Kansas City Art Institute

History

The school was founded in 1885 when art enthusiasts formed the "Sketch Club" with the purpose of "talking over art matters in general and to judge pictures." Meetings were originally in private homes and then moved to the Deardorf Building at 11th and Main in downtown Kansas City. The club had its first exhibition in 1887 and 12 benefactors stepped forward to form the Kansas City Art Association and School of Design.

In 1927, Howard Vanderslice purchased the August R. Meyer residence, a Germanic castle entitled Marburg and its 8-acre (3.24 ha) estate at 44th and Warwick Boulevard adjacent to the planned Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. A Wight and Wight addition was added to the building. The residence was later renamed "Vanderslice Hall" and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places along with another building on the campus—Mineral Hall. The campus has since expanded to 15 acres (6.07 ha).

In 1935, painter Thomas Hart Benton left New York City to teach at the school. Among the artists Benton influenced as a teacher at KCAI were Frederic James, Margot Peet, Jackson Lee Nesbitt, Roger Medearis, Glenn Gant, and Delmer J. Yoakum. Though Benton brought attention to the Art Institute, he was dismissed in 1941 after making disparaging references to, as he claimed, the excessive influence of homosexuals in the art world.

In 1992, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art opened on the west side of the campus. On the occasion of its 130th anniversary in 2015, the Kansas City Art Institute received an anonymous donation of $25 million, one of the largest gifts ever to an American art school. The money will be used to bolster the school's general endowment, improve and renovate its campus adjacent to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and, in the form of a challenge grant of $6 million, sharply increase the number of scholarships the school is able to give out.

Notable faculty

Thomas Hart Benton – Leader of Regionalist art movement; KCAI professor, (1935–1941)

Anne Boyer – Pulitzer Prize Winning Author and Poet

Harold Bruder – Painter (1963–1965)

Christiane Cegavske - Guggenheim Fellow in 2019

John de Martelly – Regionalist Printmaker, (1934–1941)

Jill Downen (‘89 Painting) - Guggenheim Fellow in 2010

Dale Eldred – Sculptor, Environmentalist; Professor and Chair of Sculpture at KCAI (1959–1993)

Ken Ferguson – Ceramicist, KCAI Professor Emeritus, (1964–1996)

Glenn Gant – Regionalist painter, KCAI alumni and student of Benton, KCAI teacher, (1948–1960)

Frederic James – Watercolor Painter, KCAI teacher, (1940–1950)

Rob Roy Kelly - Graphic Designer and Printmaker, Chair of the Graphic Design Department (1964–1972)

Cyan Meeks – Filmmaker and Video Artist

Wilbur Niewald – Watercolor Painter, chairman of the Painting and Printmaking Department (starting 1959), Senior Professor of Painting (the first in the college's history, 1985)

Victor Papanek – UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization) Designer/Mediator; Author; Chair of Graphic Design Department (1976–1980)

Notable lecturers

Elaine de Kooning – painter and visiting critic (February to March 1965)

Notable alumni

R. H. Barlow (Attended 1938)– author, anthropologist

Eric Bransby (1942 Painting) – muralist, painter

Paul Briggs (1996 Illustration) – animator and storyboard artist for Walt Disney Animation Studios

Ellen Carey (1974 Printmaking) – photographer and professor

Nick Cave ('82 Fiber) – performance artist

Dan Christensen (1964 Painting) – painter

James Claussen (1975 Painting) – lithographer

Richard Corben (1962 Design) – comic book creator

John Steuart Curry (Attended 1914) – painter

Marc Davis – (attended 1927) animator, Imagineer at Disney

Marisol Deluna (1989 Fiber) – fashion designer

Walt Disney – animator, media entrepreneur, (attended Saturday classes as a child) received honorary degree from KCAI

Karon Doherty (1979 Ceramics) – ceramicist

Angela Dufresne (1991 Painting) – painter

Ellen Fullman (1979 Sculpture) – inventor of Long-String instrument

Karen Glaser – photographer

April Greiman (1970 Graphic Design) – graphic designer, known for bringing the New Wave design style to America