Kansas City Art Institute

Kansas City Art Institute Founded in 1885, the Kansas City Art Institute is a private, independent fully-accredited college of Art & Design.
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KCAI provides a rigorous, diverse curriculum and an immersive studio experience for students who are passionate about the realization of their ideas. KCAI offers 13 majors: Animation, Art History, Ceramics, Creative Writing, Fiber, Filmmaking, Graphic Design, Illustration, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Product Design and Sculpture. The mission of KCAI is to prepare gifted students to transform the world creatively through art and design.

Join us at the Kansas City Art Institute for a lecture by KCAI Alumni Janet Neuwalder ('84 Ceramics). https://kcai.edu/c...
09/09/2026

Join us at the Kansas City Art Institute for a lecture by KCAI Alumni Janet Neuwalder ('84 Ceramics). https://kcai.edu/calendar/current-perspectives-janet-neuwalder/

Neuwalder is a contemporary clay installation artist, vessel maker and educator. Her work evokes a sense of history and reflects her reverence for the natural world, the microscopic and macroscopic, and the poignancy of human experience. She seeks to preserve, illuminate and memorialize universal stories.

Working primarily in clay with mixed media, Neuwalder’s installations present a world of “contemporary fossils”, objects and topographies that embody and reflect the resilience of the human spirit. These landscapes are poised somewhere between growth and decay, recognition and abstraction, beauty and viscera. Her Japanese American and Austrian Jewish heritage informs much of her work and aesthetic. Ranging from hundreds to thousands of elements, these labor-intensive forms, like migrations, seemingly float and flutter. Her paper-thin porcelain forms confirm that fragility is strength. Neuwalder’s domestic vessels offer a moment of connection and tactile beauty in our increasingly virtual world.

This event is free and open to the public.

09/08/2026

📦 Coming this Friday at 10 a.m.: The Fantastic Hat Parade by KCAI Foundation Department! ✨

🎉 And you’re invited! 🎉

September 11, 2026 | 10 a.m.
📍 Kansas City Art Institute | 4415 Warwick Blvd., KCMO

The public is warmly invited to witness this free celebration! 🎩✨

This year, students are drawing inspiration from the collection at Nelson-Atkins Museum, using works from the museum as references for their own creations. Each student section has also been assigned a different color to serve as a guiding element throughout the project.

The enormous group of Foundation Year students will depart the Foundation West building and head toward Vanderslice Hall on September 11 at 10 a.m., cutting through campus and making a stop at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The parade will return to campus along East 45th Street, with sophomore, junior, and senior students cheering their arrival on the campus green.

The Fantastic Hat Parade stands as a cherished KCAI tradition, a rite of passage that welcomes first-year Foundation students into the enduring lineage of the Kansas City Art Institute, an institution of creativity and learning since 1885.

The project frequently produces inventive, boundary-pushing creations, as students engage in three-dimensional work outside the digital mediums where some may feel most comfortable. The KCAI Foundation Department year at KCAI brings together all students, regardless of intended major, for a collective fellowship of creative exploration and The Fantastic Hat Parade plays a major role.

Featured Students in Video:

Finn Volkart | Flap/Finn 🐛
Katelyn Wilkinson | K. Wilkinson
Meg Oberton
Maris Harrington
Calum Wallace | Cal
Marco Maldonado
Mac Coleman | macaroni_suit
Juliet Vega | creaturecitycrafts_
Shyann Lester
Charlee Kimbrell | Charlee Kimbrell
Sage Amezcua | xopiax (comms closed)
Arianna Torres |
Yaretzy Serna | yare ˆ𐃷ˆ
Anya Vega
Michael Slocter | Michael Slocter
Odi Reyes | Odaysis
Ellie Segrist
Sam Wellendorf

Visiting Assistant Professor of Foundation Kate Clements opens her monumentally scaled solo exhibition, “Chrysalis,” thi...
09/05/2026

Visiting Assistant Professor of Foundation Kate Clements opens her monumentally scaled solo exhibition, “Chrysalis,” this weekend at Studios Inc (1708 Campbell St., KCMO). More info here: https://www.studiosinc.org/events/chrysalis

These photos offer a behind-the-scenes look at her creation and installation process as she assembles an enormous inverted pyramid made from 136 glass parts, connected to a grid system with 408 attachments and arranged in a brick-laid fashion. The finished installation contrasts the crisp, architectural geometry of the structure with the fluid, handmade quality of the glass.

Drawing on the story of Ophelia, Chrysalis reconsiders a familiar narrative through the lens of transformation. Created during Clement’s residency at Studios INC, the work explores fragility, grief, and the shifting nature of identity.

“I'm thinking of the pond no longer as this site of tragedy, no longer as a grave, but thinking of it as a chrysalis: a place of becoming,” Clements says.

Describing herself as a glass artist, Clements is also incorporating large panels that take a more painterly approach to the medium, depicting Ophelia in more portrait-like detail. The figure is framed by pond elements made entirely of glass.

Working in kiln-formed glass, Clements explores the tension between control and surrender, allowing heat, time, and gravity to participate in the formation of each work. Through shifting surfaces, reflection, and transparency, glass becomes a material molded by both intention and the unpredictable forces of its making.

Clements is also an alumni of the Kansas City Art Institute, graduating in 2011 with a double major in Art History and Painting.
“Chrysalis” is on view Friday, September 4, through Saturday, October 17. Visit https://www.studiosinc.org/ for exhibition hours and additional information.

09/05/2026

Kate Clements | Kate Clements, Visiting Assistant Professor of KCAI Foundation Department, opens her monumentally scaled solo exhibition, “Chrysalis,” this weekend at Studios Inc (1708 Campbell St., KCMO).

This video offers a behind-the-scenes look at her installation process, as she assembles an enormous inverted pyramid made from 136 glass parts, connected to a grid system with 408 attachments and arranged in a brick-laid pattern. The result contrasts the crisp, architectural geometry of the structure with the fluid, handmade pattern of the glass.

Drawing on the story of Ophelia, Chrysalis reconsiders a familiar narrative through the lens of transformation. Created during Clement’s residency at Studios INC, the work explores fragility, grief, and the shifting nature of identity.

“I’m thinking of the pond no longer as this site of tragedy, no longer as a grave, but thinking of it as a chrysalis: a place of becoming,” Clements says.

Describing herself as a glass artist, Clements is also incorporating large panels that take a more painterly approach to the medium, depicting Ophelia in more portrait-like detail. The figure is framed by pond elements made entirely of glass.

“It’s really important to me that the human hand is in all my work, and that it isn’t perfect,” she says. “I always tell my students [at KCAI] you have to take a step back, and, with this piece, it’s, like the back of my studio almost isn’t far enough.”

Working in kiln-formed glass, Clements explores the tension between control and surrender, allowing heat, time, and gravity to participate in the formation of each work. Through shifting surfaces, reflection, and transparency, glass becomes a material molded by both intention and the unpredictable forces of its making.

Clements is also a KCAI Alumni, graduating in 2011 with a double major in Art History and KCAI Painting Department.

“Chrysalis” is on view Friday, September 4, through Saturday, October 17. Visit Studios Inc for exhibition hours and additional information.

Kim Eichler-Messmer, Associate Professor of Fiber, has an exhibition opening this Friday at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center cel...
09/03/2026

Kim Eichler-Messmer, Associate Professor of Fiber, has an exhibition opening this Friday at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center celebrating 18 years of quilting at KCAI. The exhibition features Eichler-Messmer’s work alongside work by 27 students (now Alumni) who took “Quilts: More Than the Sum of Their Parts,” a studio course she developed and has taught since 2008.

Information: https://www.kimemquilts.com/whatquiltscarry

𖣯 What Quilts Carry: Eighteen Years of Quilting at KCAI 𖣯

September 4–December 5, 2026

📍 Leedy-Voulkos Art Center
2012 Baltimore Avenue
Kansas City, MO 64108

Opening Reception
Friday, September 4 | 5–8 p.m.

Artist Talks
Saturday, October 17 | 2–3 p.m.

Eichler-Messmer says, “The class is just so special that I wanted to celebrate everything that comes out of it. And there's so many students that take it, not just from Fiber, but from other majors. So you see some of the original quilts that they made in the class alongside more recent work.”

“A lot of them have kept quilting, or quilting has infiltrated their other work. Oh, that was really powerful for that many students, or alumni, to want to be in the show.”

As curator, Eichler-Messmer highlights the work of participating alumni which is featured alongside her own work, including a stunning color wheel quilt made of 144 different hand-dyed pieces of fabric. The piece marks a turning point in her practice that also happened at KCAI.

“Within the first couple of years of teaching, Pauline [Verbeek] asked me if I would do a workshop for all of the students on percentage dyeing,” she says.

“I had no clue what percentage dyeing was. No clue. It's all based on the weight of fiber, and that process completely changed my entire practice, because up until then, I had been using, like, kitchen measurements, like, a teaspoon of dye, a tablespoon of salt, whatever.”

That evolution in her practice will be exhibited alongside sampler quilts made in the class she developed, offering a parallel look at the growth of both her own work and the students she has taught.

09/03/2026

Kim Eichler-Messmer (Kim Eichler-Messmer), Associate Professor of Kcai Fiber, has an exhibition opening this Friday at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center celebrating 18 years of quilting at KCAI.

The exhibition features Eichler-Messmer’s work alongside work by 27 students (now KCAI Alumni) who took “Quilts: More Than the Sum of Their Parts,” a studio course she developed and has taught since 2008.

Information:

𖣯 What Quilts Carry: Eighteen Years of Quilting at KCAI 𖣯

September 4–December 5, 2026

📍 Leedy-Voulkos Art Center
2012 Baltimore Avenue
Kansas City, MO 64108

Opening Reception
Friday, September 4 | 5–8 p.m.

Artist Talks
Saturday, October 17 | 2–3 p.m.

Eichler-Messmer says, “The class is just so special that I wanted to celebrate everything that comes out of it. And there’s so many students that take it, not just from Fiber, but from other majors. So you see some of the original quilts that they made in the class alongside more recent work.”

“A lot of them have kept quilting, or quilting has infiltrated their other work. Oh, that was really powerful for that many students, or alumni, to want to be in the show.”

In the video, Eichler-Messmer highlights the work of Erica Alexander | Erica Alexander (’25 Fiber) and Nina Littrell | Nina Littrell (’19 Fiber), alongside her own work, including a stunning color wheel quilt made of 144 different hand-dyed pieces of fabric. The piece marks a turning point in her practice that also happened at KCAI.

“Within the first couple of years of teaching, Pauline [Verbeek] asked me if I would do a workshop for all of the students on percentage dyeing,” she says.

“I had no clue what percentage dyeing was. No clue. It’s all based on the weight of fiber, and that process completely changed my entire practice, because up until then, I had been using, like, kitchen measurements, like, a teaspoon of dye, a tablespoon of salt, whatever.”

That evolution in her practice will be exhibited alongside sampler quilts made in the class she developed, offering a parallel look at the growth of both her own work and the students she has taught.

#

Current Perspectives is a free, public lecture series hosted by the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) that brings nationa...
09/02/2026

Current Perspectives is a free, public lecture series hosted by the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) that brings national and international artists, designers, and scholars to engage with the broader community.

Current Perspectives 📍 Epperson Auditorium | KCAI

September 10 | 7pm
Janet Neuwalder

September 24 | 11:15am
Kukuli Velarde (.velarde)

October 8 | 11:15am
Jedel Visiting Artist Jacobo Alonso (.alonso)

November 12 | 7pm
Kelli Anderson ()

The Current Perspectives Lecture Series fosters connection and broadens viewpoints within Kansas City. This program gives the community invaluable access to national and international creative leaders, whose unique perspectives spark progressive conversations and contribute to the growth of our cultural dialogue.

Speakers share insights into their career paths, influences, and both artistic and scholarly projects, offering fresh ideas and inspiration to attendees. By introducing these outside perspectives, the series enriches Kansas City’s arts scene and fosters a more diverse cultural landscape. At the same time, it heightens awareness of the vibrancy and relevance of our city’s cultural offerings, while exposing visiting lecturers to our local artistic community.

More info at kcai.edu/currentperspectives

09/01/2026

📦 Fantastic Hats in progress… 📦

And you’re invited to the Parade! 🎉

September 11, 2026 | 10 a.m.
📍 Kansas City Art Institute | 4415 Warwick Blvd., KCMO

The public is warmly invited to witness this free celebration! 🎩✨

This year, students are drawing inspiration from the collection at Nelson-Atkins Museum, using works from the museum as references for their own creations. Each student section has also been assigned a different color to serve as a guiding element throughout the project.

The enormous group of Foundation Year students will depart the Foundation West building and head toward Vanderslice Hall on September 11 at 10 a.m., cutting through campus and making a stop at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The parade will return to campus along East 45th Street, with sophomore, junior, and senior students cheering their arrival on the campus green.

The Fantastic Hat Parade stands as a cherished KCAI tradition, a rite of passage that welcomes first-year Foundation students into the enduring lineage of the Kansas City Art Institute, an institution of creativity and learning since 1885.

The project frequently produces inventive, boundary-pushing creations, as students engage in three-dimensional work outside the digital mediums where some may feel most comfortable. The KCAI Foundation Department year at KCAI brings together all students, regardless of intended major, for a collective fellowship of creative exploration and The Fantastic Hat Parade plays a major role.

Featured Students in Video:

Audrina Miranda
Zach Schilmoeller | Zachary Schilmoeller
Emery Killham | lifeg.0es_on
Isabelle Phillips | izzy ° . ꩜ ೃ࿔.
Patrick McDonnell | Patrick McDonnell
Art Davidson
Lou Van Ness
Ashlee Dinges | Ashlee🫶🏻
Diego Meza | Diego Meza
Fernando Vega
LaNaya Ledoux
Diego Morelos
Messi Perez | Uriel
Marlee Proctor
Liam Melendez | Liam G Melendez
McKenna Spencer | Riley.Bee
Shai Young | Kaino / Icon / Shai
Sasha Visalden
Santi Escalante | Santee🧟‍♀️🌧️

✨ Upcoming KCAI Gallery Exhibition! ✨ Twenty-Two Springs: Two Tone Press & KCAI CeramicsOpening ReceptionSaturday, Septe...
08/29/2026

✨ Upcoming KCAI Gallery Exhibition! ✨ Twenty-Two Springs: Two Tone Press & KCAI Ceramics

Opening Reception
Saturday, September 12 | 5–8 p.m.
KCAI Gallery
4415 Warwick Blvd. | Kansas City, MO

The opening is during Alumni Weekend! https://kcai.edu/calendar/twenty-two-springs-exhibition-reception/

This exhibition, on view September 12–October 18, 2026, celebrates the enduring intersection of letterpress printing and ceramics. Since 2005, Two Tone Press, founded by sisters Michelle Dreher (’01 Illustration & Art History) and Angie Dreher, has collaborated with graduating students and faculty in the KCAI Ceramics department to create a custom letterpress poster for each annual juried exhibition.

The exhibition brings together the 22 posters and 100 ceramic works collected over the past 22 years for the KCAI Ceramics department teaching collection. Together, these works reveal the layered histories and parallel processes of this partnership, creating a rich narrative of collaboration between letterpress printing and ceramics.

The exhibition also marks several significant milestones: the achievements of generations of graduating seniors, the founding of Two Tone Press, and the retirement of celebrated Ceramics department chair Professor Emeritus Cary Esser.

As part of the process, Esser worked with Ceramics senior Savanah Johnson), who spent the summer cataloging and organizing the department’s entire 50-plus-year teaching collection. Designed as a hands-on resource for students studying ceramic techniques and approaches, the collection provides a library of the department’s history from both a broad and hyper-individualized perspective.

Featured ceramic works were selected from the department’s teaching collection and juried by Dr. Stephanie Fox Knappe, Sanders Sosland Senior Curator of Global Modern and Contemporary Art and Head of American Art at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and artist and founding member of Kansas City Urban Potters Meredith Host (’01 Ceramics).

The exhibition traces the stories embedded in each work, from first impression to final firing, creating a record of marks made to last.

08/28/2026

✨ Upcoming KCAI GALLERY Exhibition! ✨

Twenty-Two Springs
Two Tone Press × KCAI Ceramics Department

Opening Reception
Saturday, September 12 | 5–8 p.m.
KCAI Gallery
4415 Warwick Blvd. | Kansas City, MO

The opening is during KCAI Alumni weekend!

This exhibition, on view September 12–October 18, 2026, celebrates the enduring intersection of letterpress printing and ceramics. Since 2005, Two Tone Press, founded by sisters Michelle Dreher (’01 Illustration & Art History) and Angie Dreher, has collaborated with graduating students and faculty in the KCAI Ceramics department to create a custom letterpress poster for each annual juried exhibition.

The exhibition brings together the 22 posters and 100 ceramic works collected over the past 22 years for the KCAI Ceramics department teaching collection. Together, these works reveal the layered histories and parallel processes of this partnership, creating a rich narrative of collaboration between letterpress printing and ceramics.

The exhibition also marks several significant milestones: the achievements of generations of graduating seniors, the founding of Two Tone Press, and the retirement of celebrated Ceramics department chair Cary Esser.

As part of the process, Esser worked with Ceramics senior Savanah Johnson (Savanah Johnson), who spent the summer cataloging and organizing the department’s entire 50-plus-year teaching collection. Designed as a hands-on resource for students studying ceramic techniques and approaches, the collection provides a library of the department’s history from both a broad and hyper-individualized perspective.

Featured ceramic works were selected from the department’s teaching collection and juried by Dr. Stephanie Fox Knappe, Sanders Sosland Senior Curator of Global Modern and Contemporary Art and Head of American Art at Nelson-Atkins Museum, and artist and founding member of KC Urban Potters Meredith Host (Meredith Host : Host for Home) (’01 Ceramics).

The exhibition traces the stories embedded in each work, from first impression to final firing, creating a record of marks made to last.

Mo DickensMo Dickens

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4415 Warwick Boulevard
Kansas City, MO
64111

Telephone

(816)4724852

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