Kansas City Art Institute

🔊 KCAI Camera Arts Head of KCAI Sound Program, Prof. Rev. Dwight Frizzell (‘81 Photography) at Sound Mandala at Unicorn Theatre | Kansas City Theatre 🔊 You can’t stream it, download it, or replicate it anywhere else 🔊You have to be there 🔊

In Kansas City, The Sound Mandala is a one-of-a-kind immersive audio experience where 100 independent loudspeakers surround you. It’s not surround sound. Instead it’s a carefully crafted environment created by sound designers who spend hours shaping each piece.

Born from more than a decade of research and innovation by Tom Mardikes (Tom Mardikes), The Sound Mandala uses Avid Pro Tools to drive large numbers of discrete loudspeaker channels. Most music formats, whether vinyl, CD, Spotify, or Apple Music, are presented in two audio channels. The Sound Mandala expands that experience dramatically, with the ability to use more than 200 independent channels of sound.

The key innovation behind Sound Mandala is how it breaks sound into thousands of tiny moments and sends them to different speakers throughout the space. Instead of playing audio from just two directions, Sound Mandala can move sound intentionally from speaker to speaker, creating the sensation that it is traveling around you, above you, beneath you, or across the room.

The smaller and more numerous these slices of sound are, the faster and farther the movement can feel. The result is an experience where sound no longer feels fixed to a speaker. It shapes the space in real time while the original timing and structure of the audio remain unchanged.

In the multi-artist Project “Signal & Soul,” Dwight Frizzell presents “MU: The Cosmic Void That Created the Universe.” Inspired by the idea that before the Big Bang there existed a quantum void filled with possibility. Physicists call its ground state a “mechanical quantum audio oscillator.” Using that concept as a starting point, Frizzell created an immersive work that explores vibration, creation, and our connection to the physical universe. Mixed by Jacob Souders (Jacob Souders)

Find information for different shows from June 10 – Aug 1, 2026 at Unicorn Theatre | Kansas City Theatre & Sound Mandala

With warmth, humor, and the perspective of a lifelong fashion rebel, Jeremy Scott speaks with a room of Fiber seniors at the Kansas City Art Institute. Read the full story here: https://kcai.edu/about/news/jeremy-scott-fashion-icon-and-2026-kcai-commencement-speaker-talks-about-his-life-as-an-anomaly/

During the conversation, he described his life as “an anomaly,” saying the only explanation for his trajectory is that the universe intended for him to “happen.”

“I was born here in Kansas City, but grew up in Clinton, Missouri, partly on a farm in Lowry City,” he said. “There was no wealth or couture. No grandmother taking me to Paris to see a fashion show. I played in dirt.”

“My career was not meant to happen. At least not on paper. That’s what I’m trying to say,” he said. “So I’m an anomaly, and the universe is looking out for me, protecting me, and guiding me to wherever I need to go next.”

That weekend, Jeremy Scott received an honorary degree from the Kansas City Art Institute after delivering the commencement address as the Jedel Family Commencement Speaker. He returned to a city with which he has a complicated history, but one he now speaks about with affection.

With the Fiber students, he recalled spending hours at local art house cinemas, most now gone, watching old black and white Hollywood films or whatever happened to be playing. Early on, he pursued ceramics and paper sculpture, developing the first instincts of his making his own clothing. Leaning mostly into sculptural pieces because he knew little about sewing or patternmaking.

By his own description, he was a flamboyant young gay person growing up in 1988. It was not an easy life, and he faced hostility and challenges that many students today find difficult to imagine.

In recent years, Scott has developed a fonder relationship with the area. While installing the 2025 exhibition “A Match Made in Heaven” at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, he spent several weeks staying with his parents nearby. Of course, this follows a decades-spanning period of powerhouse output in the global fashion world.

Read the full story in the link above!

Behind the Curtain 📷 On Film: POPTRA 2026 Prepares for the Runway

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A look behind the scenes at the final touches that brings POPTRA to life. Thank you to all of the students who contributed their time, creativity, and energy to this year's event during ARTPOP!

The Kansas City Art Institute is proud to announce that it has acquired the historic George B. Richards House located at 4526 Warwick Blvd. A direct neighbor to campus, the addition of this distinguished property represents an important evolution for KCAI, strengthening its connection with the Southmoreland neighborhood.

More info: https://kcai.edu/about/news/kcai-acquires-historic-george-b-richards-house/

KCAI will immediately provide short-term stabilization, site clean-up, and professional storage for any historic artifacts at the site. A three-week site cleanup is anticipated, including restoration of a well-maintained appearance and removal of any hazards In anticipation of this acquisition, KCAI has commissioned Michael Vergason Landscape Architects to prepare plans for renewal of the landscape and evaluation of site constraints and campus connectivity.

Funds for the acquisition and stabilization of the house were provided by a specific grant from the William T. Kemper Foundation, Commerce Bank, Trustee. The Foundation was established in 1989 by a bequest of William T. Kemper, Jr. Mr. Kemper served as a Trustee of the Kansas City Art Institute for over 40 years. Additional support was provided by the Vawter family.

In the coming months, an Advisory Committee will meet to evaluate potential programming for this property. Long-term project viability, operational approaches, and risk management will be addressed. The Advisory Committee will include KCAI administrative staff, members of the KCAI Board of Trustees, community members, and Project Manager Tom Coulter with MC Realty Group, LLC. The Advisory Committee will be expected to make a report including options for ultimate use of the property and recommendations on direction and timetable to KCAI’s Board of Trustees for review and approval.

KCAI is dedicated to repurposing the property into a cultural hub that honors its history while supporting the future of the arts in Kansas City. Early plans include creating flexible spaces for lectures, exhibitions, and community events, developing private suites for visiting artists and guests, and providing students with hands-on learning opportunities in areas such as curation, event production, and historic archive management.

This acquisition is a key component to advancing KCAI’s ambitious 2024-2029 Strategic Plan and the launch of a comprehensive campus framework plan. KCAI views the Richards property as a natural, seamless extension of the KCAI campus, creating a "green" corridor consistent with Warwick Boulevard's historic, park-like character.

We look forward to sharing more details about this exciting chapter for KCAI!

For recent graduate , the driving force behind a piece isn’t how an audience will react to the final product, but the immersive act of creation itself. While viewers often associate Funk’s intricate kinetic masks with a distinct creature persona, the artist views them less preciously.

“People were like, ‘Oh, but aren't you, like, this cool wolf character whenever you're going up there?’ And it's like, no, I am me, but I am wearing that,” Funk explains.

Bringing these kinetic masks to life requires a lot of labor, but pushing their technical skills to the limit is exactly what Funk enjoys. In one experimental piece, they linked together some 400 spoons, altering traditional scale-mail techniques to accommodate the found culinary objects.

In another example, Funk uses electroplating and electroforming to coat organic specimens such as cicada shells and jewel beetle wings with a conductive layer before submerging them in a copper sulfate solution, gradually bringing out a beautiful patina.

Scouting the materials for these massive setups is an art form in itself, one that often involves tracking down industrial equipment from closed-down hospitals or braving the shallow depths of the internet.

“I, very dangerously, on Facebook Marketplace, went to a farm in the middle of nowhere,” Funk shares. “With a friend, as you always should, to buy a giant set of veneers. Fake teeth.”

Though Funk’s complex kinetic works are activated through intentional jaw movements and systems of balance, there is no mental blueprint guiding the engineering from the outset. Living with aphantasia, Funk approaches each structure as a process of discovery shaped by patience, experimentation and an instinctive urge to create.

“I’m always very happy when people like my work, but the part that I enjoy is the act of creation... I just love indulging in the urge of creating,” Funk says.

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KCAI Sculpture instructor and alumna Kat Dison Nechlebová (Sculpture ’07) was recently named an “Artist to Watch” in the May/June 2026 issue of KC Studio magazine. In the featured profile, writer Heather Lustfeldt takes a closer look at Kat’s incredible work and artistic journey.

Read more here: https://kcai.edu/about/news/kcai-sculpture-instructor-kat-dison-nechlebov%C3%A1-named-artist-to-watch-by-kc-studio-magazine/

The article highlights Nechlebová’s time as a KCAI student, noting: “Her DIY interdisciplinary approach as a KCAI student included explorations in fiber, glass, new media, sound and a ‘fascination for weird instruments.’ She began playing the theremin and performing in gigs with BCR as a student.”

The piece takes a look at her current role as an instructor in KCAI’s Sculpture department alongside her career as an art therapist and clinical counselor. It also explores her personal artistic practice, which spans installations, wearable art, and performance-based sculpture, including her work as a theremin player and sound artist.

Most recently, Nechlebová was featured in the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center exhibition The Supreme Point: Thresholds of Emergence, curated by Elisabeth Kirsch. Her contributed work, The Alchemist (2026), brought together found objects and fiber work to construct a large human form.

Congratulations on this recognition Kat!