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Every Wednesday at 9:00amAbout the Show
Artspeak Radio
ARTSPEAK RADIO is a live radio program on KKFI that airs every Wednesday from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm. Host Maria Vasquez Boyd serves up information about the visual and literary arts community including live interviews with artists, writers, and performers.
In the first half of the program, Maria talks with artist Joe Bussell and photographer Fred Trease. Belger Gallery Manager, Michael Buxley and Marketing/Community Relations Coordinator Kelly Seward talk with Maria in the second half of the program.
Joe Bussell- acrylic pigments become playful sculptures in their own floating white universe, interacting to create moments of ethereal conversation. He plays between the space of paint as material/object and paint as composition/image.
Bussell received his MFA from Washington University in St. Louis in Ceramics and Panting. He has exhibited throughout the United States and in Italy. He has received awards from New American Paintings, the River Market Regional Exhibition, the Juried Annual at Albrecht Kemper Museum of Art, and more. His work can be found in collections in Italy, France, Germany and New York. www.joebussell.com
Fred Trease-photography is a process that allows him to understand the world. He captures the images on the busy streets of public space, but with formal precision that takes a moment and allows it to expand on future contemplation and discovery. “For me a photograph is not a static entity.”
Trease received a BA in Sociology and a BS in Biology, both at Missouri Southern State University. He was an award winner at the River Market Regional in 2009, and has won multiple awards at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art’s Annual Juried Exhibition.
Michael Baxley and Kelly Seward discuss the Belger Arts Center launch of 10 Exhibitions to celebrate NCECA-National Council for the Education of Ceramic Art.
Starting March 16th, over 5,000 artists will converge in Kansas City for the 50th annual National Council for the Education of Ceramic Arts (NCECA) conference. Kansas City’s arts community is responding in force, presenting nearly 100 exhibitions dedicated to clay in galleries and museums throughout the region. Ten of those exhibitions will be presented at the Belger Arts Center and its satellite location, Belger Crane Yard Studios.
Belger’s NCECA repertory includes exhibitions curated and presented by the Lighton International Artists Exchange, the Morean Arts Center, Florida CraftArt, and the Archie Bray Foundation. “It’s important for us to have a larger discussion about contemporary art…to see how artists across the country and even around the globe are redefining our notions of ceramics,” says Evelyn Craft Belger, Executive Director of the Belger Arts Center.
A special pre-conference workshop, “A Legacy of Making,” held at Belger Crane Yard Studios, features Kansas City Art Institute alumni John Balistreri, Chris Gustin, and Matt Long. Known for his large-scale sculptures, Balistreri holds a patent for 3D printing in clay.
2016 marks the 4th time NECEA has held its annual conference in Kansas City. NCECA selected Kansas City for this golden anniversary celebration because the city’s “horizon connects farmland with cultural complexity…an amalgam of global traditions and local vision.” This description captures the nature of contemporary ceramics and is beautifully illustrated by Belger’s suite of exhibitions.
