Giving Kids a Helping Hand

PNC Grow Up Great Gallery

Photo by David Riffel

Since 2004, PNC has been dedicated to helping children through PNC Grow Up Great, which helps prepare children from birth through age 5 for success in school and life. PNC Grow Up Great supports programs, resources and experiences for young people through partnerships with organizations like the Kauffman Center. Nowhere is this vision more clear than in the PNC Grow Up Great Gallery.

The Kauffman Center is proud to be the home of the PNC Grow Up Great Gallery. Created in 2018, the gallery is a collaboration between the Kauffman Center, PNC and and area early learning centers to inspire a love of the arts in children. By exposing children to the arts, PNC and the Kauffman Center hope to encourage creativity that will last a lifetime. 

The PNC Grow Up Great Gallery leaves a lasting impression on students like Noble. Noble was one of the first to leave his handprint on the wall in 2019 and returned four years later to find his handprint. “I do remember that day you guys took my handprint and put in on here,” said Noble. “We had a field trip coming to the Kauffman Center to see our handprints… I was just full of excitement!” 

“Noble has fond memories of his time experiencing the performing arts at the Kauffman Center and the PNC Grow Up Great volunteers who came to help him make his handprint,” his mom, Tamica, said. Noble is now taking part in the performing arts through music and flexing his creative mind at a French immersion school in Kansas City. 

Check out the video below to learn more about Noble’s story. 

The gallery is currently home to nearly 300 handprints from pre-K students in the Kansas City-area, with more being added to the gallery each year. The handprints also showcase the first name and age of their creator, making the gallery a very personal and heartfelt experience for many families.

Photo by Don Ipock

The gallery is a colorful way to show the lives impacted by the collaboration between PNC and The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The gallery also serves as a permanent reminder of people impacted by PNC Grow Up Great, with each handprint representing the many lives that have been touched by the arts. 

Feel free to come see the gallery with your own eyes! The PNC Grow Up Great Gallery is located in the Level 2 Plaza Lobby of the Kauffman Center. The gallery is open for viewing for ticketholders 90 minutes prior to any performance. It’s also open to the public during box office hours, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. 

Want to lend a helping hand? Learn more about PNC Grow Up Great at PNC Grow Up Great (pnc.com).