Month: April 2016

by Kelly Rogge

Kansas City Kansas Community College’s Jazz by the Lake Concert Series just got a huge boost in the form of a new funding sponsor.

Midwest Regional Credit Union donated $3,000 to the annual concert series earlier this month. Jim Mair, associate professor of music at KCKCC, said the support is “huge.”

“It costs around $5,000 per year to put the series on, so a $3,000 donation is substantial as we continue to present the best Kansas City Jazz and National Jazz to our community,” he said. “This donation will pay for six concerts. Most concerts cost $500 for the music alone. We will also provide a light lunch, free of charge.”

Jazz by the Lake is a monthly concert series held on the first Thursday of each month, September-December and February-May in the Conference Center on the KCKCC main campus. The series is a collaborative effort between the Kansas City Jazz Alliance, the Intercultural Center, Media Services and the Music Department.

“The series has the intimacy of a ‘living room’ concert,” Mair said. “It’s very intimate and up close and personal. It starts promptly at noon and ends at 1 p.m. so the concert is predictable. It’s also entertaining and fun.”

Mair said having donations from community businesses and organizations allows the concert series to continue without funding from the college. He said partnering with Midwest Regional Credit Union is the “perfect match.”

“This is a wonderful donation and sponsorship,” he said. “The credit union name and logo will be on all of the printed materials and advertising, and it’s right next door to our campus. The president and CEO is Thad Jones, and that is the same name as one of the most famous jazz musicians in history.”

For more information on the Jazz by the Lake Concert Series, contact Mair at 913-288-7149 or by email at [email protected].

Kelly Rogge is the public information supervisor at Kansas City Kansas Community College.

by Kelly Rogge, KCKCC

The latest art show at Kansas City Kansas Community College’s The Gallery is featuring premier regional fiber artist Valerie Doran Bashaw.

The show runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday-Thursday until May 6 at The Gallery, in Lower Jewell building on the KCKCC main campus, 7250 State Ave. An opening reception is from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. April 7. The Gallery is free and open to the public.

Bashaw owns Woven Wind Studio in Kansas City and has almost 30 years of experience in printing, dyeing and embellishing silk fabric.

According to her website, www.wovenwind.net, she uses the Japanese shibori resist method and bamboo resist techniques to create garments, wall pieces and silk scarves. She is also an educator at the University of Central Missouri and has had pieces featured in the Strecker Nelson Gallery in Manhattan, Kan.; the Shirley Stiles Gallery in Westwood, Kan.; the Campanella Gallery at Park University and at locations throughout the region including William Woods University, Shawnee Mission Medical Center and the University of Kansas Medical Center. In 2007, she was commissioned by KCKCC to create “Four Seasons on the Kaw River.”

In her current work, Bashaw uses fiber reactive and acid dyes on various silks. The bamboo is used to resist the dyes to produce the graphics. In the Japanese technique of shibori, cloth is wrapped around a pole, scrunched, bound and then dyed, bleached and dyed a second time. This creates images that are reminiscent of shadows in nature, wood grain and water flowing, among others.

“I am attracted to the accidental results, sometimes predictable, often not. It is that duality that I find so compelling,” she said. “Colors get richer as the dyes and patterns are layered too. It does not always have to be pretty; contrasting unrelated patterns gives the viewer more information and can be more interesting visually.”

Bashaw’s wall pieces are about landscape and references to weather. She said she watches the sky and the changing features of the land to find inspiration.

“My family is from the Flint Hills of Kansas, beautiful gently rolling grass lands, full of changing colors as the seasons pass,” she said. “Watching storms roll in and the clouds moving through profoundly effects my work.”

Bashaw’s newest line of collages is called “Zen line.” Made from luminescent fabric, her own hand-printed paper, wood veneer, botanicals and other recycled materials, the work embraces quiet, meditative art that is meant to remind audiences to sit, relax and unwind.

“It’s a way to retreat from the busy world and redirect and refresh the soul,” she said. “I feel that our nervous systems are so over-stimulated by the constant onslaught of computers, television, video, driving and more, it is not as easy to relax as it used to be.”

To schedule a private showing of The Gallery, contact Barbara Clark-Evans, director of the Campus Art Gallery, at 913-288-7504. If interested in joining the Campus Art Committee, it meets at 2 p.m. the last Wednesday of each month.

Kelly Rogge is the public information supervisor at Kansas City Kansas Community College.