Grand Arts was a nonprofit contemporary art space in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, whose mission was to help national and international artists realize projects considered too risky, provocative or complex to otherwise attract support. It was co-founded by Margaret Silva and Sean Kelley in 1995 and operated until 2015 with sole funding from the Margaret Hall Silva Foundation.
Facilities included a 4,000-square-foot fabrication studio, exhibition spaces, offices, and an on-site apartment available for visiting artists.
History Margaret Silva and Sean Kelley co-founded Grand Arts in 1995 to give artists "a place for radical experimentation, without the constraints of too little time and even less money". Kelley left Grand Arts in 2003.
Stacy Switzer served as artistic director from 2004 until the gallery's close.
In total, Grand Arts produced 90 exhibitions with more than 120 artists. Projects often took years to produce, from concept to realization, and the organization's full-time staff tended to each phase of the process: research, design, fabrication, programming, publicity and beyond. Grand Arts' practice of long-term collaborative project development is in part what distinguished it from other granting organizations, according to Switzer: "That's what was special about the Grand Arts process. It wasn't that an artist would propose something and we would fabricate it according to the artist's specs. Often, there was a long conversation about how to push, pull, and tease the idea, pull out the most provocative threads and find other people in other fields who could help us enhance it in other ways".
Following exhibition, projects produced at Grand Arts belonged solely to the artist. The works were often then exhibited in museums, commercial galleries and/or art fairs. For example: Isaac Julien's 1999 Long Road to Mazatlan was co-produced by Grand Arts and ArtPace in 1999 and exhibited as one of two Julien works at Tate Britain in 2001, when the artist was short-listed for the Turner Prize. Patricia Cronin's Memorial to a Marriage, a three-ton marble mortuary statue produced by Grand Arts in 2002 and installed thereafter at Woodlawn Cemetery, has been shown in more than 35 exhibitions, including the Brooklyn Museum, Palmer Museum of Art, Neuberger Museum of Art, Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, and the FLAG Art Foundation; and is in several museum collections, including Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, in Washington, DC; Pérez Art Museum Miami; and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, in Glasgow, where it is on permanent view. Sanford Biggers' Blossom, produced by Grand Arts in 2007, was acquired by the Brooklyn Museum in 2011. Laurel Nakadate's Stay the Same Never Change, produced by Grand Arts in 2008, was a selection at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and then screened at MoMA’s New Directors/New Films series. William Pope.L's Trinket, produced by Grand Arts in 2008, was re-staged at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in 2015 and featured in a performance by Kendrick Lamar at the 2015 BET Awards. Christopher Knight writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Nearly seven years on, the sculpture still resonates." Cody Critcheloe/SSION's feature film BOY was produced by Grand Arts in 2010 and screened at Peres Projects, in Los Angeles and Berlin; Smart Museum of Art, in Chicago; Hole Gallery, in New York; and Vyktor Wynd Fine Art, in London. The Propeller Group's 2015 A Universe of Collisions — Grand Arts' last-ever show — was included in the Venice Biennale that year.
Upon Grand Arts' closing, Silva donated the building, a former auto shop located at 1819 Grand Boulevard, to the Kansas City Art Institute.
Exhibition timeline Year Exhibition title Artist(s) Essayist 1995 (untitled) Glenn Goldberg Tad Wiley 1995 Like and Ethereal Transfer Hirokazu Fukawa Barbara Bloemink 1995 RawShock Brad Braverman Ann Wylie 1995 New Works Alice Aycock Monroe Denton 1995 (untitled) Ryuhei Rex Yuasa Kazuhiro Yamamoto 1996 (untitled) Lester Goldman Roberta Lord 1996 In Code Jane Lackey Laurie Palmer 1996 Body Double Kimberly Austin, Brad Braverman, Rossana Jeran and Jim Pennington, John O’Reilly, and Seth Rubin Monroe Denton 1996 The Layman’s Guide to the Passage of the Millennium for the Preservation of Hysteria Jeff Aeling Peter von Ziegesar 1996 (untitled) Mel Kendrick Klaus Kertess 1997 (untitled) China Marks H. L. Hix 1997 (untitled) Chris Larson Ronald Jones 1997 (untitled) Nick Cave Karen Searle 1997 Spot Making Sense Phil Argent, Linda Besemer, Ingrid Calame, Sally Elesby, Sharon Ellis, Jack Hallberg, Michael Pierzynski, Monique Prieto, Adam Ross, Pauline Stella Sanchez, Jennifer Steinkamp, and Yek curator David Pagel 1997 (untitled) Seton Smith David Pagel 1997 (untitled) Kimberly Austin Roberta Lord 1998 In the Name of the Place GALA Committee Joshua Dector 1998 Monuments Beth B. Roberta Lord 1998 (untitled) Michael Rees Dominique Nohas 1998 in collaboration with Kansas City youth Tim Rollins and K.O.S. Michael Toombs 1998 (untitled) Kirsten Mosher Alexander Gray 1999 (untitled) Stuart Netsky Bill Arning 1999 (untitled) James Drake Bruce W. Ferguson 1999 B-Team Zesty Meyers, Evan Snyderman, and Jeff Zimmerman Stephanie Cash 1999 New York: Neither/Nor Ricci Albenda, Polly Apfelbaum, Erica Baum, Lucky DeBellevue, Steven Evans, Tony Feher, Rachel Feinstein, Eric Hanson, Rachel Harrison, Jonathan Horowitz, Chuck Nanney, Rob Pruitt, and Anthony Viti curator Bill Arning 1999 (untitled) Walter Zimmerman Roberta Lord 1999 En Masse Jesse Kaminsky, Demetre Keros, Jennie Pakradooni, Kristine Veith, and Michael Yglesias Andrew Wells 2000 War Jim Leedy H. L. Hix 2000 Long Road to Mazatlan Isaac Julien Okwui Enwezor 2000 Eye to Eye Larry Buechel Roberta Lord 2000 Fast: Five Years at Grand Arts Kimberly Austin, Alice Aycock, Brad Braverman, GALA Committee, Glenn Goldberg, Lester Goldman, Dennis Oppenheim, Roxy Paine, Tim Rollins and K.O.S., Heather Schatz and Eric Chan Roberta Lord 2000 (untitled) Dennis Oppenheim Mary Beth Karoll 2000 De Tempore Tara Donovan, Jyung Mee Park, and Achim Mohné Angela Anderson Adams 2001 (untitled) Jesse Rosser Ingrid Schaffner 2001 (untitled) Troy Richards Roberta Lord 2001 Anacronistas Jamex and Einar de la Torre Leah Ollman 2001 (untitled) Roxy Paine Tan Lin 2001 (untitled) ChanSchatz Bennett Simpson 2001 (untitled) John Newman Raphael Rubinstein 2002 The Porcelain Carpet Project Marek Cecula Roberta Lord 2002 Constructed Realities Oliver Boberg, James Casebere, Catherine Chalmers, Gregory Crewdson, Anthony Goicolea, Yoshio Itagaki, Craig Kalpakjian, Izima Kaoru, David Levinthal, Florian Maier-Aichen, Didier Massard, Tracey Moffatt, Vik Muniz, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Edwin Zwakman curator Barbara J. Bloemink 2002 Operations of the Marvelous John Powers Philip Glahn 2002 Memorial to a Marriage Patricia Cronin David Frankel 2002 Spirit Mold Richard Van Buren Klaus Kertess 2003 Animal, Vegetable, Video: Where the Buffalo Roam Sam Easterson Lisa Fischman 2003 (untitled) Ian Dawson David Humphrey 2003 Immersion Teresita Fernández Rochelle Steiner 2003 American Cockroach Catherine Chalmers Tan Lin 2003 The Kansas and Missouri Topographical Model Project Allan McCollum Rhea Anastas 2004 Back to Nature: Collecting the Preserved Garden Mara Adamitz Scrupe Mary Jane Jacob 2004 Camera Obscura Photographs George Woodman Nancy Princenthal 2004 Join Us: Calls to Ecstasy from the Edge of Oblivion Sanford Biggers, E.C. Brown, Christoph Büchel, C-Level, Critical Art Ensemble, Miranda July, Eddo Stern, Sarah Sze, Paul Vanouse, and Faith Wilding Stacy Switzer 2004 Good-Time Mix Machine: Scrambler Drawings Rosemarie Fiore David Hunt 2004 Charlotte Street Awards Exhibition Michael Converse, Egawa + Zbryk, Rachel Hayes, Seth Johnson, and Jay Norton Stacy Switzer 2005 Manifest Destiny Alexis Rockman Linda Weintraub 2005 Mash-Up!: Eight Weeks of Mixing It Up and Throwing It Down (event series) Archive (Anne Walsh and Chris Kubick), Bordermates, Brian Conley, Ammar Eloueini, The Evolution Control Committee, Fritz Haeg, Cameron Jamie, Yoshua Okon, Lucky Pierre, François Perrin, thedinnerparty.net, and Kerry Tribe curated by Nato Thompson 2005 Muxìma Alfredo Jaar Patricia C. Phillips 2005 Tactical Ice Cream Unit Aaron Gach/ Center for Tactical Magic Stacy Switzer 2005 Conclusion of the System of Things Nadine Robinson Christine Y. Kim 2006 The Guard of Sorry Spirit Aidas Bareikis Maria Elena Buszek 2006 Faith Culture Collection Neal Rock Christopher Miles 2006 Urban Test Sites (event series) Arts Subterranea, Filip Noterdaeme, Bill Shannon, and Margaret Wertheim 2006 Riverboat Lovesongs for the Ghost Whale Regatta Michael Jones McKean Alison de Lima Greene 2006 Haunted States CarianaCarianne, Mathilde ter Heijne, Laurel Nakadate, Mariah Robertson, and Siebren Versteeg Stacy Switzer 2007 The FEAR of Smell/The Smell of FEAR Sissel Tolaas Elizabeth Thomas 2007 From the Fat of the Land: Alchemies, Ecologies, Attractions Fritz Haeg, Filip Noterdaeme, Micaela O'Herlihy, Chase Pierson, Spurse, Tavares Strachan, Travis Watson, Katherine Wright, Lynus Young, and Adam Zaretsky Linda Weintraub 2007 Blossom Sanford Biggers Cay Sophie Rabinowitz 2007 Charlotte Street Awards Exhibition Cody Critcheloe, Jessica Kincaid, Emily Sall, and James Trotter Julie Rodrigues Widholm 2008 Stay The Same Never Change Laurel Nakadate Neil LaBute 2008 (untitled) Mary Kay and Rebecca Morales Sue Spaid 2008 Parallel Deliria Annie Lapin Lane Relyea 2008 Animal Nationalism William Pope.L Gregory Volk 2009 Deep Time Rapid Time Spurse Stacy Switzer and Spurse Apr. 1, 2009 It Is What It Is: Conversations about Iraq Jeremy Deller, presented by Creative Time and the New Museum 2009 The Juvenal Players Pablo Helguera Naief Yehya 2009 BOY Cody Critcheloe/SSION Stacy Switzer 2009 Ecstatic Resistance Yael Bartana, Sharon Hayes, Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, My Barbarian, Jeanine Oleson, Ulrike Ottinger, Adrian Piper, Dean Spade and Craig Willse, A. L. Steiner, and Ian White curator Emily Roysdon 2010 Orthostatic Tolerance: Launching into an Infinite Distance Tavares Strachan Franklin Sirmans 2010 Painting Séance Ryan Mosley Elizabeth Thomas 2010 Charlotte Street Awards Exhibition Ari Fish, Sonié Ruffin, and Caleb Taylor Lacey Wozny 2010 Dialogue by Design: Experimental Platforms for Intimate Conversations (event series) Lori Brack, Julia Cole, Sylvie Fortin, May Tveit, Rob Walker, and Lacey Wozny 2011 New Cornucopia and The Big IOU John Salvest Stacy Switzer 2012 Let’s Change Mariah Robertson Eva Respini 2012 SmellScape KCK/KCMO (2007-2012) Sissel Tolaas Annie Fischer 2013 A Strenuous Nonbeing Anthony Baab Stephen Lichty 2013 Square, Octagon, Circle Ellie Ga Lauren O’Neill-Butler 2013 Charlotte Street Awards Exhibition Mike Erickson, Erika Lynne Hanson, and Paul Anthony Smith Danny Orendorff 2014 Don’t Go Back to Sleep Stanya Kahn Ed Halter 2015 Tank Glenn Kaino Kate Hackman 2015 A Universe of Collisions The Propeller Group Rob Walker
Problems and Provocations: Grand Arts 1995-2015 In 2016, Grand Arts published Problems and Provocations: Grand Arts 1995-2015, co-edited by Stacy Switzer and Annie Fischer, with a foreword by Margaret Silva and an introduction by Switzer.
The book chronicles 30 of Grand Arts' projects — works by figures including Alice Aycock, Alfredo Jaar, Isaac Julien, William Pope.L, Sanford Biggers, Laurel Nakadate, Stanya Kahn, and Tavares Strachan — with archival materials and project documentation presented alongside newly written anecdotes and reflections by artists and other collaborators.
Essays by Pablo Helguera, Iain Kerr, Emily Roysdon, Gean Moreno and Rob Walker consider the models, practices and ethics of art institutions. A critical study conducted by the research studio RHEI identifies and describes Grand Arts’ unorthodox organizational model.
Successor organization