Let's Make it Like Klimt!

There is a gorgeously odd still life hanging above my chair in the living room. It isn’t in the style of my artist daughter,  or any of the artists she buys and it is a mixed media mystery. So I asked for the story. Many years ago at the 1939 New York World’s fair a  young woman submitted artwork for a contest and was given an art school scholarship. But she never accepted it. Her family said no. You can imagine, given the time frame, all the reasons why. It was too far from home, she was too young, it wasn’t “seemly” any number of practical or cultural reasons why a young woman wouldn’t be permitted to go away to art school. Whatever the reasons she didn’t go. She got an education, though, and became a meteorologist. A scientific position quite remarkable for a woman of her time. But my still life?

When she was old, very old and in a nursing home, she went to a class and painted the beginning of a still life. Only a flower pot outlined with a few bare stems in the jar. That was all. All that was left of her creativity, imagination or possibly her energy on that day. Or maybe it was a contrived lesson and that’s all the farther she got. My artist daughter retrieved the unfinished still life and brought it home to Missouri on a piece of water color paper. After she color washed the background her daughter, the great grand daughter of the woman in the contest, who started the unfinished still life said. “I’ll finish it. Let’s make it like Klimt. “ And no one told her no.

No one told her, Klimt would have painted a whole landscape and not an indoor flower pot. No one told her she didn’t know enough about Klimt to parody his work. No one told her to go to the internet and spend another 6 months studying his landscapes and then come back. No one told her no. So she got materials, sat down, and turned the unfinished work of a woman who never became the artist she could have been, into a beautiful still life that for all the world acknowledges the colors, shapes, and to some extent the world view of Klimt. 

If you are (or were) a writer, actor, artist, sculptor, singer, performer, composer have you left your work because someone told you no? Did you walk away from the colors of expression and toward a science or a job that made a living for practical or cultural reasons? Would you like to find that creative part of you to say yes again? The part that can take the old unfinished dry stick of a work and bloom it into the beautiful expression of yourself you were meant to give? It’s possible. 

Join me in the Artists Way. A 12 week experiential journey to find the creativity that is in all of us. Starting  at the Paper Birch Landing Gallery on March 29. Come find the Masterpiece…that is you. 

Open the Windows for the Arts, Kansas City.

“I’ve got people, I tell you.” That’s what I say when ever anyone has a problem. It’s kind of a Kansas City thing. You need a recipe? A place to stay? A job, a doctor, a church, a new car, a ticket, a reference, an interview? People in Kansas City know people. Not like in New York where you pull strings, or in Chicago where you…well I’m not sure really what you do in Chicago. But here we build relationships. That’s really why I got so involved with the Royals games last year. I’m not much of an athlete. My cousins will tell you their little league softball team beat mine every time when we were in elementary school. My love for the Kansas City Royals, it’s about the story, the big picture the long term team relationships. 

It’s about character. Kansas City is all over character. You know the story. The winning Royals went to visit the Chiefs and somehow that team character —that underdog; we-are-all-one-team-spirit— kind of rubbed off. The Chiefs haven’t lost a game since. I don’t know enough about football to know if that’s the whole story. I haven’t watched all the football games this season. But I watched a whole season of baseball. Me. The person with three music degrees. Why? Because I love Kansas City? Yes. Because I understand baseball enough to know what’s going on? Yes. But more because of the relationships. Because of the character. I LOVE that guy Morales and his underdog story of leaving Cuba, coming back to win after not doing well. I LOVE that Salvador Perez is a kid from a little village who smiles all the time and is concerned for the guy from the other team when he gets knocked in the head. I LOVE that the winning run comes from that Colon guy who didn’t play for a month and then stood up and delivered in the World Series when he had to. I love all of the stories in between about loyalty, friendship, integrity and good old fashioned depth of character.

How in the world does that matter to the arts? To me, it’s the same kind of team I want us to build into the arts in Kansas City. I used to say that musicians are easier to talk to because you must have at least two musicians in a room to make music. Now an artist can close the door and make art all by themselves, but that is wrong. Artists need each other. They need someone to discuss, evaluate, brainstorm, see with new eyes, and yes, to be an audience for their work. They need relationships with other artists to recognize the value of art in their own life and in the world. Art really does change us, heal us, make us better. We cannot afford to let our artists close the door. We must open the doors and the windows and invite them into relationship with each other and with those who don’t yet understand how much art matters. 

At Paper Birch Landing Studio and Gallery we are planing many ways to connect artists to each other and to our community. I’m very excited about building a team with the same principles that have led Kansas City to be recognized as the best in the world. I’ve got people you know. You need art? You need a painter, a poet, a writer, a baker, a candlestick maker? I’ve got people on my team:

Artists like Polly Alice whose fine arts background provides an eye for what is quality and how to connect creative people together. Authors like Tessa Elwood who dreams dreams of other worlds and then takes time to help new writers create their own worlds. Catalysts like Heather Collingsworth who can not only make incredible art herself, but can find and connect the best artists in Kansas City with each other and with new audiences. Designers like Nicholas Clark, artist in residence, whose understanding of what kind of art Kansas City really loves means we are on track for a winning team. Come and hear their story, or let us tell yours. We are opening our doors and windows and you’re invited in. To see how art matters.

Hart of Art in Kansas City

“Silent Night . . . . Oh Holy Night!” Under the beautiful Beaux arts ceiling, the children’s voices waft over the Christmas tree, the people gathered around to listen, and me—- on an ancient wooden bench, “We sing for the children who have no voice…” echoes out into Union Station.

I’ve been living away from home for twenty-four years, but in August my family swept me back to Kansas City. I am home for Christmas to stay. The children's' voices prove to me what I believe more every day: Kansas City is on the cutting edge of the Arts in America. This little Christmas card perfect moment captures one snapshot of the enormous variety of art and music this season. Art matters to Kansas City. 

Here’s what I’ve experienced musically in only four months in Kansas City: 

• I’ve introduced two family members to opera at the Kauffman
• Bell Prairie’s elementary choir perform two pieces of music in October then grow their performance into a 30 minute repertoire at Union Station
• Parkville South’s high school concert choir honor veterans with a stellar musical tribute—probably just a part of their school day…but musically superb kids!
• A saxophone player on the Plaza setting the mood
• Paseo Academy for the Arts Chorale perform two stunningly beautiful works as a community service for a local church
• Performed a cantata with the Central United Methodist Church Choir and Bell Ringers 

I turned down more musical invitations than there were weekends. Excellent. These are folks I just run into because they are doing their job sharing their art with the community. I wanted a place to play the handbells. I played in Atlanta before I came home and loved it. I found a church near the plaza: Central United Methodist. It boasts handbells and a choir and a combined ministry with an African congregation. That means, I can hear young voices sing and worship in Swahili every week—and that connects me to the students I used to have in Arlington Virginia that I miss so much.

When I went to rehearse the cantata at Central UMC, I looked up at the ceiling and there was an 80 foot silk angel! A beautiful installation worthy of any fine gallery. Designed by volunteers and installed by art students from UMKC, it represented to me how much the church members love the arts in Kansas City. 

Why would people go to so much trouble? Because art matters to people in Kansas City.

What am I doing about it? Since August, I helped to found The New Thing Art Studio and watched it morph very capably into a boutique gallery at Paper Birch Landing in Midtown. It’s a studio and gallery to serve new and emerging artists. The combined efforts with three terrific women: Heather Fiona, Polly Alice, & Tessa Elwood. I attended Tessa’s incredible book launch for her YA novel “Inherit the Stars.” It was complete with food and art by members of Paper Birch Landing Gallery. I’ve watched three young women who love the arts come together and begin a nascent art gallery. I believe it will serve artists, writers and thinkers in Kansas City in a new and exciting way. And every time they start a new project, I am more and more convinced their cutting edge thinking will have a positive effect on other artists and on those who don’t really yet understand the powerful and necessary work of the arts in their lives.

So where does that lead us? On Tuesday, I took three generations of Benton relatives to see the Thomas Hart Benton exhibit. My mother was Eleanor Benton, granddaughter of John Benton (who was not the famous senator but a cousin). So all my life, I’ve known the work of THB and known I was a part of his family. You may know him as, “that guy who painted the murals in the Capitol building.” When I was a kid, he was just a question on the Civics test. So imagine my surprise, when we could not even get into the parking garage at the Nelson-Atkins. People were swarming toward the ticket line like it was the K for the Royals opening game. We did get in. And surprisingly everyone was there to see Thomas Hart Benton. The exhibit was packed.

We waited in line behind fifty other people and waded through the crowd to see his paintings up close. I did it because  I wanted to show the next generation that this person is part of our heritage. However,  the crowd taught me that everyone in Kansas City cares about our local Thomas Hart Benton and everybody cares about his art because it belongs to all of us. 

Like I said—Kansas City knows its art. Kansas City is on the cutting edge. Kansas City loves and supports the arts from the tiniest child’s play to the church musician to their own long lost son, visual artist, Thomas Hart Benton. 

And just like that night at the Union Station, I saw the Kansas City I always wanted to come home to. I feel like George at the end of “It’s a Wonderful Life," or Dorothy after Aunty Em looked in her eyes and she was home. 

Good old Union Station. Good old Kansas City skyline. Good old Nelson-Atkins Museum. I’ve put my ruby red slippers in the closet and I am home sweet home. 

The Best Fifty Cents

My mother was a farm girl. One Saturday she took me down the road to Gower Missouri, gave me two quarters and said, Go to Maude Guinn’s house and take a piano lesson.  So I did.

This September,  I told this story at the Alumni gathering at Benton High School in St. Joseph Missouri. We were there to honor three fine arts teachers who began their teaching careers in 1969.  I began my talk with, "It was the best 50 cents she ever spent." Everyone laughed. But that 50 cents took me a long, long way. 

Students from the 1971 Benton Singers with David L. Farris (Center)

After Maude Guinn's piano lessons, I joined my high school choir. It was 1971. Our young director, Dave Farris had a vision. He told 19 of us kids, ages 14 to 17, we could become the “Benton Singers.” Not only that, but we could convince our community to back us in raising enough funds to take a European Concert tour. We were kids. We believed him. What did we know? 

That fifty cents became hundreds then thousands of support. We worked 10 months, day and night: performed at six am Kiwanis sausage and biscuit breakfast (and we got no biscuits); left school with our homework on the teachers’ desks to catch a bus and perform in the middle of the day; passed the hat at over 75 concerts that year. Most of our parents were working people who knew this was the chance of a lifetime, and could never afford the ticket on their own. But somehow arts teachers, the other teacher sponsors, and the community at large, pulled together and believed in us. People like John Hoffman, John Reese, and our principal. Community members like the grocery store owner Paul Kovac, the Ford Dealer, the local banker, and the Chamber of Commerce. Somehow these “arts people” got us the gig. Nineteen kids with nothing but talent, sheer determination, and a fabulous teacher leader did that. We got on an airplane and my 'fifty cents' flew right over the ocean.  

Benton Singers in Italy 1971

We sang all over Europe. We did official concerts: Zurich, a town hall in the UK, Rammstein Airbase Hospital. Even more memorable, we did spontaneous concerts, like the one in Florence at the church called Santa Maria Del Fiore. What I remember best about this church was that it held the dome designed by Brunelleschi.  Now I know it as the place where the Renaissance began. The place where someone said, we have lost the key to Western Civilization. We do not know how to build this. We do not know how the arts can make a way, or what the arts can do. And crazy eyed Brunelleschi stepped in and said, I will do it. 

He did what everyone said could not be done.

To me, my  mother's fifty cents became like Brunelleschi's 'I will do it.'  It became a renaissance in my own life. On that day in Italy, under Brunelleschi's Il Duomo we sang for mass. Our director picked up his hand and conducted. There in the beautiful cathedral, our prepared piece from one of the dozens we learned by heart, transformed into a thing of impossible beauty. We counted 13 seconds for the last chord to die away. In that after note of silence we were awe struck. When it was over, a little Italian lady came over and patted the hand of one of the girls and said, “Grazie, grazie, grazie.”  That's when I knew. I knew that the arts had changed us, students from a small school on the wrong side of a down-and-out town, the arts had taken us farther than we ever imagined.

The teachers we honored last month, that's what they did for us. They handed us their fifty cents; gave us what little they had and sent us out into the world to share it. That small change multiplied. Our dear director, David L Farris, only taught at Benton for four years-- over 40 years ago, but the lives of so many students were altered forever. Forty years later, we gathered to eat a chicken dinner, give him a plaque, and sing his praises. Why does that matter? Think of the impact. Nineteen of the Benton singers went out into the world and influenced other lives and communities; worked in a wide variety of careers and fine arts. Some went into the arts.  One received the first college degree in her family and received a Doctoral Degree in Music Education. One taught for many years, more music springing out of more instrumentalists and vocalists. But what  REALLY matters from the work of those honored that night are the dozens and hundreds who are teachers, policemen, doctors, social workers, military members, federal workers, business people, nurses, family builders, pastors They are the people who make our community. And we are the richer for it. We became what we are because we learned those lessons in the arts.

(L to R John Hoffman, Theater Arts; John Reese, Band; David L Farris, Vocal Music

My path started on just fifty cents. Now after decades as a music educator, I want to share why the arts matter. Last week I sat down to give my grandson his first piano lesson. I can see the twinkle in his eye when he plays a made up song. It reminds me what art is all about as I clap and cheer for the three fine arts teachers honored at Benton High School. Our classmate, Aubert “Buddy” Davis, class of 1971, summed it up for us in his words to honor three teachers that night...

The Arts teach us to :

• Set clear measurable goals
• Dream big!
• Ethnic diversity is a strength
• To remember there is a big world out there waiting for you
• Practice, practice, practice 
• Family means everything
• Folks behind the scenes are just as important as the stars on stage
• To succeed, Give it your all and then some 

Twelve Minutes from Home-- Kansas City & the Arts

This past week three events stand out: I sat with my sister in the beautiful Kauffman theatre and listened to fabulous young voices sing Don Giovanni against a backdrop of film Noire sets and black & white costumes that almost shimmered with 1950s movie screen images.  I took a survey about children’s activities from the Kansas City Lyric Opera. I watched a North Kansas City elementary school choir sing two pieces for a school assembly. What do these three things have to do with each other in the scheme of the arts in Kansas City and why do they matter?

The first, somewhat obvious, is that we are fortunate in a city of our size to have such a beautiful performance hall available. The Kauffman Center is a jewell. It’s gorgeous, accessible, high tech and and literally shines in the middle of the city like a little diamond popped up in the skyline. I’ve seen two opera there recently, Tosca, last season, and Don Giovanni the current season opener. I've been pleased as punch with my ticket purchase. But the cool thing for me about Kansas City is that everyone goes to the Opera. It’s not a ballgame, I grant you, and tickets are not exactly petty cash. But I’m so excited to see people of all ages. Retirees, students and—to put it plainly—just regular folks. 

In the middle of the week, the KC Lyric Opera sent me a survey implying they would like to find a children’s audience. They were very thorough in the questions and I spent quite a bit of time with it. Then late in the week I went to an event in a North Kansas City elementary school and the music teacher had the chorus sing 2 songs. Both in 2 parts—and it’s only October. If you have never conducted a volunteer chorus that meets before school, you have no idea what a feat that is, but I was duly impressed and told the teacher so.

Now, how are these things at all connected? Well, I came back to the Kansas City area convinced that it is a center of incredibly intense arts activity. That the support for art and arts education here is really excellent and here is a great example of it. There is a quality performance, of Opera no less, twelve minutes from my far Northland Kansas City address. It’s a standard opera, performed hundreds of times, but it was directed with a new look and not at all dusty. The voices were outstanding. I felt, even as a highly educated musician, I got my money’s worth. I could take my family to that performance and their understanding of the arts would increase immediately. In addtion, the survey points out that this organization is reaching out to my family. They are LOOKING for a way to reach young students in the Kansas City area. Finally, when I go to the local elementary school I see music educators working hard, not just in their classroom, but before school, to make sure students are prepared to understand the kind of musical experience they might get if they went to a children’s performance at the Lyric Opera. 

Here is what I see: The community supporting the arts… building a beautiful venue, buying tickets to the opera, and other fine arts events, bringing their children early to school to go to choir and also, at this particular school district during the school day for band and orchestra. Finally, I see the arts reaching out into the community. Looking for how best to serve young people. Should they perform opera for students? Should they locate it in the city or elsewhere? I know it’s a marketing question, but they are asking us, the community, how best we can be served. It’s a perfect storm of arts enthusiasm as far as I’m concerned. And that matters to me.