stage with "Big River," the 1985 adaptation of Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

By Steve Walker

Photographer Fazal Sheikh captures the lives of the people he encounters with a special kind of dignity and respect. His current exhibition at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art documents the stories of women in India - it's called "Beloved Daughters."

By Susan B. Wilson

One of the most complex issues in contemporary American culture today is race - witness the whole situation with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Cambridge police officer James Crowley. In Kansas City, twenty-six artists explore the history of civil rights, skin color, race and its connection to class in an exhibition at the H&R Block Artspace at the Kansas City Art Institute.

By Laura Spencer