ARTSPEAK RADIO August 30

Wednesday August 30, 2017

Host/producer Maria Vasquez Boyd talks with Deb Cooper founder & Director Arts & AGEing KC, photograper Nicolas Dhervillers, and Executive Director Janet Simpson & Assistant Director Marissa Starke of the Kansas City Artists Coalition.

Nicolas Dhervillers – Rétrospective Works” – Renowned French photographer exhibits for the first time in Kansas City
Nicolas Dhervillers’ (b. 1981) photographic works span from small still lives to monumental landscapes. In many of his images, theatre, cinema, painting and photography coalesce. Dhervillers’ scenes often pay homage to the great artists of the past, including Nicolas Poussin and Gustave Courbet. Other works use photographic processing to take the viewer into a fictional space outside of time. His landscape photography is subjected to a digital process adapted from the cinematic “day for night” technique, lending an eerie look to pictures taken in broad daylight. Archival figures are then placed within the landscapes and washed with unnatural digital light. Dhervillers has participated in Paris Photo and festival Mono, a documenta 13 event. His works can be found in private collections and museums around the world. This retrospective marks Dhervillers’ first exhibition in the United States.
Locations:
Sherry Leedy Gallery, 2004 Baltimore Ave, Kansas City, MO 64108 (large-scale works)
Cerbera Gallery, 2011 Baltimore Ave, Kansas City, MO 64108 (smaller works)

Exhibition Date: September 1 – October 21, 2017
Opening Reception and Artist Talk: August 31, 5-8pm at Sherry Leedy Gallery
KCAI Current Perspectives Lectures Series: August 31, 11:45am at KCAI Main Campus
2004 Baltimore Ave, Kansas City, MO 64108
Web: www.CerberaGallery.com; www.sherryleedy.com
Phone: +1-816-221-2626

Artist Website: http://www.nicolasdhervillers.com/

Deb Cooper, Founder & Director of Arts & AGEing KC-Our Mission is to serve the Greater Kanas City Area as connector, convener and catalyst for enriching lives through creative aging.
Our Vision is for older adults to flourish across the lifespan and actively participate in a vibrant community through meaningful engagement in the arts.
Nurture intentional, professional and participatory arts programs that bring generations together and build community.
Overcome barriers so that arts are accessible for all.
Develop a cohesive network of diverse community stakeholders from different sectors to build momentum for creative aging in our region.
Heighten awareness and educate the community about the health and wellness benefits of creative aging.

Benefits for engaging in community arts programs?
Improved physical, mental, emotional and social health and wellness
Improved memory & cognition
Fewer doctor’s visits
Fewer medications
Fewer falls
Less isolation and reduced risk for loneliness
Lower blood pressure
Heightened immune system
Less depression and expressed sense of heightened life satisfaction

Programs and Services
Artful AGEing Partnerships – We provide creative aging training through a customized curriculum with ongoing assistance and mentorship for professional Teaching Artists across multiple disciplines. We connect Teaching Artists with opportunities in the community to engage diverse older adults in lifelong learning, especially persons who are marginalized or disenfranchised.
Creative Aging Collective – We provide resources, consultation, and educational workshops for Aging Service Providers & Arts Organizations looking to expand meaningful, professionally led and participatory arts programming that engages older adults in the community.

Evidence-Based Programs – We design and implement original, interactive and intergenerational model programs that are inspired by life stories and empower older adults by giving voice to experiences. Mobile Arts Studios: Visual Art, Movement & Dance, Songwriting & Music, Life Story & Creative Writing and Theatre – Customized workshops and weekly classes offered onsite in retirement communities, in assisted living and memory care centers, community centers, senior centers, and at libraries and museums.
Dancing With Crows Feet© – Workshops and performances inspired by narratives of older women- raising awareness about ageism.
Seven Stages Seven Stories© – Performance piece inspired by narratives of caregivers and persons living with memory loss- educating the community about dementia.
Veterans Project – ‘Living Portraits’ – Multi-modal arts project that gives voice to experiences of older veterans and family members of veterans.

RAINBOW CROW-The Native American myth of the Rainbow Crow is a “hero journey” that reveals strenghths of a female in her duty, compassion, and willingness to sacrifice for others. In the journey, she is transformed and empowered through processes of change

Dancing With Crows Feet© is an original signature piece produced by Arts & AGEing KC and designed as a community outreach arts project.
It’s meant to give voice to experiences of older women and open a dialogue around aging from a female perspective.
The goal of the project is to raise awareness about ageism by taking a closer look, both poignant and humorous, at society’s obsession with ‘anti-aging’, acting your age, hiding your age, covering up and getting rid of wrinkles or other noticeable signs of aging such as CROWSFEET. It challenges notions of ‘invisibility’ where age is something to be erased and made to disappear.
Diverse women participate in story-gathering workshops.
Life experiences are shared through processes of art making.
Stories unfold and definitions of beauty emerge.
Common threads intersect where older women express a pressure to conceal age and an increasing sense of invisibility.
Where narratives resonate they are woven together with stories about crows found in fables and myths.
The resemblances between woman and crow become a discovery of empowerment that leads to older women reclaiming beauty in age.

Perform Dancing With Crows Feet as an interactive and intergenerational exchange with youth in schools and dispel myths and negative stereotypes that connect to growing older

Contact us! Get involved in this ‘culture change for positive aging’. Call 816.835.6734, email [email protected] or visit our website at www.ArtsandAGEingKC.org.
We need your support as a volunteer, sponsor and donor.
All donations are fully tax-deductible.

Marissa Starke Assistant Director and Janet Simpson Executive Director for The Kansas City Artists Coalition- The Kansas City Artists Coalition (KCAC) was created to change the lives of artists living in Kansas City, Missouri.
On March 5, 1975 a large group of artists gathered in the studio of local artists Philomene Bennett and Lou Marak to address “How the Artist Can Benefit from Centralization.” Overwhelmingly the group felt a self-initiated organization was the only alternative to isolation, elitism, apathy, and ignorance. The ultimate result of that meeting was the incorporation of the Kansas City Artist Coalition in August 1976. The Kansas City Artists Coalition (KCAC or Artists Coalition) is an artist-centered, artist-run alternative space that presents a variety of exhibitions of contemporary artists’ work in its Mallin Gallery, Jacqueline B. Charno Gallery, and the Underground.
The Residency at the Artists Coalition offers dedicated individuals a supportive environment to work and engage with the Kansas City community. The mission of the Residency is to bring artists from around the region and the world together in order to work, build friendships, and improve intercultural understanding.

The Kansas City Artists Coalition celebrated an important milestone. KCAC had its 40th Anniversary in 2016.
Although much has changed since the mid-seventies when we were founded, our mission to promote visual arts and artists is still needed. KCAC’s longevity can be attributed to adherence to the mission and a long history of integrity, openness, and inclusiveness in its programming. KCAC has gained the trust and resources of our constituencies who support the mission and respect the consistent leadership.
This important anniversary demands reflection not only of the organization’s history but of the historical trends that have affected the KCAC’s work. At the same time, it is important to evaluate current position and plan for the future.

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
Reservations Jillian Youngbird September 8-29
JILLIAN YOUNGBIRD grew up in a place where you “warsh your clothes and swim in the crick.” Being of Native American decent, while growing up with the “people of the hills” formed an interesting narrative in her self-identity. Story-telling has always been an important part of both cultures. In her study of Ozarkian and Native lore, Youngbird has come to find common threads and intentions. Different versions of the same story. Regardless of whether it tells the whole truth or a romanticized caricature, folklore gives you a vibrant visual history. Using recycled items and found materials from her environment, she creates sculpture, installation, photographs and performances that investigates her place in the worlds between two interwoven cultures, through the study of history, folklore and communication.

Kansas City Artists Coalition
Regular Hours: Wednesday thru Saturday, 11 to 5 p.m.
201 Wyandotte Street
Kansas City, MO 64105
v: 816.421.5222
f: 816.459-0806
[email protected]
Parking on the street and in parking lot West of building via the alley.

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