Blog @ the Nelson-Atkins

The reopening of the Kansas City Sculpture Park was a smashing sucess! The weather was gorgeous on Saturday, September 30. Activities included art making, dancing, sculpture tours, a movie on the lawn, a soccer clinic and too much fun for anyone in the fabric action play space created by Think Pink, Inc.

Your next official opportunity to engage with the Sculpture Park is on Oct. 11 at the Joseph S. and Ethel B. Atha Lecture. The speaker is Peter Murray, the director of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in England. The lecture is free but you must reserve your spot.

The Nelson-Atkins has had free admission for over 5 years. It began as a courtesy during the initial stages of the expansion construction when we dug up our old parking lots to create the fabulous new parking garage. During that time, visitors had to shuttle from a nearby location. When the new garage opened in 2002, Museum leadership made the decision to remain free as a way to express the dedication to our mission to connect people to art, especially those in the Kansas City community.

To find out more about the decision to remain free and how that affects the Nelson-Atkins, read an interview with Director Marc Wilson on Tyler Green's Modern Art Notes.

P.S. Tyler - Thanks for adding us to your blogroll!

There are people all around the Museum, inside and out! A lot of them are checking out the new Bloch Building that will open June 9, 2007.

With the Kansas City Sculpture Park completely reopened, you can access the Bloch Building, but only the outside!

The Kansas City Sculpture Park is a great place to gather your thoughts and contemplate incredible pieces of art in beautiful, lush surroundings.

If you want to learn more about the artists in the Sculpture Park, don’t miss Rosamond Bernier’s lecture on Oct. 26. She will delight the audience with tales of British sculptor Henry Moore, whose works founded the Park.

Tickets are $10 for members, $15 for nonmembers and $5 for students and faculty with ID. Call 816.751.1ART to reserve your spot today.

When the Bloch Building opens in June 2007, there will be a lot to learn about what’s in the building and how to get around. In addition to the helpful staff members and volunteers, there will be plenty of electronic aids (what we call digital signage) as well. A total of seven 50″ plasma screens will display messages on exhibitions, the collections, amenities, ticket information, special events and more.

These three screens were just installed at the Visitor Services Desk in the lobby of the Bloch Building. I can’t wait to see them in action!

Up next: What can you use to print a ticket, become a member or find a specific work of art?

In a previous post about the plasma screens that will entice and guide visitors in the new Bloch Building next year, I mentioned another tool that visitors will find very helpful. This week, five kiosks were unpacked and prepared for installation.

These three kiosks have been installed in the lobby of the Bloch Building, just around the corner from one set of the plasma screens. At the kiosks, visitors will be able to buy tickets for exhibitions and programs, pay for parking and even find where a specific work of art is in the galleries as well as the location of restrooms and other amenities. Hooray for technology!