In the News
Joan Israelite Receives Missouri Arts Council’s Leadership in the Arts Award for 2023
Joan Israelite
The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts is thrilled to announce that Joan Israelite has received the 2023 Leadership in the Arts award from the Missouri Arts Council, the state’s highest honor in the arts.
Israelite has been a tireless force since the mid-’80s for creating policy, raising funds and growing arts organizations. She was the founding CEO of ArtsKC and a nine-year board member for the Missouri Arts Council and the National Council on the Arts, an organization that advises the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts on agency policies and programs.
For the Kauffman Center, Israelite has been involved since the beginning in 2008. When the dream of a new, state-of-the-art Kansas City performing arts center was born, she and the capital campaign committee worked strategically to raise $366 million to construct the building and create an endowment. As a key fundraiser, Israelite reached out to prospects at all levels and backgrounds. She gave countless hardhat tours and developed innovative fundraising programs, such as the seat plaque and Children’s Wall campaigns. She was a key architect of the Open Doors program, which reduces barriers to attending performances at the Kauffman Center.
Still a member of the Kauffman Center team, Israelite brings her high energy and inventiveness to the Kauffman Center as a development consultant, raising funds for annual operations and the endowment.
Kansas City’s — and the region’s — most prominent and influential arts administrators, advocates and elected officials routinely contact Israelite, seeking guidance regarding arts programming, education, fundraising and issues related to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility. In addition, she has met with more than 50 young women seeking career advice and has advocated for the inclusion of women in leadership positions in the arts and nonprofit organizations.
Joan Israelite’s ability to lead, build consensus and nurture relationships has earned her the unofficial title, Joan of Arts. She has left an indelible mark in the arts community.
Earlier this fall, Joan and Steve Israelite were also honored with the 2022 Heartland Humanitarians of the Year from the Truman Heartland Community Foundation.
Art installation features handprints by Kansas City Pre-K kids
Photo by Dalene Bradford
Kansas City Pre-K kids and their families celebrated the addition of 129 new handprints on the PNC Grow Up Great Gallery at the Kauffman Center last week. The art installation in the Kauffman Center’s Plaza Lobby now showcases nearly 300 handprints created by local preschool students from four local early childhood centers: St. Mark Child and Family Development Center, Metro Early Learning Center, Growing Futures Early Education Center, and El Centro Academy for Children.
At a special event hosted by PNC Bank, the children proudly located their handprints in the colorful gallery setting that combines visual art and musical themes. Each child was photographed near their handprint on the wall and took home a framed photo as a memory of the evening at the Kauffman Center.
The November 12 event included dinner in Brandmeyer Great Hall and interactive performances by local groups StoneLion Puppet Theatre and Drum Safari. Planet Play engaged youngsters in creative building activities, and passport booklets guided families through the evening’s activities. Other memorabilia given to the children and their families included PNC-branded t-shirts and tote bags. The event drew attention of local media, resulting in coverage on KMBC Channel 9 News.
Photo by David Riffel
Photo by David Riffel
PNC Bank created the gallery in 2018 in partnership with the Kauffman Center and other early education centers as part of an effort to inspire great futures for local children through memorable arts experiences. The gallery exemplifies PNC’s 15-year-old flagship philanthropic program, PNC Grow Up Great, a bilingual initiative to prepare children from birth to age five for success in school and life.
“Early childhood education is about giving a child the right start to life. And that is something institutions like St. Mark Child and Family Development Center, Metro Early Learning Center, Growing Futures Early Education Center, and El Centro Academy for Children do so well,” said Dale Klose, regional president for PNC in Kansas City. “Our relationship with the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts allows us to showcase the work we do with these organizations.”
PNC Bank is the Kauffman Center’s exclusive bank sponsor and supports the Kauffman Center’s Ensemble business membership program and the PNC Grow Up Great Gallery. PNC is also a key sponsor of the Kauffman Center’s programming series, Kauffman Center Presents.
“The PNC Grow Up Great Gallery is a truly meaningful part of our relationship with PNC Bank,” says Paul Schofer, president and CEO of the Kauffman Center. “We love that this project connects so many youngsters with the Center in such a personal way. We are eager to have all of them come back to compare their growing hands with their colorful handprints and, of course, to attend a live performance.”
The PNC Grow Up Great Gallery is in the Level 2 Plaza Lobby of the Kauffman Center. The gallery is open for viewing by 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.
Live from Here with Chris Thile Broadcasts Live from the Kauffman Center
The two-hour broadcast reached 2.6 million listeners
Listen to the full episode and watch video of the show
The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts hosted a live radio broadcast of Live from Here with Chris Thile on Saturday, Jan. 12.
The show featured special guests Mandolin Orange, My Brightest Diamond, Judy Gold and Gaby Moreno. It reached an audience of 2.6 million listeners on public radio stations around the country, plus listeners online and on the American Forces Networks, SiriusXM Radio, Radio New Zealand, and KPRG in Guam.
Videos of the performance in Muriel Kauffman Theatre:
Live from Here to Broadcast Live from the Kauffman Center on Jan. 12!
Acclaimed host Chris Thile will produce the live radio show Jan. 12 from Muriel Kauffman Theatre
Kansas City, MO – An acclaimed national radio show will broadcast live from the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts this winter, when Live from Here with Chris Thile brings its variety show format to Muriel Kauffman Theatre. The live radio broadcast will happen on Saturday, January 12, 2019, as part of the 2018-2019 Kauffman Center Presents series.
Tickets for the event range from $49 to $89 plus applicable fees and go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 21. Tickets will be available through the Kauffman Center Box Office at (816) 994-7222, via the Kauffman Center mobile app, or online at www.kauffmancenter.org.
Media support for Live from Here at the Kauffman Center is provided by KCUR 89.3 FM and Kansas Public Radio.
About Live from Here with Chris Thile
Each episode of Live from Here with Chris Thile includes music from Thile and the show band, thoughts from Out In America presented by comedian correspondent Tom Papa, comedy sketches and much more. Live from Here is produced by American Public Media and is heard by 2.6 million listeners each week on nearly 600 public radio stations, online, and on the American Forces Networks, SiriusXM Radio, Radio New Zealand, and KPRG in Guam.
Chris Thile is an acclaimed composer and mandolinist. From age 5, Thile showed great proficiency with the mandolin and by age 8, he had co-founded the band Nickel Creek which would later win both a Grammy and multiple IBMA Awards. Thile was a recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Grant in 2012 for his exceptional creative work with the mandolin. He made his first appearance on A Prairie Home Companion in 1996 at age 15 during an episode about child prodigies, and later succeeded host Garrison Keillor in 2016. The show changed its name shortly after to Live from Here and is now its second season.
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Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts to receive $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts
The NEA award, among 1,023 grants annually, will support the Kauffman Center’s
5th annual Future Stages Festival on June 10th
Photo by Jillian Shoptaw
Kansas City, MO—National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $25 million in grants as part of the NEA’s first major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018. Included in this announcement is an Art Works grant of $25,000 to the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. This award is the largest NEA grant awarded to the Kauffman Center in support of Future Stages Festival. The festival is a free community event that provides opportunities for future artists to take center stage at the Kauffman Center. The Art Works category is the NEA’s largest funding category and supports projects that focus on the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and/or the strengthening of communities through the arts.
The fifth Future Stages Festival will be held at the Kauffman Center from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 10, 2018. The free, one-day festival invites youth and families to experience a diverse range of performances and arts activities. Future Stages Festival, an extension of the Kauffman Center’s Open Doors Spotlight on Youth program, also provides opportunities for youth and community arts organizations to perform on stage at the Kauffman Center. Since the festival began in 2014, more than 2,500 Kansas City-area youth artists from 60 arts organizations have been featured on Kauffman Center stages.
Presented by Saint Luke’s Health System, Future Stages Festival is free and open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to register at kauffmancenter.org/futurestages to receive the latest event updates and schedule for performances and activities.
For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.
Photo by Cody Boston
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