From the last issue of Art Practical
Rocket Grants, a program of Charlotte Street Foundation and KU Spencer Museum of Art in collaboration with the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, is delighted to announce that Art Practical, a San Francisco-based online publication, has been awarded a special commission to critically engage with artist-driven activity in the Kansas City area. The editorial board’s winning proposal is to produce a dedicated issue of the magazine that will specifically focus on the types of collective, community-oriented, and public art practices in the Kansas City that are encouraged and supported through the Rocket Grants program. The anticipated publication date will be in March 2012.
A team of four contributing editors and writers will visit Kansas City in early 2012 to research and engage with regional artists and writers, with a broad focus on the role locality plays in shaping philosophies and practices. They will also present a public program during their visit that will put local artists in conversation with the visiting team, and this exchange will become part of the publication.
Feature stories from the current issue of Art Practical
The issue will follow their traditional format and all of the content will originate from Kansas City. Additionally, Art Practical partners with the Chicago-based podcast Bad At Sports, which creates the opportunity to also produce a series of audio interviews from the Kansas City region.
Feature stories from the last issue of Art Practical
There are several particularly exciting aspects to this project that will connect Kansas City area artists, critics, writers and curators with an evolving national and international dialog. Art Practical was a 2009 recipient of an award from the Alternative Exposure program, which is part of the same regranting initiative (funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation) as the Rocket Grants program. The magazine has strategically formed partnerships with four other entities (Bad At Sports, Daily Serving, Happenstand and Talking Cure) that have drawn contributors and built a readership around contemporary art practices, not just in the Bay Area but all over the world. Significantly, as a part of their proposal the editors at Art Practical will collaborate with up to four local writers who will also contribute to this issue. These writers will receive the professional editorial review that is a hallmark of this publication.
Please check back for details as the project unfolds…