VIRTUAL- Thursday Night Arts

Now free to attend – Friday Night Arts is back, but with a new name and a new day of the week!

Tune in every Thursday for the months of January/February/March to hear from 4 different local Kansas City artists and musicians directly from their home studios. This is your chance to get intimate with all your favorite locals. Listen to the stories behind their work and see exclusive pieces they’ve never shared. You can ask questions and interact directly with the artists during the program, and better yet, purchase works right there on the spot. A new artist goes live every 30 minutes so tune in for your favorites or stay to see them all.

Kansas City Arts Night is generously supported by a grant from Evergy. Thanks to their support, all participating artists are paid for their time and will receive 100% of any donations or purchases made during their segment.

This week’s artists  and schedule includes:

6:00-6:30pm: Dylan Mortimer

Dylan is an artist who has survived two double lung transplants.  He makes work about the journey, both the trauma and hope.  He works in collage, painting sculpture and installation.  He uses shiny materials in order to transform challenging experiences; seeking hope when there would not seem to be any.

6:30pm-7:00pm: Jeff Freling

Jeff Freling is best known as one half of “Victor & Penny”, a prohibition era style Jazz duo that he formed with his wife, Erin McGrane in 2010. In early 2020, Jeff began the certificate program from Berklee College of Music in Composition for Film & TV. His most recent project is the full length score for Carbon Trace Productions’ “A Vietnam Peace Story”, due to be released soon.

7:00pm-7:30pm: Whitney Manney

A Kansas City, MO native, Whitney Manney graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2012 with a BFA in Fibers. With a desire to create art in a wearable format, Manney creates garments and textile designs under her independent label WHITNEYMANNEY. Manney’s work has been featured in major Kansas City press outlets and numerous art/fashion blogs. Creating a narrative between color and pattern is a signature of Manney’s work, “My job isn’t done until everybody in the world believes fashion is art.

7:30pm-8:00pm: Bernadette Torres

Bernadette Esperanza Torres is a storyteller that translates her stories into clay. Bernadette is a ceramist. She is also an arts educator at the Metropolitan Community College. Bernadette has exhibited her ceramic sculptures in many solo and group exhibitions. She has been published in Ceramics Monthly and 500 Figures in Clay Volume #2. Bernadettes subjects consists of the full figured female body, nature/flowers and decorative wearable clay necklaces. She will be sharing with us her autobiographical stories that inspire her sculptures. She will also be showing us how she builds a clay flower.