The dream of a downtown arts campus for the University of Missouri-Kansas City drew closer to reality with today’s formal announcement that a full city block has been acquired for its construction directly south of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
Representatives of UMKC were joined by city, business and arts leaders at a press conference attended by about 200 people in the panoramic glass enclosure of the Kauffman Center’s Brandmeyer Great Hall. The hall overlooked the site of the planned campus, which will sit on a two-acre tract of land bounded by Broadway and Central and 17th and 18th streets.
Peter Witte, dean of the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, called it “the dawn of a new day for UMKC, for our conservatory, for downtown and for Kansas City’s status as a center for the creative and performing arts.”
The $6 million tract was purchased by a group of anonymous angel investors and is to be donated to UMKC for its Downtown Campus for the Arts, dependent on a successful campaign by the university to raise a total of $96 million to complete phase one of the project. The university has already privately raised nearly half of its goal of $48 million—including a $20 million challenge grant pledge from the Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation—which it would then request state lawmakers to match.
“It is truly a big idea and a big task,” said UMKC Chancellor Leo E. Morton. “And like anything worth doing, it’s going to take a lot of hard work and sacrifice to make that vision real. But I’m here to tell you today that we’re well on our way.”
The 80,000-square foot-tract was purchased from four local property owners, who will relocate their businesses elsewhere in Kansas City.
Michael Hagedorn, the board chairman of the Downtown Council, which took a leadership role in constructing the deal, gave “special thanks” to the property owners: Dean Martin, Paula Martin and Jim Martin (Griner and Schmitz, Inc.), Chris Medina and Jean-Paul Chaurand (Guadalupe Centers, Inc.), Mike and Mary McNiel (McClelland Company) and Steve, Lainie and Sara Wilbur (J. Wilbur Company).
“These civic partners were understanding and supportive,” Hagedorn said. “They get it—the importance of welcoming the conservatory and its legacy of students and faculty to downtown Kansas City.”
Kansas City Mayor Sly James cited the power of synergy between the arts and entrepreneurs in
driving the downtown arts campus project, thanks to the “cooperation from business, government, education and the nonprofit sector, veteran world-class performers and promising young students challenging and energizing each other” to “build on what is already a first-class artistic and cultural foundation.”
Jane Chu, CEO of the Kauffman Center, echoed the mayor’s words. “It’s not just about energizing the students and the faculty,” she said, “it’s about sparking this vitality and the whole community that surrounds the area.”
Jim Heeter, president and CEO of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, extolled the virtues of a downtown arts campus for the entire metropolitan area.
“This is absolutely for everyone,” Heeter said.
