KANSAS CITY, Mo, April 15, 2019: Charlotte Street Foundation’s Studio Residency program opens its doors on Saturday, April 20, 2019 for its annual Open Studios event! Open Studios is located in the downtown Town Pavilion building on the sixth floor (1100 Walnut St, 6th Floor, KCMO, 64106) and will be open from 3:00 PM to 10:00 PM with performances beginning at 4:00 PM. The event is free and open to the public with fun activities available for all ages.
Visitors can get behind-the-scenes insight on the creative process for many up-and-coming artists in Kansas City today. This is a great opportunity to meet with over 30 Charlotte Street studio artists, learn about their work and processes, and enjoy free entertainment! Performing residents will showcase their work through free music, readings, performances and more. Open Studios is a free event that is family friendly and open to the public!
PARKING
Town Pavilion is walkable from the KC Streetcar line off of Main Street. Free parking is also provided by Commerce Bank. You can use the Commerce Bank parking garage located at 1025 Main Street/Commerce Bank. Visitors may park in any spot that is designated as “reserved” and several parking spots should be available.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
The image below indicates all 32 participating artists at Open Studios and their location within the 6th Floor Studio Residency Program. Visitors will be able to meet with all artists and experience their studio layout in-person. All artists will be showing work of old and new, and some artists will be selling work.
SCHEDULE OF PERFORMANCES
4:00 – Kyle Mullins (Dance Room) performs Ted Shawn and Me: An exploration of my current work in a historical context
This two-part performance comprises Mullins’ recent research into both the historic works of Ted Shawn and an exploration of his place in his lineage in the context of more contemporary dance forms. Mullins will present research undergone at Shawn’s historic Jacob’s Pillow as part of an ArtsKC Inspiration Grant, followed by an excerpt from a forthcoming full-length solo work inspired in part by this research.
4:30 – Jessica Ayala (Blackbox) performs
Then you can join Jessica Ayala and special guest Brad Williams on percussion, as she debuts excerpts from her up-and-coming second collection of poetry entitled Just a Kid from Ipailes. This poetic memoir, documenting her unique journey as an immigrant youth living in the United States, will be released Fall of 2019. Miss Ayala then welcomes you to visit her studio to learn more about a ten-piece installation of her family’s heirlooms – and her latest work.
5:00 – Madison Mae Parker (Dance Room) performs Stretch Marks
Stretch Marks, noun, irregular lines or streaks on the skin where it has been stretched or distended, especially due to pregnancy or rapid weight gain. Stretch Marks, noun, scars to be embarrassed of and/or hide from. Stretch Marks, verb, to grow and gain and breathe beyond where the body previously resided. Join Madison as she explores her own stretch marks through poetry and movement.
5:30 – Writer’s Showcase (Blackbox)
Come by the Blackbox during Open Studios to see a series of performances and readings from the current writers in the 2018-19 Studio Residency program!
6:00 – KC Public Theatre (Dance Room) performs Move: A peak at the Kansas City Public Theatre process
Kansas City Public Theatre performs a demonstration of the Suzuki-Viewpoints actor training method, a primary method by which the company develops their work. KCPublic will perform for the audience key exercises of the physically rigorous acting method which aims to both strengthen the voice and bodies of the actor and develop an interactive ensemble through movement improvisation.
6:30 – Kaia Kena (Blackbox) performs The Wilderness
A singer-songwriter and electronic artist from Denver, CO, this is Kaia Kena’s first year participating in the Charlotte Street residency. Kaia will share new songs from her upcoming project infused with some new mindset insight in her Blackbox music performance and visual presentation in her writer’s wing studio. Aiming to compartmentalize less and view her craft wholistically, Kaia is fusing elements of film score, electronic pop, and mindset discoveries.
7:00 PM – Sheri Purpose Hall (Dance Rooms) performs
Join Sheri Purpose Hall on a journey with words and beats as she weaves through a catalogue of both old and new works. She also invites you to join her at her studio to learn more about her process, events, organization and possibly even participate in impromptu cyphers!
7:30 – Daniel Hogans (Blackbox) performs with St. Hogans
st.ホニサソ(st. Hogans) is a group of musicians with a common goal, all coming from either Los Angeles, Kansas City & Denver. The leader of the group, Band leader, Studio Resident Daniel Hogans, wants to take his group around the world to inspire and heal people with music. The group also consists of featured players Solomon Juwan Chapman, Ryan j chozen1 Lee and Jamie Anderson.
8:00 – Tiger Style Crew! (Dance Room) performs
Join TigerStyle! Crew for a dance showcase of recent professional works that bend and blend styles and genres. You will view a full range of dance experience from break dance to contemporary dance with our nationally-recognized performance company.
8:30 PM – Mazzy Mann (Blackbox) performs A Study in Minimalism
Co-conceptualized by Mazzy Mann and Tim J Harte, this performance carries concepts of inner minimization, shrinking away, and the theoretical musical concepts of minimizing run tandem with feelings of inadequacy in an increasingly alienating world. In this unique one-time study, Mazzy and Tim work to weave a feeling of silent restlessness, the unease of dissatisfaction, and the shrinking away of the stoics in a piece that leaves a void of silence where the space of continuous sound used to be. The performance features Robert Castillo on upright bass, Adee Dancy on cello, Drew Crane on piano arrangement and Trevor Turla on trombone.
9:00 PM – Karen Lisondra (Dance Room) performs …Y Tu Abuela Tambien…
Karen Lisondra debuts a new performance partner: a life-size puppet called “Abuela,” in an interactive work-in-progress. She will also read excerpts from the Spanish-language adaption of the show she co-wrote and directed in 2018 based on Andean mythology called Pachakutec (reversal of time and space), that will be headed on a five-city tour in Bolivia this August. Live musical accompaniment will be performed by Amado Espinoza.
9:30 PM – Jason Zeh (Blackbox) performs astto to me wor and wother
This performance is part of a series of works that employ text generated by a recurrent neural network. For these works, Zeh trained the RNN on 2,000 secrets posted anonymously on the internet. Using this data, the computer generated its own secrets. In the resulting text, the speaker seems to be grappling with issues about identity and selfhood. This performance combines live speech and live-collaged, voice recordings into poetic confessions and cyborg utterances.
ABOUT CHARLOTTE STREET STUDIOS AT TOWN PAVILION
Visual artist studios range from private spaces to dedicated areas within larger, open shared spaces. Performing artist studios include a rehearsal space with dance stage and Marley floor for dancers/choreographers and a separate rehearsal space with a piano for music and theatre/performance artists. Writers are granted private and semi-private studios with wireless internet access. All studios allow 24-hour access.
ABOUT COPAKEN BROOKS
Established in 1922, Copaken Brooks is a full-service commercial real estate firm headquartered in Kansas City and serving national clients, tenants and investors. With over 14 million square feet of development projects completed, Copaken Brooks has performed historic renovations, urban infill, office towers, retail shopping centers and various parking garages throughout Kansas City, Missouri and other cities and states. To learn more, visit copaken-brooks.com.
ABOUT CHARLOTTE STREET
Charlotte Street identifies the needs and fuels the evolution of an ever-changing multidisciplinary arts ecosystem, acting as its primary provocateur. Charlotte Street cultivates the contemporary, the exceptional, and the unexpected in the practice of artists working in and engaging with the Kansas City art community. Since 1997, Charlotte Street has distributed over $1.1 million in awards and grants to artists and their innovative projects, and connected individual artists to each other and to the greater Kansas City community. For more information about Charlotte Street, its awards, programs, and initiatives, visit www.charlottestreet.org.
You can the press release in a PDF format here.
