RESERVATION FORM
Craft Leaders Caucus and James renwick alliance study tour of Kansas city
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 – Sunday. October 10, 2010
The James Renwick Alliance Board of Directors invites both Craft Leaders Caucus and JRA members to join tour leader and Kansas City native Larry Hawk for a craft study tour to the state of Missouri Oct. 6-10, 2010.
The study tour to Kansas City will be split into two parts: Oct. 6-10 will be a Caucus study tour. The general membership group will join up with the Caucus group at a reception Thursday evening, Oct. 7 to begin their part of the tour. The tour will end on Sunday, Oct. 10.
From headquarters in the delightful Raphael Hotel at Country Club Plaza, the group will explore Kansas City’s vibrant contemporary art scene and rich cultural history. This study tour is timed to coincide with the opening of a ceramics alumni show at the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI), which is celebrating its 125 year anniversary. Related exhibitions of contemporary ceramics from Kansas City collections at the Nelson-Atkins museum and KCAI faculty at the Sherry Leedy Gallery, which includes the head of the Ceramics department at KCAI, Cary Esser, who is helping to put this trip together are on the itinerary.
A highlight of the action-packed weekend schedule will be a visit to the extraordinary Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art including the Bloch Building which opened to critical acclaim in 2007 and the completely re-modeled older building. Nicolai Ouroussoff of the New York Times describes Steven Holl’s addition as “his most mature work to date, a perfect synthesis of ideas that he has been refining for more than a decade…has haunting power.” The tour of the museum is with a curator from the decorative arts department who helped curate the KCAI alumni show.
Also on the agenda is a visit the newly-opened Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (Kyu Sung Woo, architect) at Johnson County Community College as well as to a private ceramics collection. Included will be a large number of studio visits of both ceramic and fiber artists. Special events include lunch at Jack Stack’s Barbeque, a Renwick Alliance sponsored-reception on the top floor of the Raphael Hotel and the activities associated with the KCAI exhibition opening.
The Caucus group will spend Wednesday in Kansas City at private and corporate collections and studios. Thursday will be devoted to Sedalia, MO, at the Daum Museum, State College Community College, to see its vast collection of large scale ceramics and paintings. Doug Freed, landscape artist and former director of the museum, is arranging for craft artists at other locations in Missouri to display their work in a “very mini craft show.” Exit from the KC on Sunday will include stops at the studio of ceramists Misty Gamble and Andy Brayman.
A block of rooms at the Raphael Hotel, close to the shops, restaurants, and galleries on the Country Club Plaza, and within walking distance of major museums, has been reserved. A steak dinner on Saturday night is planned on the Plaza at the Plaza III Restaurant. You are responsible for booking your airfare and hotel. They are not included in the price of the trip. The Raphael Hotel has offered us special rates from $169 for a deluxe room, $189 for a deluxe suite, and $199 for a Plaza view suite.
The cost of the trip is $825 per person for Caucus members, $125 being a nonrefundable contribution to JRA, and $575 for JRA members, $75 the nonrefundable contribution to JRA, and $625 for non-members. These prices are based on 20 participants. The price includes bus transportation throughout the trip, entrance and tour fees, gratuities, lunches and one dinner. Hotel and airfare costs are not included.
To secure a space on what promises to be a popular tour, please make the appropriate full payment to the James Renwick Alliance by Friday, September 10, 2010.
PAYMENT
Please sign up and pay below online, otherwise print and mail in this Caucus Study Tour Sign Up Form or JRA Study Tour Sign Up Form (Word document).