Art in the Loop 2022 Has Officially Kicked Off

You may have noticed something if you’ve been traveling around Downtown KC today!

The KC Streetcar stops have been ignited with images of the world, the city, a bouquet, and other incredible artworks. An entire KC Streetcar has bloomed, thanks to a young crusader’s green thumb, and a series of public performances are slated for the rest of the year—it is summertime in Kansas City, and Art in the Loop has once again transformed Downtown into a public gallery of art and performance. For nine years, Art in the Loop has been engaged in a mission to “infuse the center of Downtown KC with innovative and engaging temporary art that will refresh, intrigue and entertain our audience of Downtown workers, residents, and visitors.” And this year is no different.

Last night, 150 guests attended the 2022 Kick-Off Event at the Kansas City Public Library – Central Library, and Ann Holliday, the director of Art in the Loop, spoke about the organization’s mission in detail. Art in the Loop creates “an opportunity for local emerging and established artists to increase their audiences and extend their practices.”

Many such artists were in attendance that night, and two of them gave riveting performances. Amado Espinoza and his Junkyard Orchestra gave us a musical tour around the world, both stylistically and with the instruments he used: a classical Arabic flute made out of a broom, an Andean pan-flute made from dried-up markers, a Bolivian guitar made from a cookie tin, and a didgeridoo made out of a vacuum tube. The other performance was by poet Vanessa Aricco, who read from her manuscript On the Cusp of Air and Water, written during her studio residency at the Charlotte Street Foundation. A compelling selection of poetry exerted the necessity for a more conscientious relationship to our natural world. These performances bookended the program, which detailed the new works of art at the streetcar stops, the newly wrapped 806 Streetcar, the public performances this year, and this year’s theme: “Sustainability.” We hope everyone that made it enjoyed the evening, and we hope that everyone will be able to attend the other performances this year.

Continue to check the Art in the Loop website for more details about this year’s upcoming events, as well as information about all of our artists and performers.

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The 2022 Art in the Loop Project is made possible through the generous support of the KC Streetcar Authority, Stinson LLP, UMB Bank, Copaken Brooks, JE Dunn Construction and other corporate partners. This project is funded in part by the City of Kansas City, Missouri Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund, as well as by awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Missouri Arts Council, ArtsKC, and the Richard J. Stern Foundation for the Arts – Commerce Bank Trustee.

Project partners include the Downtown Council, Downtown Community Improvement Districts, KC Streetcar, and the Kansas City Art Institute.

For more information about the project and the artists, visit www.artintheloop.com, www.facebook.com/artintheloop, or twitter.com/ArtintheLoop.