The Arts an Experience in the Past, Present and for the Future

The arts make up a significant portion of the identity of Lawrence, a city world-renowned artists call home. This city houses citizens on the Time MagazineThe Most Influential People lists. It welcomes Oscar winners, internationally touring musical groups and producers. Langston Hughes, William S. Burroughs, and countless other artists have stayed here. The arts are not only what make Lawrence unique, they help support the economy.

“We want to make sure the business of art is seen as part of the economy of Lawrence,” former Lawrence Arts Center (LAC) CEO Susan Tate says. “The creative economy is an important part. Arts jobs are real jobs.”

To help celebrate the arts, Lawrence Business Magazine asked a panel of Lawrence artists to help highlight some of the most memorable arts events of the last 10 years. The following artists contributed to this list: Stan Herd, world-renowned artist; Vanessa Thomas, critically acclaimed vocalist; John Sebelius, perennial Best of Lawrence artist winner; Susan Tate, former CEO of the Lawrence Arts Center; Margaret Weisbrod Morris, current CEO of the Lawrence Arts Center; Derek Kwan, executive director of the Lied Center; Mary Doveton, executive director of Theatre Lawrence; Jon Niccum, movie producer and film critic; Stephen T. Johnson, world-renowned artist.

Ten Years of Expression (not a complete list)

(top to bottom) Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis perform Rock Chalk Suite (photo credit Frank Stewart), Rock band Kansas sells out the house at the Lied Center 2019Q2 (photo credit Meg Kumin), Vanessa Thomas performing with the Doc Severinsen Band (2016Q3)

Postcommodity: The Night Is Filled With the Harmonics of Suburban Dreams. An interdisciplinary artist collective that showcased what exists in the world beyond what is monetized. At this particular exhibition, nothing was for sale. This particular show didn’t have any earning power, it was just a chance for the artist to take a risk without worrying about selling something. 2011

Baron Wolman: Every Picture Tells a Story, The Rolling Stone Years, at the Lawrence Arts Center. The original chief photographer for Rolling Stone, Baron Wolman, shared some of his most intimate photographs from rock ‘n’ roll legends and historic musical events. Some of these photographs had never been seen anywhere. 2011

Free State Festival: What once started as the Free State Film Festival, this festival has evolved into an impressive display of different mediums of art. In one of the larger outdoor gatherings for live music for the festival, award-winning and nationally recognized hip hop group Public Enemy played on New Hampshire Street for part of the festival. Johnny Winter, among others, can also be added to the list of New Hampshire Street performances during the festival. This festival has highlighted local artists as well as nationally and world-renowned artists. 2012–present

“Jayhawkers” Premiere: directed by Oscar winner Kevin Willmott and filmed almost exclusively in Lawrence, “Jayhawkers” premiered at the Lied Center. This film highlighted Wilt Chamberlain and the University of Kansas (KU) Jayhawks basketball team. Bill Self and the KU basketball team attended the premiere. The film was also shown at several festivals around the globe. 2013 NOTE: Kevin Willmott brought his Oscar home to Kansas, winning the Academy Award with Spike Lee for Best Adapted Screenplay for “BlacKkKlansman.” 2019

Kansas: The rock band Kansas performed at the Lied Center. The event was part of KU’s 150th anniversary celebration, and the band almost blew the roof off the building with its energy and sound. To top it off, the packed house of attendees received a wonderful surprise when original band members Kerry Livgren and Lawrence native Robby Steinhardt joined in on a couple songs. 2015

Vanessa German Show: The award-winning multidisciplinary artist was part of the group exhibition “Platform” at the Lawrence Arts Center. This exhibition showcased young, powerful, African American women using mixed media. 2016

Simple Gifts Concert: Lawrence’s own Vanessa Thomas was the soloist with the Lawrence Sinfonia and the Lawrence Children’s Choir at the Lied Center. This relationship led into the Lied Loves Lawrence Pop-Up Performances. 2016, 2020–2021

Chicano Batman: As part of the Free State Festival, the high-spirited Latin soul band played at the Lawrence Arts Center just before its members became international stars. 2017

(top to bottom) Mike Anderson, host of the Not So Late Show (photo credit Back Story Photography), Art Tougeau (photo courtesy of Lawrence Arts Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis perform Rock Chalk Suite (photo credit Frank Stewart)

Last Episode of the “Not So Late Show” : For seven years, this live-to-tape local talk show entertained the community. In August 2017, the final show was filmed as Channel 6 ended. The show lasted 239 episodes and featured interviews and performances of many community leaders and artists of Lawrence. 2017

LiveOnMass: Conceived and produced by Mike Logan and his staff, this outdoor musical concert blocks off the 1000 block of Massachusetts Street for a night of music that has featured The Wailers, Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear, Split Lip Rayfield and the first ever headliner, Lawrence’s own The Get Up Kids. 2017–present

Cheech Marin: As part of the Free State Festival, renowned actor Cheech Marin gave a lecture about the origins and cultural significance of Chicano art. He kicked off the festival by sharing stories, his art, why he started collecting and his dream of completing the nation’s first Chicano art museum. 2018

Rethink: I am a Veteran: an ethnographic theater production at the Lawrence Arts Center about female veterans. This was a theater show produced by the performers. Some veterans were in Vietnam, while others just got back from Afghanistan. The moving production featured women telling their stories about being in the military. 2018

Art Experience: St. Luke AME: As part of a fund-raiser to help restore the beautiful stained glass windows of St. Luke AME, artist John Sebelius teamed with up visual designers Jeremy Rockwell and Adam Johnson, and musicians Martinez Hillard and Chris Luxem to create a live art experience inside the church. 2019

9th Street Rhythms: As part of an ArtPlace grant, Stephen T. Johnson crafted 81 colored pencil and monoprint works that were inspired by the words of Langston Hughes and the East Ninth Street Neighborhood. 2019

Time Lapse: Or, The Whale: Jos Sances exhilarating exhibition at the Lawrence Arts Center was an impression exhibition because of the scale (50 feet wide) and intricate detail carved in each square of the drawing. The scratchboard drawing was inspired by “Moby Dick” and the history of whaling in America. 2020

Local crop artist and painter Stan Herd has travelled the world creat¬ing his earthworks, and locally created the national ad campaign for Power to the Patients with Susan Sarandon

The Penguin Project: Disney’s Aristocats, KIDS: For three sold-out performances, disabled children of ages 10 through 21 filled all the roles of this timeless classic. Each youth artist was partnered with an on-stage peer mentor of similar age. 2021

Power to the Patients: a piece outside of Lawrence by muralist and painter, Stan Herd. Herd has spent the last 10(plus) years creating several earthworks that have received global attention. Stan created earthworks in South America, China, and several places in the states. His most recent work, Power to the Patients, was an earthwork and mural – a quarter acre in size using wheat grass, corn kernels, corn husks, brown mulch, and cocoa shells – featured in an advertisement that ran during the 2021 Oscars. 2021

The Future of the Arts in Lawrence

Hope and optimism are two words most Lawrence artists would use to describe the future of the arts in the city. At the Lawrence Arts Center, the word of the year is hope. “We all need a lot of hope right now,” says LAC CEO Margaret Weisbrod Morris.

(top to bottom) Production of Pippen at LAC (Photo courtesy of LAC), Free State Festival and Art Tougeau (photos courtesy of LAC) and
Theatre Lawrence

The arts scene in Lawrence took a serious blow five years ago when the original Ninth Street Arts Corridor Project was rejected by the city commission. After several years of planning and community input, three city commissioners voted against the project, forcing the Arts Center to return the majority of the grant money received from ArtPlace. Although two of the three commissioners who voted against the project remain on the city commission, there is hope the city, the commission and the community want to do more to support the arts. For example, public art installations are now a part of the new Downtown Master Plan, which passed on Aug. 10. The plan calls for enhancing and broadening Downtown arts and culture.

“The city strategic plan and the planning in the last year or two has specially mentioned arts and culture where previously that hasn’t happened,” Morris explains. “This shows me the decision-makers get it, how important the arts are to life.” She reminds us that when people experience trauma, it is important to have a vibrant arts community that can become integrated into our lives.

Theatre Lawrence’s Doveton argues, “The very nature of arts is to bring people together. It is going to take a collective community to sustain the arts. We can’t relegate arts to a couple blocks area. Let’s open up artistic possibilities to a diverse geography.” She sees this idea of coming together everyday in the rehearsals and the productions of the plays at Theatre Lawrence, where each show might include a cast and crew with people as young as 5 and as old as 80. She envisions different degrees of ethnicity, wealth, and education, all with an objective to form a creative company.

Providing an opportunity for more children to experience the arts is an optimistic goal for the arts community. “Part of our vision of equity and diversity involves providing financial support to make sure every child has the opportunity to participate in visual and performing arts,” Tate explains. “By doing this, we are demonstrating what has always been important.”

Financial support from the city is vital for the future of the arts. Tate would like to see the city staff and voters recommit themselves to making Lawrence a city of the arts. “This involves the city committing itself to financial support and staff support for public events that showcase the arts. Providing venues, staff, police and underwriting events will help everyone have access to the same experience in arts,” she says.

Nonprofits like Theatre Lawrence and Lawrence Arts Center rely on federal funding and matching funds from foundations in the federal government. When deciding where to fund, the federal government often looks heavily at whether there is a) a committed funding for the arts from people who are living in the town, and b) committed funding for the arts from the local government.

Several local artists have a clear picture of the benefits of these investments into the arts. “Arts are a two-way street,” Doveton says. “Arts require investment, and the arts provide a huge return on that investment in terms of a financially and community healthy spirit.”

“Lawrence is fueled by a creative economy, and it makes people want to live here,” Tate adds. Artists who currently live in Lawrence agree.

“I am hopeful the art scene in Lawrence will continue to grow and blossom. This town celebrates collaboration and experimentation, and is full of gifted makers, musicians and writers,” Sebelius says. “To ensure our creative stability, Lawrence should make funding for the arts and funding for the people who make the art a priority in future budgets.”

“I am extremely optimistic that the Lawrence arts scene will continue to thrive for decades to come,” The Lied Center’s Kwan adds. “There are too many talented artists, creative thinkers and arts lovers for there not to be a wonderful environment that nourishes this scene. This doesn’t mean things will remain the same. In fact, a healthy arts scene is constantly evolving.”

Festivals, concerts, artist showcases, Final Fridays, guest exhibitions, movie premieres, outstanding plays, choir performances and more will continue to highlight the future of the arts in Lawrence. Vanessa Thomas, critically acclaimed vocalist, explains, “I hope in the coming decade, Lawrence continues to remember the value of ‘the formal concert’ and not just live music, in general, and I hope they’ll never forget the power of art as a way of improving lives. As a resident, I like that I can blend in living here, but I truly love the opportunity Lawrence has given me to stand out.”

The arts were hit incredibly hard by the pandemic. During this current climate, Lawrence is fortunate to have such a vibrant arts scene. “The U.S. is looking inward … artistically … turning away from the inanity and insanity of the coasts. Unique, creative, ‘superhip’ Midwest cities like Lawrence, Kansas, are getting the attention of those who used to believe you had to ‘make it’ on the coasts. We have always been a wellspring of ‘cool’ here in progressive Lawrence, Kansas, and our arts future looks bright,” Stan Herd says.

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