# Grand Arts

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

| Artist(s) | Exhibition title | Year | Essayist |
| Glenn Goldberg | (untitled) | 1995 | Tad Wiley |
| Hirokazu Fukawa | Like and Ethereal Transfer | 1995 | Barbara Bloemink |
| Brad Braverman | RawShock | 1995 | Ann Wylie |
| Alice Aycock | New Works | 1995 | Monroe Denton |
| Ryuhei Rex Yuasa | (untitled) | 1995 | Kazuhiro Yamamoto |
| Lester Goldman | (untitled) | 1996 | Roberta Lord |
| Jane Lackey | In Code | 1996 | Laurie Palmer |
| Kimberly Austin, Brad Braverman, Rossana Jeran and Jim Pennington, John O’Reilly, and Seth Rubin | Body Double | 1996 | Monroe Denton |
| Jeff Aeling | The Layman’s Guide to the Passage of the Millennium for the Preservation of Hysteria | 1996 | Peter von Ziegesar |
| Mel Kendrick | (untitled) | 1996 | Klaus Kertess |
| China Marks | (untitled) | 1997 | H. L. Hix |
| Chris Larson | (untitled) | 1997 | Ronald Jones |
| Nick Cave | (untitled) | 1997 | Karen Searle |
| 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 | Spot Making Sense | 1997 | curator David Pagel |
| Seton Smith | (untitled) | 1997 | David Pagel |
| Kimberly Austin | (untitled) | 1997 | Roberta Lord |
| GALA Committee | In the Name of the Place | 1998 | Joshua Dector |
| Beth B. | Monuments | 1998 | Roberta Lord |
| Michael Rees | (untitled) | 1998 | Dominique Nohas |
| Tim Rollins and K.O.S. | in collaboration with Kansas City youth | 1998 | Michael Toombs |
| Kirsten Mosher | (untitled) | 1998 | Alexander Gray |
| Stuart Netsky | (untitled) | 1999 | Bill Arning |
| James Drake | (untitled) | 1999 | Bruce W. Ferguson |
| Zesty Meyers, Evan Snyderman, and Jeff Zimmerman | B-Team | 1999 | Stephanie Cash |
| 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 | New York: Neither/Nor | 1999 | curator Bill Arning |
| Walter Zimmerman | (untitled) | 1999 | Roberta Lord |
| Jesse Kaminsky, Demetre Keros, Jennie Pakradooni, Kristine Veith, and Michael Yglesias | En Masse | 1999 | Andrew Wells |
| Jim Leedy | War | 2000 | H. L. Hix |
| Isaac Julien | Long Road to Mazatlan | 2000 | Okwui Enwezor |
| Larry Buechel | Eye to Eye | 2000 | Roberta Lord |
| 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 | Fast: Five Years at Grand Arts | 2000 | Roberta Lord |
| Dennis Oppenheim | (untitled) | 2000 | Mary Beth Karoll |
| Tara Donovan, Jyung Mee Park, and Achim Mohné | De Tempore | 2000 | Angela Anderson Adams |
| Jesse Rosser | (untitled) | 2001 | Ingrid Schaffner |
| Troy Richards | (untitled) | 2001 | Roberta Lord |
| Jamex and Einar de la Torre | Anacronistas | 2001 | Leah Ollman |
| Roxy Paine | (untitled) | 2001 | Tan Lin |
| ChanSchatz | (untitled) | 2001 | Bennett Simpson |
| John Newman | (untitled) | 2001 | Raphael Rubinstein |
| Marek Cecula | The Porcelain Carpet Project | 2002 | Roberta Lord |
| 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 | Constructed Realities | 2002 | curator Barbara J. Bloemink |
| John Powers | Operations of the Marvelous | 2002 | Philip Glahn |
| Patricia Cronin | Memorial to a Marriage | 2002 | David Frankel |
| Richard Van Buren | Spirit Mold | 2002 | Klaus Kertess |
| Sam Easterson | Animal, Vegetable, Video: Where the Buffalo Roam | 2003 | Lisa Fischman |
| Ian Dawson | (untitled) | 2003 | David Humphrey |
| Teresita Fernández | Immersion | 2003 | Rochelle Steiner |
| Catherine Chalmers | American Cockroach | 2003 | Tan Lin |
| Allan McCollum | The Kansas and Missouri Topographical Model Project | 2003 | Rhea Anastas |
| Mara Adamitz Scrupe | Back to Nature: Collecting the Preserved Garden | 2004 | Mary Jane Jacob |
| George Woodman | Camera Obscura Photographs | 2004 | Nancy Princenthal |
| Sanford Biggers, E.C. Brown, Christoph Büchel, C-Level, Critical Art Ensemble, Miranda July, Eddo Stern, Sarah Sze, Paul Vanouse, and Faith Wilding | Join Us: Calls to Ecstasy from the Edge of Oblivion | 2004 | Stacy Switzer |
| Rosemarie Fiore | Good-Time Mix Machine: Scrambler Drawings | 2004 | David Hunt |
| Michael Converse, Egawa + Zbryk, Rachel Hayes, Seth Johnson, and Jay Norton | Charlotte Street Awards Exhibition | 2004 | Stacy Switzer |
| Alexis Rockman | Manifest Destiny | 2005 | Linda Weintraub |
| 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 | Mash-Up!: Eight Weeks of Mixing It Up and Throwing It Down (event series) | 2005 | curated by Nato Thompson |
| Alfredo Jaar | Muxìma | 2005 | Patricia C. Phillips |
| Aaron Gach/ Center for Tactical Magic | Tactical Ice Cream Unit | 2005 | Stacy Switzer |
| Nadine Robinson | Conclusion of the System of Things | 2005 | Christine Y. Kim |
| Aidas Bareikis | The Guard of Sorry Spirit | 2006 | Maria Elena Buszek |
| Neal Rock | Faith Culture Collection | 2006 | Christopher Miles |
| Arts Subterranea, Filip Noterdaeme, Bill Shannon, and Margaret Wertheim | Urban Test Sites (event series) | 2006 | |
| Michael Jones McKean | Riverboat Lovesongs for the Ghost Whale Regatta | 2006 | Alison de Lima Greene |
| CarianaCarianne, Mathilde ter Heijne, Laurel Nakadate, Mariah Robertson, and Siebren Versteeg | Haunted States | 2006 | Stacy Switzer |
| Sissel Tolaas | The FEAR of Smell/The Smell of FEAR | 2007 | Elizabeth Thomas |
| Fritz Haeg, Filip Noterdaeme, Micaela O'Herlihy, Chase Pierson, Spurse, Tavares Strachan, Travis Watson, Katherine Wright, Lynus Young, and Adam Zaretsky | From the Fat of the Land: Alchemies, Ecologies, Attractions | 2007 | Linda Weintraub |
| Sanford Biggers | Blossom | 2007 | Cay Sophie Rabinowitz |
| Cody Critcheloe, Jessica Kincaid, Emily Sall, and James Trotter | Charlotte Street Awards Exhibition | 2007 | Julie Rodrigues Widholm |
| Laurel Nakadate | Stay The Same Never Change | 2008 | Neil LaBute |
| Mary Kay and Rebecca Morales | (untitled) | 2008 | Sue Spaid |
| Annie Lapin | Parallel Deliria | 2008 | Lane Relyea |
| William Pope.L | Animal Nationalism | 2008 | Gregory Volk |
| Spurse | Deep Time Rapid Time | 2009 | Stacy Switzer and Spurse |
| Jeremy Deller, presented by Creative Time and the New Museum | It Is What It Is: Conversations about Iraq | Apr. 1, 2009 | |
| Pablo Helguera | The Juvenal Players | 2009 | Naief Yehya |
| Cody Critcheloe/SSION | BOY | 2009 | Stacy Switzer |
| 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 | Ecstatic Resistance | 2009 | curator Emily Roysdon |
| Tavares Strachan | Orthostatic Tolerance: Launching into an Infinite Distance | 2010 | Franklin Sirmans |
| Ryan Mosley | Painting Séance | 2010 | Elizabeth Thomas |
| Ari Fish, Sonié Ruffin, and Caleb Taylor | Charlotte Street Awards Exhibition | 2010 | Lacey Wozny |
| Lori Brack, Julia Cole, Sylvie Fortin, May Tveit, Rob Walker, and Lacey Wozny | Dialogue by Design: Experimental Platforms for Intimate Conversations (event series) | 2010 | |
| John Salvest | New Cornucopia and The Big IOU | 2011 | Stacy Switzer |
| Mariah Robertson | Let’s Change | 2012 | Eva Respini |
| Sissel Tolaas | SmellScape KCK/KCMO (2007-2012) | 2012 | Annie Fischer |
| Anthony Baab | A Strenuous Nonbeing | 2013 | Stephen Lichty |
| Ellie Ga | Square, Octagon, Circle | 2013 | Lauren O’Neill-Butler |
| Mike Erickson, Erika Lynne Hanson, and Paul Anthony Smith | Charlotte Street Awards Exhibition | 2013 | Danny Orendorff |
| Stanya Kahn | Don’t Go Back to Sleep | 2014 | Ed Halter |
| Glenn Kaino | Tank | 2015 | Kate Hackman |
| The Propeller Group | A Universe of Collisions | 2015 | 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

In 2016, former Grand Arts associates Stacy Switzer, Lacey Wozny, Eric Dobbins and Annie Fischer relocated to Los Angeles to develop a new organization named Fathomers, similar in mission to Grand Arts but with a focus on long-term thinking and transdisciplinary practice. Fathomers' founding board members are Margaret Silva, Andrew Torrance and Glenn Kaino. The organization's first project is a seven-year collaboration with artist Michael Jones McKean.