Brydie O’Connor is a Kansas-bred filmmaker. Her work focuses on queer stories, and has screened at festivals such as Outfest and Kansas City International Film Festival along with galleries and The Museum of Modern Art. She is inspired by archival histories, LGBTQ+ intergenerational dialogue, and her upbringing in the Midwest. The Teri Rogers Filmmakers Grant will support the production of "Sasporumpet": When the star player of a ragtag women's college tennis team breaks her offbeat good luck charm before the state final, she’s forced to fend for herself on the court and use the confidence she’s learned in the game to pursue what she really wants: her teammate.

Youth Symphony of Kansas City’s mission is to challenge, educate and inspire students through meaningful and enriching musical experiences. Its vision is to be the premier program of choice while building a lifetime of passion for music and the arts.

The William Baker Choral Foundation inspires, instructs, promotes excellence in performance, educates participants in healthy singing, enables modern choral works, and preserves historic choral music, empowering creators of new expressions in KC.

Unicorn Theatre is the only theatre in the Kansas City region committed to producing exclusively Regional and World Premieres of Bold New Plays.

Starlight Theatre is dedicated to producing, presenting and promoting an exceptional arts experience by delivering the highest-quality live entertainment for all audiences, superior theatre arts education, and impactful outreach programs.

The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures educates, inspires, and delights adults and children through the collection and preservation of toys and miniatures.

MTH is an innovative organization dedicated to the appreciation and understanding of the American musical theater and its contributions to our culture. MTH increases arts access, develops audiences, and employs over 300 arts professionals annually.

The Midwest Music Foundation unites and empowers the Kansas City area music community by providing health care assistance, education and career development, events and resources.

MPT was founded in 1987 to “inspire communities through innovative puppetry”. Today we are expanding that mission by creating puppetry programs that support the social, emotional, and aesthetic development of young people ages 4-8 and their adults!

Lyric Opera of Kansas City offers operatic performances to the Kansas City area. Our mission is to be indispensable to the public through transformational opera experiences and broad service which captures the hearts and minds of our communities.

The Museum strives to bring the best of contemporary art and artists to visitors of all ages and abilities free of admission and parking charges to stimulate dialogue about the issues and topics that concern people today.

KC Clay Guild is a nonprofit ceramic arts center. KCCG offers classes for all skill levels, open pottery studios, and workshops. We are open to every member of the Kansas City community.

The KCYA mission is to engage all youth in the arts, promote creativity, and inspire success in education. With philanthropic support and in collaboration with school partners KCYA provides classes, workshops, performances, and residencies for kids.

KCRep operates in service to its mission to inspire, entertain, and open minds by creating transformative theatre experiences for all. Each year we welcome more than 65,000 patrons to performances of new and classic plays and musicals.

Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey presents culturally relevant arts education programs and events. Youth of color, grades K – 12 from low-income households in underserved communities are the primary beneficiaries of our programs.

The mission of Kansas City Ballet is to inspire and engage through the beauty, power, and passion of dance. Since 1957, Kansas City Ballet has delivered exceptional performances, excellence in dance training and community education programs for all.

The Kansas City Artists Coalition (KCAC) is a charitable nonprofit organization that promotes visual arts awareness in Kansas City and the surrounding region, and supports the professional growth of artists.

Our mission is to produce thought-provoking plays that explore, celebrate, and share what it is to be human, with sensitivity, intelligence, and humor. We nurture our artistic community by employing the finest local talents diverse theatre community.

InterUrban ArtHouse empowers under-resourced artists to thrive, enriching the lives and communities of the KC metro through the arts across media. We do this through our space, our programs, our social justice mission, and Creative Placemaking.

Our mission is to make the works of Shakespeare and Shakespeare-inspired works accessible to a diverse audience through a free, professional, outdoor festival, and additional free and paid performances and educational programs.

The Harriman-Jewell Series’ offers a variety of high-quality, inspirational performance experiences each year ranging from the world’s leading classical performing artists to emerging superstars of tomorrow.

CSF's mission is to identify the needs and fuel the evolution of an ever-changing multidisciplinary arts ecosystem, acting as its primary provocateur. Charlotte Street provides artists with the freedom and resources to take risks and flourish.

Many kids want to join their school’s band or orchestra but cannot afford their own instrument. Band of Angels collects music instruments and provides them to low-income and underserved kids who now can be a part of their school’s music programs.

Ballet North strives to engage students and audiences of all ages and backgrounds throughout the Northland region of Kansas City in the learning, enjoyment and magic of ballet.

The Arts Asylum has been a safe place to create and a staple within the artistic community of Kansas City for over a decade.

Located in the Historic 18th & Vine Jazz District, the American Jazz Museum showcases the sights and sounds of jazz through interactive exhibits and films, the Changing Gallery exhibit space, The Blue Room, and Gem Theater.

Whispering Prairie Press is an all-volunteer publisher of two annual magazines that feature visual art, poetry, and prose: Kansas City Voices and KC Voices Youth. See our guidelines here: http://www.wppress.org/submissions/ http://www.wppress.org

WaterFire KC seeks to revitalize and draw the community together, provide community arts access, and inspire with large-scale visual arts installations and live performing arts.

TYA strives to nurture educational and emotional growth of young people through drama; and to nourish the spirits, of young people; and to make these rich benefits available to all socio-economic levels and underserved populations.

Our mission is to provide the KC Metro area with unique opportunities via live theatre, community events, and education. STG Studio provides opportunities in a non-competitive environment so artists of all ages can grow within desired disciplines.

Spire Chamber Ensemble inspires, educates, and enriches the Kansas City metropolitan community through the transformational power of great choral music performed at the highest artistic level.

Spinning Tree connects young artists – those with disabilities and those non-disabled – with professional artists to collaborate on and create theatre. We believe that people of all abilities have a right to experience and participate in the arts.

The mission of Quixotic Foundation (QF) is to enable people from all economic backgrounds to experience and learn about the performing arts. We provide unique free performances and educational programming for underserved constituencies.

plug is a curatorial collaboration with the mission of bringing fresh perspectives and conversation to the local cultural community. Our goal is to exhibit challenging new work, initiate critical dialogue, and expand connections of artists.

Our mission is to create and empower musicians of all ages and those interested in classical music with opportunities to perform or enjoy a high standard of music free of charge.

No Divide KC uses the arts as a vehicle for stimulating social awareness, participation and community building. They create artistic events focused on the stories of underserved and misrepresented communities with local artists and organizations.

newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble is a professional music ensemble performing the work of living composers. We strive to bring Kansas City and the surrounding region the most eclectic, diverse, and cutting-edge creative trends of the 21st century.

The mission of Landlocked Opera Inc is to serve the Kansas City community with quality productions and performers with meaningful artistic opportunities. We believe in Opera for All and seek to improve access to the art form.

KC VITAs (Kansas City Vibrating Internal Thyroarytenoids,) is a group of professional singers with the mission to promote the continued creation and performance of “contemporary-classical” vocal music and the Greater Kansas City Metropolitan area.

KC Jazz Alive strives to raise the tides that lift all jazz boats. Our vision is to make Kansas City the premier destination for jazz and live music, benefiting Kansas City musicians, audiences, and venues.

The KC Fringe Festival is the largest celebration of arts and culture in the KC metro area, empowering a diverse array of events to inspire creativity and provide a platform for artists to present and refine new works and introduce new genres.

The Kansas City Women's Chorus is the only regional women's chorus inspiring through performance, embracing diversity and advocating social justice.

Kansas City Public Theatre provides access to the arts through year-round professional theatre entertainment free of charge to the public at locations throughout Kansas City. Be Radical.

The Kansas City Chamber Orchestra produces high quality performances of classical and contemporary chamber music in traditional venues, outdoor public spaces and virtual concerts and will include three student education concerts.

ICE STUDIOS SCHOOL OF DANCE offers professional dance classes to students of different ages and physical abilities with an emphasis on living a healthy lifestyle through exercise and proper nutrition.

GUILDit provides artists of all disciplines with best business practices in order to increase their success. We do this with forums, special events and workspaces that connect artists with the community. Our vision is a growing Kansas City economy.

Ensemble Ibérica performs music from Ibéria (Spain and Portugal) and other areas of the world connected to the Iberian diaspora while educating the public about Ibérian cultural influence.

City in Motion Dance Theater believes that “Dance is for everyBODY.” From our facilities in Westport, we will operate a world class dance performing arts campus that honors Kansas City’s unique heritage and uplifts old and new lovers of dance.

The Barn Players, Kansas City's oldest community theater, produces quality and affordable live entertainment while nurturing the theater artist in practicing their craft.

Arts in Prison uses the arts to encourage the incarcerated to reconnect to the best of themselves and to reconnect to their community for betterment of both.

Art as Mentorship’s (AM) mission is to empower young people, through music, to write their own success stories. Our programs provide underserved young artists access to world-class mentorship, real-world skill development, and mental health support.

5 Star Jazz Band is a nonprofit community music education and performance group open to all motivated student musicians age 12-21, free of charge, dedicated to providing the unique opportunity to perform in and manage a full Big Band and jazz combo,

The Wires String Duo will be partnering with the Habitat Contemporary Gallery from June 2022-May 2023 to present a collaborative concert series that will connect music, art and audience. Musician-composers from the Wires String Duo will compose 12 original musical works, inspired by each of the artists showing at the Habitat Gallery. The music will be presented in concert as world premieres based on each artists’ work selected per six week exhibition cycle. The Wires String Duo will perform their compositions with dialogue between the audience, artists and musicians for a fully immersive marriage of visual art expressed in sound form. The performance will become a musical interpretation of the art itself, making a deeper connections to the art, artists and fellow humans.

Summer Brooks is a multimedia sculptor expressing the beauty of Black women. She will be creating an exhibition at KCAC centering around the importance of hair and beauty in the Black community. Beauty standards have been set by western ideals that value lighter skin and thinner noses. By creating Black figures basking in their love for themselves, Summer hopes to instill positivity where those harmful values has caused trauma. Funding will assist in material research for pieces creating for the exhibition and studio space rental.

For the theatre community and the larger community in the Kansas City region, "lost narratives" of the last 400 plus years come to life in "Only the Wounds and Weapons Have Changed". All who experience this stage play will find their own understanding of racism and white supremacy deepened, and they will gain personal power to become liberated themselves. The play makes a serious contribution to the un-erasing of Black History. The play helps to dismantle what author James Baldwin called "the white falsification of history", replacing it with the whole truth. Jacqueline Gafford and Scott Myers are writers. Through writing this play, and staging it, they hope to empower people of all races to transform their thinking and imagine a world of freedom, equity and mutual understanding.

Sam Wright, actor-playwright, producing and performing a new full-length musical comedy, Prejudice & Pride, written by himself and UK-based performer-director, Nicholas Collett, based Jane Austen's novel, but re-imagined as a modern, American, gender-swapped folk musical. The project intends to create a joyous theatre experience for examining social and cultural divides in current American culture and applying to them a radical exercise in empathy. The play has been awarded the Artist Residency at Music Theater Heritage for a fully-staged run July 8-24, 2022. It will also appear at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the world's largest international theatre marketplace, August 5-27, 2022. Grant funds will go toward paying the actors, musicians, and technicians.

Multi-disciplinary artists José Faus, Isaac Tapia, Rico Alvarez, and MG Salazar are bringing Faus' children's story "Possum Trot" to life in a fully - illustrated children's book. To be designed and published by La Resistencia Press, this will be the first children's book for all involved. Featuring characters and a story line unique to Kansas City, this book is a nostalgic love letter to the city we've grown up in, and to the generation that comes after us. We will premiere the book later 2022, and look forward for everyone to join us for our book releases. Grant funds will be used for producing the artistry needed, and publication.

Melinda Hedgecorth, flamenco dancer and choreographer, presents Orígenes, a music and dance timeline about the tangled roots of flamenco to be performed at Interurban Arthouse and 3 Title-1 schools in Johnson County, KS. After living 14 years in Sevilla, Spain, Melinda returned to her hometown and created 45° LLC whose mission is to bring the culture of Sevilla to sister city Kansas City. Musicians who perform as part of Orígenes are: Beau Bledsoe guitar/oud and musical direction, Antonio Rojas song and concept, Ezgi Karakus cello, Coleen Dieker violin and John Currey percussion. Grant funds will be used for artist fees, sound equipment and advertising to share the story of the development of Flamenco from medieval to modern times.

The world is changing and our young people need music that reflects the present moment and enables them to connect to each other and express themselves. By working with young people to choose music for the next generations to learn from, New Voices for the Young Flutist is revolutionizing the repertoire for flutists. Young people from Kansas City schools picked the winners and now flutist, Mary Holzhausen and Pianist, Charles Dickenson are touring to bring this new and innovative music to young audiences. Concerts will be performed at schools in Kansas City and surrounding Universities in Kansas and Missouri.

My name is Linda Jurkiewicz and I am a fiber artist. Historically, working with cloth is considered “Women’s Work” and I utilize this medium to explore and challenge past and current viewpoints of women’s roles in our society in my artistic practice. “Integration of Inner and Outer Life through Working with Textiles” will provide the opportunity for participants to learn the art of weaving, explore their creativity through textile arts, and connect with a new aspect of themselves through working with fiber arts. I will be reaching out to organizations within Kansas City to offer these workshops through a free one-hour introductory class. Grant funds will be used to advertise the workshops, purchase the looms and supplies, and to offer reduced costs to specific populations.

Lauren Phillips is a queer visual artist exploring romanticism, consent, and empowerment. Through the creation of large scale wood cutout paintings, a neon sign, and a mirrored piece, Lauren represents familiar romantic imagery coupled with eerie elements to show how beauty, power and fear are all tied together in the experience of femininity. Her work considers what women are encouraged to value and pairs it with the often overlooked, but frequently felt, dangers of these experiences. Lauren’s solo exhibition, Touch Me / Don’t Touch Me, will take place at Plug Gallery in June 2022 through August 2022. The grant funds will be used to complete the fabrication of the artwork and allow Lauren to use new mediums like neon and laser cut mirrors.

Queer Saxophonists Nathan Mertens (he/him) and Kyle Jones (he/him) are currently commissioning a new chamber work from Anthony Green (he/him) and a solo work by Olivia Shortt (they/them), specifically addressing narratives existing inside the LGBTQIA+ community. As classical saxophonists, we looked internally at our own community and our repertoire and began asking, “What music is currently being represented and what voices are missing?” In addition to the public performance of these works, Nathan and Kyle will be partnering with local LGBTQIA+ organizations to offer a mentorship/learning opportunity with area LGBTQIA+ youth.

No Treble is a Kansas City based classical low string trio. The group is comprised of Katherine Hilger on viola, Daniel Yung on cello, and Krista Kopper on double bass. No Treble will use funds provided by Arts KC to commission three Kansas City based female composers to compose a 10 to 15 minute piece for the group. No Treble will premier these works at a live in-person concert along with two other already composed contemporary works. They will also record these pieces at a professional recording studio to release as their debut album.

Kevin Church Johnson (singer, multi-instrumentalist and music producer) and Natasha Ria El-Scari (spoken word artist and author) present, We Found Us, a conceptual collaboration of spoken word, R&B, Hip Hop and more. This purpose of this project is to give voice to the taboo around relationships that cross boundaries of status, age, education and more. We Found Us will be recorded for all media platforms and distribution as an independent project as well as recorded in a live performance with hopes to book travel for live appearances. Grant funds will be used to create the project in its entirety.

Julia Othmer – Performance Artist - SEVEN – Around the World in Seven Songs is a multimedia interdisciplinary project addressing climate change and our endangered natural and cultural world. Othmer focuses on seven locations around the globe - one on each continent. In collaboration with local artists, artisans, environmental non-profits and NGOs, she curates a unique arts experience celebrating this specific place. At the center of each location celebration is a musical interpretation, performed in a language indigenous to the place. SEVEN includes a film of these collaborations, a studio album of music, and a comprehensive website detailing the project and all of its global collaborators. Grant funds will be used to pay contributing artists’ fees, locally and internationally.

Eva Louise Hall is an independent filmmaker professionally specializing in stop motion animation and theatrical puppetry. She has recently completed her most ambitious film to date, a stop-motion surrealist horror film entitled 'Mira'. She is using the release of 'Mira' as a catalyst to partner with an ensemble of local artists and musicians in the creation of an immersive, theatrical exhibition event to transport the Kansas City arts community into the world of her film, in celebration of the collective artistry and talent that went into making a film like this possible. These grant funds will be used to cover costs associated with this exhibition, launching the film's initial promotion and festival campaign.

Eugenia Ortiz, visionary artist, designer, entrepreneur, who paints Intention Mural Portals in private homes and businesses to elevate the energy of the space and viewer. Grant funds will be used to document the entire process of Eugenia’ Intention Mural Portal process as well as highlighting her new removable wall mural technique.

Elise Gagliardi will be presenting her solo exhibition “Remnants” this spring. Remnants is a new, exploratory, photographic still-life series. It is what the artist calls “still-life portraiture.” It is an exploration of how people attach themselves, and personal meaning, to physical objects.Her photography presents a layered narrative of time and place in each image. By using her own collection and collaborating with others she uses these sentimental relics to create these “self-portraits.” The exhibition will run from 4/15/22 to 5/13/22. In the newest Curiouser and Curiouser Gallery space on Strawberry Hill. Curated by; Cesar Lopez, Sam Haan, Madaline Brice, and Rhiannon Caballero. All funds granted to Elise will be used towards the time, materials, and putting on of this exhibition.

Elaine Buss is a visual artist. The Inspiration Grant will support the largest iteration of her “Breathe Before” wall installation series. The piece will be in a solo exhibit at Lux Center for the Arts in Lincoln, Nebraska in 2023. The surface motifs on these pieces will come from rubbings she makes of details and textures pulled from family homesteads in Southern Illinois, the country church from her upbringing, and Kansas City’s architecture and history. Together these places represent what she observes many from her generation experiencing: a further shift from a religious, rural life to a secular, urban life. The different motifs will play off each other: some will be specific and others more anonymous. Just like a person, the piece will be a sum of different places and experiences.

Caley Rose, Empowering Pop Singer & Songwriter plans to record new motivational songs to further her "Music with a Message" Program. "Music with a Message" is a program Caley created in which she speaks about confidence and performs empowering music in schools for students ages 5 to 18. Grant Funds will be used to produce three new songs: "Stand Up," "Silence Speaks," and "Stop Chasing Boys," with producer, Matt Beilis, and to create marketing materials and take home flyers for students. Where and How: Caley will record the vocals at her home studio while working remotely on the instrumentation with producer, Matt Beilis, who lives in NY.

Caitlin Horsmon, filmmaker and artist, will create a new film work while in residence at Mirante Xique-Xique in Igantu in the state of Bahia, Brazil in August 2022. Grant funding will be used to support the production of the film.

Brian Hawkins is a visual artist and documentary filmmaker whose current project is an animated short of a French folktale from Missouri called Le Petit Bœuf aux cornes d'or. It will be featured at the tricentennial celebration of the French Creole community of Old Mines, Missouri, before being submitted to film festivals. Grant funds will be used to help finance the production of this independent animation.

Andrew Johnson is an author, essayist, and poet whose work has been published in The Sun, Crazyhorse, Image, Guernica, and elsewhere. This grant application is for the independent publishing of his latest book, The Thread, a collection of poetry and prose. He is working with a local design firm and a local printer so that his latest book will be entirely homegrown in Kansas City. If awarded the Inspiration Grant, the funds would immediately be put to work in support of the production costs prior to the book release in late summer 2022.

Adams Puryear is an interdisciplinary artist, curator and educator who will use funds from the Inspiration Grant to finance his curatorial project Lamplighters, an exhibit of ceramic based lighted objects at Vulpes Bastille in October 2022. The grant will be used to facilitate artist collaboration of over 20 artists and finance associated studio fees and materials, performer fees, gallery hardware and pedestals, as well as posters and postcards. This grant will help support a themed project exhibition at the intersection of art and design and strengthen the arts community by bringing together different groups of artists to create lighted ceramic based artworks.

Abby Bland, spoken word comic, is creating You Are Here, to premiere in the Kansas City Fringe Festival in July 2022. You Are Here is a one person poetry and comedy show that aims to uplift audiences as it highlights the ways we often inherit the stories we tell about ourselves and how we always have the power to change the narrative. Grant funds will be used for advertising, photography and video of the show.

WCA’s mission is to uncover the hidden beauty and meaning in KC through music, theatre, arts exhibits, and with this grant request, the Dancing Word – a creative art form that emerged from the pandemic combining spoken word, dance, and visual art.

EarlystART promotes its mission of "Building bridges. Inspiring minds. Impacting Futures" through the arts. Arts@EarlystART supports daily arts instruction, performances, and family engagement activities for children ages six weeks to five years.

Through touring puppet shows to free giant puppet community events, SPT works locally and globally to open the minds of the young and young at heart through the art of puppetry in an interdisciplinary community of ethnic and cultural diversity.

Owen/Cox Dance Group creates new music and dance collaborations, presents high-quality contemporary dance performances with live music, and engages as wide an audience as possible through affordable live performances and outreach programs.

In a Kansas City community with 25+ languages spoken, music is the universal language at Harmony Project KC! HPKC is a free after-school orchestral music program for children K-12.

MAFB is KC's LGBTQ+ and allied adult community band dedicated to performing diverse new works and providing a stage for all. Its motto is "Pride in Every Note".

Mattie Rhodes Center's After-School Arts Program provides access to high quality arts education to low-income, underserved children in a safe, creative space where children of all ages learn and experience many different forms of visual arts.

KC Contemporary Dance is a professional dance company that produces and performs new works around the Midwest region. KC Contemporary Dance strives to make dance accessible to all patrons, and offers many public events at low or no cost.

The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra preserves the rich heritage of jazz, collaborates to create new jazz works, and encourages its appreciation as a genre for all ages through performances and education programs.

KCAI is the premier art and design college serving Kansas City. Contemporary art and design, professional practice, and cutting-edge technology ensure KCAI graduates are the next generation of creative leaders in the Kansas City community.

KANSAS ACADEMY OF THEATRICAL ARTS: We teach, we inspire, we connect! Our leadership training in the performing arts launches young people into the world of work. We are creative assets to our community. We are educational theatre at it's BEST!

JCCC's Midwest Trust Center presents professional touring artists from all over the world PLUS Kansas City's best.

Heartland Chamber Music's mission is to connect, engage and inspire students of all ages through a lifetime of music education and performance. String Sprout KC provides music instruction and access to instruments in underserved areas.

The Folly Theater stands as Kansas City’s oldest operating theater whose mission is to enhance lives through the power of the arts. The Folly Kids’ Series provides engaging, educational, and accessible performing arts experiences for metro youth.

First Act Theatre Art's HEART Program is a full inclusion program that provides students with developmental disabilities the opportunity to participate in classes, shows, and camps. Our video amplifies HEART voices to inform and welcome others.

CHWC’s arts programming engages community members in visual and performing arts activities, increases public art, and contributes to excellent quality of life for the residents of Wyandotte County, KS.

To better the lives of underserved urban youth through artistic, technical, health, and educational skills. Young entrepreneurial artists produce visual, ceramic, music, poetry, fiber arts, dance and other fine art mediums for the community.

The 2022 Art in the Loop Project: Sustainable, a curated outdoor art exhibition, and multi-genre/media performance series, takes place this summer along in Downtown KC. Artwork will be displayed at streetcar shelters and wrap one streetcar vehicle.