Library Kicks Off 2018 Art in the Loop Celebration

Thursday, April 26, 2018
Courtney Lewis
Library Kicks Off 2018 Art in the Loop Celebration


Kansas City, MO  – The Kansas City Public Library again serves as a partner for the annual Art in the Loop exhibition, hosting an opening event May 1, 2018, and performances at two First Friday open houses during the summer.

The summer-long 2018 Art in the Loop Project: KC Plays features 15 temporary works of art and performances in the greater downtown area. Those at the Central Library, 14 W. 10th St.:
  • Tuesday, May 1, 2018 | 6:30 p.m. | Art in the Loop Kickoff Celebration As the series prepares to open, a number of participating artists, dancers, musicians, and poets take turns discussing their contributions. They are introduced by art directors Jahaira Aguilar and Andrew Lattner, local artists and co-founders of the collaborative group NDo.
     
  • Friday, June 1, 2018 | 5:30-7:30 p.m. | Art Starts at the Library In Passing Notes, part of the menu of events for the Library’s First Friday open house, artist David Alpert leads an exercise in writing notes to place in Library books. Multi-instrumentalist Amado Espinoza provides live music, accompanied by his brother Pedro Calderon on flute, guitar, and vocals.
     
  • Friday, August 3, 2018 | 5:30-7:30 p.m. | Art Starts at the Library Sunyoung Cheong’s installation Wearable Play encourages children and adults to assemble common objects such as wood, plastic, and foam. Musician Nick Carswell joins vocalist Katlyn Conroy in a live performance, Twin Stranger. 
Art in the Loop, in its fifth season, is designed to bring innovative and engaging temporary art to downtown Kansas City.

“If we want to engage people who live, work, and visit downtown with each other through artwork, what’s a better place to do that than the Library?” says Art in the Loop program director Ann Holiday. “I feel like our mission kind of overlaps.”

Carrie Coogan, the library’s deputy director of public affairs and community engagement, agrees. “When I think of our library, our library system, we’re always trying new things,” she says. “Doing an entire summer of a variety of art installations and performances, whether they’re inside the building or outside the building or attached to the streetcar, it’s just one more way of showing that the library – our library – is this wonderful, exciting, innovative place to be.”