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An Interview with Gracie Caggiano

by Ben Fine, Art in the Loop Intern

Gracie Caggiano is a musician that will perform at the Oppenstein Brothers Memorial Park during an Art in the Loop event on Wednesday, September 18, between 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. During the interview, she mentions how she primarily focuses on spaces that are not meant for disabled people so she captures those feelings in song.

Learn More About the Artist | Gracie Caggiano

Website | graciecaggiano.com

Instagram | @graciecaggiano

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artintheloop

Bringing temporary artwork, music and performances to Downtown KC and KC Streetcar

A Girl & Zu have officially reached the end of the A Girl & Zu have officially reached the end of the Northbound line!

🧶🚋🏡

For Stop No. 4, Zu and the pups headed to the Riverfront KC Streetcar stop to see Home is Imagination by Kansas City illustrator and designer Kai Johnson @kaistoodios 

In Home is Imagination, Kai looks back to their younger self and the world they created growing up in their grandmother’s pink house— a place where paper, tape, band-aids, and a big imagination could become just about anything.

🏡✂️💭

The piece is a reminder that home isn’t always something we find outside ourselves. Sometimes it’s the inner world we build, return to, and carry with us.

And since this was the final stop on the Northbound tour, A Girl & pups and Zu decided to stroll @berkleyriverfront and grab a bite to eat and a little skee-ball at @twobirdsonestonekc before hopping back aboard the @kcstreetcar 

🎯🍴🚋

Next up: the Southbound art tour.

**A Girl & creates handmade crocheted creatures and leaves them around the city as FREE ART. Finders are invited to photograph their discovery, take it home and keep it, or pass it along to someone who could use a little joy.

Until these two find their permanent homes, Zu is still generously volunteering as their teenage tour guide.

Tag @artintheloop when you visit Home is Imagination!
A Girl & Zu are back on the @kcstreetcar and our t A Girl & Zu are back on the @kcstreetcar and our tiny tourists have officially made it to Stop No. 3!

🧶🚋🥁

This time, Zu and the pups are at the River Market Northbound KC Streetcar stop to see Carried By Sound by Nigerian-born Kansas City artist Anjola Ayodele @anjola.ay @jolastudiosart 

Inspired by Highlife, Afrobeats, and the Nigerian talking drum, Carried By Sound explores the idea that sound carries identity—connecting us across migration, distance, generations, and the places we call home.

🥁🎶🥁

At the center of the piece, a musician plays the talking drum while layers of color, pattern, and movement travel through the artwork like sound itself. For Anjola, music remains one of her strongest connections to Nigeria and a way of carrying culture and memory forward.

After taking it all in Zu & our tiny tourists hopped back aboard the @kcstreetcar to continue their journey through @artintheloop’s public art installations.

🐾🎨🐾

A Girl & creates handmade crocheted creatures and leaves them around the city as FREE ART. Finders are invited to photograph their discovery, take it home and keep it, or pass it along to someone who could use a little joy.
Until these two find their permanent homes, Zu is still generously volunteering as their teenage tour guide.

Have you visited Carried By Sound yet or found one of A Girl &’s creations somewhere in the wild?
EPISODE II A Girl & Zu are back on the @kcstreet EPISODE II 

A Girl & Zu are back on the @kcstreetcar and our tiny tourists have officially made it to Stop No. 2! 

🧶🚋🏀

This time, Zu and the crocheted balloon dogs are heading to the Library Northbound KC Streetcar stop to see Blossoming Origins by Michelle Briggs @michelle_mike_robin 

After carefully studying the installation, posing for the camera, and waiting patiently for their ride, the dogs hopped back aboard the streetcar to continue their tour of @artintheloop ‘s public art installations throughout Downtown Kansas City.

🐾🎨🐾

A Girl & creates handmade crocheted creatures and leaves them around the city as FREE ART. Finders are invited to photograph their discovery, take it home and keep it or pass it along to someone who could use a little joy. 

🎨🐾🎨

Until these two find their permanent homes, Zu is generously volunteering as their teenage tour guide. 

Have you visited Blossoming Origins yet or found one of A Girl &’s creations somewhere in the wild?
We are excited to announce Art in the Loop celebra We are excited to announce Art in the Loop celebrates 816 Day at the @citymarketkc Sunday, August 16th at 6pm. 

Join us for performances from @thedynamitexperience @bodaciousthang @fk_menace and @theroyalchief with a special collaboration with @ikea 

This will be a wonderful opportunity to enjoy one of the many events that celebrate our wonderful city, culture, and art. We would also like to encourage everyone to get out and support @theofficial816day and events they have curated around the city! 

Our hope is that this day brings people together to celebrate all of the wonderful art, music, and culture our amazing city has to offer.

We looking forward to this and seeing everyone!

Thanks so much to the City Market, @kcstreetcar and @godowntownkc for your support and helping bring this all together for our Art in the Loop Artists.

Art in the Loop Team

#artintheloop #kcstreetcar #citymarketkc #godowntownkc #kansascity
What happens when two tiny pieces of FREE ART deci What happens when two tiny pieces of FREE ART decide they want to see a little more of Kansas City? 👀🧶🚋

Meet A Girl & Zu Tour the Loop, an adventure series through Downtown KC featuring two crocheted balloon dogs, their teenage tour guide, the KC Streetcar, and a whole lot of public art.

A Girl & is a free-art project sending handmade crocheted creatures out into the world in search of new homes. So yes—if you find one, you get to keep it! 🥹

Each piece comes with a simple invitation:
📸 Snap a photo where you found it.
🏡 Take it home.
💛 Share it with someone else—or keep it.
✨ Most importantly, spread a little joy.

But first, these two are taking the scenic route.

Enter Zu, who generously “volunteered” some of his summer free time to tour them around the Loop (aka his stepmom is working for Art in the Loop this summer and dragged him into it.) 😂

With Zu serving as their tour guide, our tiny tourists are riding the KC Streetcar to explore the Art in the Loop installations at eight streetcar shelters, stopping to take in the art before hopping aboard and heading to the next one. Our first stop was the NK Southmoreland  KC Streetcar stop at 43rd & Main. On view is Seasons of Home by Kevin VanEmburgh.

Kevin abstract paintings and photography is rooted in the natural world, inspired by the ocean, open landscapes and the restless quality of light.

Have you seen Kevin’s work or spotted A Girl &’s work in the wild? Let us know! 

#ArtInTheLoop #KCStreetcar #kansascity #freeart #AGirlAnd
Meet @c.cookson.paints Christine Cookson (She/He Meet @c.cookson.paints 

Christine Cookson (She/Her/Hers) is a Kansas City–based window artist and muralist specializing in custom, hand-painted designs for businesses and individuals. Working primarily with acrylic and spray paint, she creates bold, curated visuals that transform everyday spaces into engaging, memorable experiences. Her work blends commercial appeal with artistic expression, often designed to draw attention, enhance brand identity, and invite interaction. Christine has performed live window painting at Kansas City’s City Market during the Merry Market in December 2025, as well as at the Liberty Chick-fil-A during the 2025 holiday season.

Join us for the art walk today, Tuesday, July 21st at 6pm. We’ll kick things off at the Riverfront @kcstreetcar stop. This is a great opportunity to meet and hear from the artist and the story behind their work. Don’t forget to bring water, and we want encourage everyone to use the streetcar to reduce any parking concerns at the Riverfront. Hop on and off wherever you’d like.

Thanks so much for your support of @artintheloop and all of the amazing artists for 26. 

Art in the Loop Team

#artintheloop #kcstreetcar #kansascity #kc #christinecookson
Meet @kvanemburgh Kevin VanEmburgh is a Kansas C Meet @kvanemburgh 

Kevin VanEmburgh is a Kansas City-based abstract painter and photographer whose work is rooted in the natural world, inspired by the ocean, open landscapes and the restless quality of light. Self-taught, he first developed his eye through years of photography, a practice that shaped his instinct for contrast, color and composition before he ever picked up a brush.

Working intuitively with palette knives on horizontal canvases, Kevin surrenders control to the process, letting each piece find its own direction. His paintings draw from a life spent in motion, time living in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Boston and Key West. Ongoing travel brings new landscapes, new light, and new people into his work.

His paintings have been displayed in galleries locally in Kansas City and internationally. He often travels abroad as an extension of his belief that the best work comes from putting yourself somewhere unfamiliar.

At his core, Kevin is someone who has to make things. He works in volume, loves a little of it, and shares only what feels true. It’s a process that gives and takes and keeps him showing up every day.

Join us for the art walk today, Tuesday, July 21st at 6pm. We’ll kick things off at the Riverfront @kcstreetcar stop. This is a great opportunity to meet and hear from the artist and the story behind their work. Don’t forget to bring water, and we want encourage everyone to use the streetcar to reduce any parking concerns at the Riverfront. Hop on and off wherever you’d like.

Thanks so much for your support of @artintheloop and all of the amazing artists for 26. 

Art in the Loop Team

#artintheloop #kcstreetcar #kansascity #kc #kevinvanemburgh
Meet @michelle_mike_robin Michelle Robin is a vis Meet @michelle_mike_robin

Michelle Robin is a visual artist whose main medium is acrylic painting, with the goal of story telling through the formatting of metaphorical embodiment of people in abstract environments. Throughout her eight-year-long career, she has executed various gallery installations across the Kansas City Metro area such as the Kansas City Art Coalition “Confronted with the Gaze of Another”, and The Zhou B Art Center’s “Reclaiming the Canvas” exhibition. She is also a 2025 recipient of the 18th & Vine Artist Growth Grants that has supplied her current ongoing project installation at The Justice & Dignity Center. This project consists of seven murals that stretch from their multipurpose room through the connected hallway, with renditions of the organization’s foundational pillars. Her process of developing concepts focuses around the physical appearance of the body, rather than expression through the eyes. Outside of her creative career, Michelle maintains her youth development career through working with students on the Autism Spectrum as a Registered Behavioral Technician.

Join us for the art walk on Tuesday, July 21st at 6pm. We’ll kick things off at the Riverfront @kcstreetcar stop. This is a great opportunity to meet and hear from the artist and the story behind their work. Don’t forget to bring water, and we want encourage everyone to use the streetcar to reduce any parking concerns at the Riverfront. Hop on and off wherever you’d like.

Thanks so much for your support of @artintheloop and all of the amazing artists for 26. 

Art in the Loop Team

#artintheloop #kcstreetcar #kansascity #kc #michellebriggs
Meet @deannadikeman Deanna Dikeman is an America Meet @deannadikeman 

Deanna Dikeman is an American photographer whose work explores themes of family, time, memory, and the emotional resonance of everyday life. She is best known for her long-term project “Leaving and Waving” in which she photographed her parents for 27 years as they stood in their driveway in Sioux City, Iowa, waving goodbye at the end of her visits. 

Dikeman graduated from Purdue University with a B.S. in Biology and an M.S. in Management. She has photographed her midwestern family and surroundings since 1985, when she left a corporate job to try a photography class. She received an Aaron Siskind Foundation Fellowship in 1996, the United States Artists Booth Fellowship in 2008, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in Photography in 2023. She has two books published by Chose Commune: “Leaving and Waving” in 2021 and “Relative Moments” in 2024.  Photographs from “Leaving and Waving” have been exhibited at festivals, museums, and galleries in 14 countries: Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA.

Join us for the art walk on Tuesday, July 21st at 6pm. We’ll kick things off at the Riverfront @kcstreetcar stop. This is a great opportunity to meet and hear from the artist and the story behind their work. Don’t forget to bring water, and we want encourage everyone to use the streetcar to reduce any parking concerns at the Riverfront. Hop on and off wherever you’d like.

Thanks so much for your support of @artintheloop and all of the amazing artists for 26. 

Art in the Loop Team

#artintheloop #kcstreetcar #kansascity #kc #deannadikeman
Meet @kaistoodios Kai Johnson (they/them) is an Meet @kaistoodios 

Kai Johnson (they/them) is an illustrator and designer based in Kansas City, Missouri, with a deep passion for mental health advocacy and creative self-expression. With eight years of freelance experience, Kai designed patches for KC Current’s Pride Collection, a tifo and hand-painted banner for the Google Pixel x NWSL Championship in 2024, a mental health journal for children, wrestling merchandise and uniforms, a flower press, and portraits. In their spare time, Kai loves to indulge in early 2000’s cartoons and roller skating.

Join us for the art walk on Tuesday, July 21st at 6pm. We’ll kick things off at the Riverfront @kcstreetcar stop. This is a great opportunity to meet and hear from the artist and the story behind their work. Don’t forget to bring water, and we want encourage everyone to use the streetcar to reduce any parking concerns at the Riverfront. Hop on and off wherever you’d like.

Thanks so much for your support of @artintheloop and all of the amazing artists for 26. 

Art in the Loop Team

#artintheloop #kcstreetcar #kansascity #kc #kaijohnson
Meet @smallworksartgallerykc In her practice, Ga Meet @smallworksartgallerykc 

In her practice, Gail is interested in how we find connections and communicate with one another, and how those relationships build and sustain our communities. She interprets her observations of the human condition through distillation and abstraction, using the colors and forms found in nature. Gail experiments with mixed media drawing, painting, and sculpture.

Ms. Gail holds a Bachelor of Arts from Elms College in Massachusetts, with additional training at Gage Academy and Pratt Fine Art Center in Seattle, WA, and Penland School of Craft in Penland, NC. She is an ArtsKC Inspiration Grant recipient and has held residencies with Charlotte Street Foundation UCP in Kansas City, MO, and Escape to Create in Seaside, FL.

Gail’s work is in the collections of Stowers Institute for Medical Research & the Belger Collection, KCMO; University of Kansas Medical Center & iSmile KCK, KCK; Harborview Spine Center, Seattle, WA; OliverMcMillian, San Diego, CA.

Join us for the art walk on Tuesday, July 21st at 6pm. We’ll kick things off at the Riverfront @kcstreetcar stop. This is a great opportunity to meet and hear from the artist and the story behind their work. Don’t forget to bring water, and we want encourage everyone to use the streetcar to reduce any parking concerns at the Riverfront. Hop on and off wherever you’d like.

Thanks so much for your support of @artintheloop and all of the amazing artists for 26. 

Art in the Loop Team

#artintheloop #kcstreetcar #kansascity #kc #cherylgailartist
Meet @artista_vaniasoto Vania Soto (she/her) is Meet @artista_vaniasoto 

Vania Soto (she/her) is a multidisciplinary visual artist, muralist, and curator based in the Kansas City metro area. Her practice includes painting, large-scale murals, and community-based projects exploring identity, migration, matriarchal lineage, unity, and collective memory.

Join us for the art walk on Tuesday, July 21st at 6pm. We’ll kick things off at the Riverfront @kcstreetcar stop. This is a great opportunity to meet and hear from the artist and the story behind their work. Don’t forget to bring water, and we want encourage everyone to use the streetcar to reduce any parking concerns at the Riverfront. Hop on and off wherever you’d like.

Thanks so much for your support of @artintheloop and all of the amazing artists for 26. 

Art in the Loop Team

#artintheloop #kcstreetcar #kansascity #kc #vaniasoto
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Contact Us

Art in the Loop
1000 Walnut, Suite 200
Kansas City, Missouri 64106

(816) 421-1539
www.artintheloop.com
Link to: Oppenstein Park Performances + Summer in the City Events Link to: Oppenstein Park Performances + Summer in the City Events Oppenstein Park Performances + Summer in the City Events Link to: Art in the Loop Presents Oppenstein Brothers Memorial Park Performances Link to: Art in the Loop Presents Oppenstein Brothers Memorial Park Performances Art in the Loop Presents Oppenstein Brothers Memorial Park Performances
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