informality blog

The mission of informality is to take the talk about art in Kansas City out of the critique, roundtable, panel discussion, studio visit, and the car trip home from the gallery and put it online. By taking a pragmatic approach and encouraging contributors to openly submit everything from cell phone photos, tweets, and vines- to longer form posts, like essays and podcasts, we hope to take out the intimidation that normally exists with publishing thought about a work of art. We also encourage writing that is practical and discusses how the work functions in relation to culture instead of simply making a judgment on whether it is good or bad. Finally, we use Tumblr as our platform to keep the discussion accessible and allow the artists of Kansas City to intertwine with the worldwide image and thought making community.

[informalityblog]

Dress Code: Black Only Informs Without Qualifying

Dress Code: Black Only Informs Without Qualifying

The Black Student Union (BSU) at the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) presents Dress Code: Black Only, the 4th annual Black History Month exhibition hosted by Kansas City’s Leedy-Voulkos Art Center.  These works are incubators of conversations that ask viewers to see how “The work in this exhibition showcases intersections of the Black consciousness, interior, and internet spaces. As critical…

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Dress Code: Black Only Informs Without Qualifying

Dress Code: Black Only Informs Without Qualifying

The Black Student Union (BSU) at the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) presents Dress Code: Black Only, the 4th annual Black History Month exhibition hosted by Kansas City’s Leedy-Voulkos Art Center.  These works are incubators of conversations that ask viewers to see “Black consciousness, interior, and internet spaces,” minus the fetishization that often accompanies such work from young, Black…

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Staff Reductions at Nelson-Atkins Spotlights Need for Restructuring of Exhibitions and Programming

Staff Reductions at Nelson-Atkins Spotlights Need for Restructuring of Exhibitions and Programming

Kansas City’s Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art announced they are reducing their budget by 25% to around $26 million. In turn, this necessitated a staff reduction of 15%, or 36 positions, across the entire Museum. The announcement came from Director Julián Zugazagoitia during a museum-wide Zoom meeting.

In an announcement found on the Museum’s website, “Any decision to reduce the size of the staff…

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KCAI Suspends BIPOC Student Over Critique of Trustee's Charitable Conflicts

KCAI Suspends BIPOC Student Over Critique of Trustee’s Charitable Conflicts

Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) student Dante Moore received a suspension for displaying critical remarks of KCAI Chairman of the Board of Trustees Frank Uryasz III. Moore must present his case before the school administration on October 15, 2020. Charitable contributions from Mr. Uryasz’s Foundation raise ethical concerns about the ways and means in which the school’s administration is dealing…

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Welcome to Campus

Dear Students of the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI),

You are beginning your semester in the time of a global pandemic and an imperative necessity to question white supremacy in your country, your institutions, and your daily life. This will not be a normal semester; it can’t be.

The structures and ideas formed before you in the creative field are in both decay and transformation. You are…

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Kansas City Art Institute Responds to Student Group KCAI Solidarity

Kansas City Art Institute Responds to Student Group KCAI Solidarity

Informality is an organization dedicated to informal and informative dialogue around art in the Kansas City region. For that reason, we have decided to publish the document below from KCAI Solidarity, a newly formed group run by the Student Solidarity Network and the Black Student Union at the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI). The group, comprised of current students, wants to illuminate the…

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Mattie Rhodes Art Camp is Open, Observing Safety Protocols

Mattie Rhodes Art Camp is Open, Observing Safety Protocols

Summer Art Camps at Mattie Rhodes at Mattie Rhodes Art Center on Kansas City’s Westside is happening!

Mattie Rhodes staff will be following all updated CDC and state rules to keep health and safety at priority during COVID-19.

“The safety and well-being of our families and staff are our top priority. We have been working hard to create a plan to ensure the safety and trust of our…

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Office of Culture and Creative Services Eliminated in Budget Crunch

While not too surprising, Kansas City’s Office of Culture and Creative Services was eliminated from the fiscal year 2021 budget.

The importance of this office, and its intended potential to accelerate outside services and projects into Kansas City, would have been a boon to the local arts ecosystem. However, unintended consequences, including the global pandemic, was not strong enough to…

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Making Masks, Artists Respond to the Social Imperative

Museums and cultural institutions are currently cuckolded during the global pandemic and subsequent stay at home orders. Artist’s reliance upon these spaces is now upended, and makers have to fend for themselves. As with most artists, they have an eye towards the public response. The turn to creating masks is their response to the social imperative of a wartime society in desperate need of PPE…

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New Platforms for Art in the Current Environment

We have entered a paradigm shift in socializing. Always prepared to adapt, the art world is trained for moments like this. Making do, building bridges, and the like are all points of movement that serve its ultimate goal; getting people in front of an artist’s work. Informality spoke with Social Distance Gallery, Remote Collaboration, and Young Space(yngspc), three separately distinct groups…

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Eye of the Tiger, Belly of the Beast. Jessercise at UCM Gallery of Art & Design

Humorous cliches were abound in Jessica Freylinghausen’s installation Jessercise Gymnasium, which recently closed at the University of Central Missouri Art Gallery in Warrensburg, Missouri. However, beneath the can-do platitudes throughout the installation, we get an understanding from the artist’s motivations for the similarities of achievements and failures between the gallery space and the…

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To Each Their Own: A Look at Survey Shows Through the Lens of queer abstraction

To Each Their Own: A Look at Survey Shows Through the Lens of queer abstraction

queer abstractionat the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Overland Park, Kansas is a traveling survey show of queer artists. The complicated nature of doing a show about marginalized identities of any kind is that it inevitably brings societal wounds up to the surface, which are often fresh and ongoing. On the one hand, it’s essential to have the public or mainstream culture aware of these…

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Kansas City Budget Proposes Annihilation of Artist Resources

Kansas City Budget Proposes Annihilation of Artist Resources

Last week, Kansas City, Missouri Mayor Quinton Lucas and Acting City Manager Earnest Rouse announced the annual budget for FY 2020-2021. Among the budget, recommendations are the elimination of the Office of Culture and Creative Services (OCCS) and a $175,000 reduction of the Film Commission. These are two areas particular to Kansas City’s arts community.

If there was ever a time for the…

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An Embodied Encounter With queer abstraction

An Embodied Encounter With queer abstraction

It is difficult to make value judgments on works of queer abstraction; in fact, it is antithetical to do so. Instead, I offer an entanglement of sensory observations and visual/textual relationalities for readers to dis- and re-entangle as they see fit. 

queer abstraction is a national touring group exhibition currently at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Artin Overland Park, Kansas. This…

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Charlotte Street announces 2020 Visual Artist Awards and 2020 Generative Performing Artist Awards

Charlotte Street announces 2020 Visual Artist Awards and 2020 Generative Performing Artist Awards

Charlotte Street Foundation (CSF) announces the 2020 Visual Artist and Generative Performing Artist Awards from the Kansas City region. A milestone on CSF’s giving is this year also marks the 100th Visual Artist Award granted.

Recipients of the Visual Artist Awards are Cory Imig, Glyneisha Johnson, and Kathy Liao.

Liao tells Informality, “I am very honored and humbled to be awarded the…

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Studio Inc Announces Four Artists Selected for Residency Program

Studio Inc Announces Four Artists Selected for Residency Program

Kansas City’s Studio Inc announces the arrival of four artists selected for their three-year residency program at its East Crossroads location.

The artists include Judith G. Levy, Marie Bannerot McInerney, Yoonmi Nam, and Kevin Townsend. 

Executive Director Courtney Wasson says in a formal announcement, “Studios Inc in Kansas City is a nonprofit arts organization that offers pivotal…

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[informalityblog]

Studio Inc Announces Four Artists Selected for Residency Program

Studio Inc Announces Four Artists Selected for Residency Program

Kansas City’s Studio Inc announces the arrival of four artists selected for their three-year residency program at its East Crossroads location.

The artists include Judith G. Levy, Marie Bannerot McInerney, Yoonmi Nam, and Kevin Townsend. 

Executive Director Courtney Wasson says in a formal announcement, “Studios Inc in Kansas City is a nonprofit arts organization that offers pivotal…

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