The Frontier!

This blog will provide a forum, platform, and archive for artworks, projects, discussions, and materials generating as part of, and in conjunction with, The Frontier, an exploratory, community-based, participatory project of Charlotte Street Foundation‘s Urban Culture Project.  The Frontier–which considers the concept and changing nature of the “frontier” as it relates to the history, evolution, and future of artistic practice, culture-making, and creative opportunity in Kansas City–will manifest as a series of collaborative artist- and curator-driven projects, performances, exhibits, and public programs unfolding within and around Charlotte Street’s Paragraph and Project Space venues, 21-23 East 12^th Street, KCMO, April-July 2012.

A major impetus for The Frontier, taking place during Charlotte Street Foundation’s 15^th Anniversary Year, is to consider how Kansas City’s urban environment and cultural ecosystem has evolved and changed, and to consider the implications of these changes for the present and the future. If a sense  of relative vacancy and expansive possibility once framed the downtown core as an urban frontier of sorts and gave impetus and energy to efforts such as Charlotte Street’s Urban Culture Project (and, indeed, many artist-run spaces and efforts preceeding it), (how) has that sense opportunity/potential been lost or significantly altered with new development, population, and activity? (How) have these shifts altered the manner in which artists and culture producers think about “urban culture,” the downtown area, and Kansas City more broadly as a site for artist-driven activity and efforts?  What are the frontiers and possibilities for artist-driven pioneering now? And/or, what new orientations, operational premises, and ways of thinking about the city and the role of culture makers in relation to it are relevant for the future?

(Photo: Ahram Park)

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