KCAI ANIM

Join us for the KCAI Animation Department’s 22nd Annual Frame X Frame Festival! This juried animation festival will showcase selected work from animation majors. This screening is free and open to the public, and will take place on Friday, May 15th at 6:30 PM in Atkins Auditorium at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

. 2026 Annual BFA Exhibition April 17 – May 16, 2026 @artspace_kcai @kcai_gallery KCAI End of Semester Exhibitions Friday, May 8 | 5–8 pm Saturday, May 9 | 10 am–5 pm Sunday, May 10 | 12–5pm Arterie Fest 2026 Saturday, May 9 | 10 am–5 pm The KCAI campus, the Emily & Todd Voth Artspace and the KCAI Gallery will be open this weekend for the 2026 KCAI Spring 2026 End of Semester Exhibition + Sale. Experience and purchase one-of-a-kind art made by KCAI students across campus. All proceeds benefit individual student artists and designers. KCAI, the Artspace, and KCAI Gallery also serve as primary destinations for Arterie Fest 2026, a new daylong festival in the heart of Kansas City’s Art Museums & Cultural District. On Saturday, May 9 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., visitors across the region are invited to spend the day exploring events and activities at KCAI, the Artspace, KCAI Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, all connected by The Arterie, a walkable pathway originating from new KC Streetcar line to the Art Museums & Cultural District stop at 45th and Main Streets and linking these cultural destinations. … Images: Mazzy Woodring (Animation), “Go Grandpa Go,” 2025 (image still), video with audio, 0:38 minutes, courtesy of the artist; 2026 Annual BFA Exhibition. … #kcaigrad2026 #kcai #artspace #kcaigallery #bfashow2026 #bfaexhibition2026 @mountain.sprout

. 2026 Annual BFA Exhibition April 17 – May 16, 2026 OPENING DAY Saturday, April 18, 12–5 p.m. The Kansas City Art Institute, the Emily & Todd Voth Artspace, and KCAI Gallery are pleased to present the 2026 Annual BFA Exhibition. This exhibition at the Artspace and KCAI Gallery opens to the public on Saturday, April 18, from 12–5 p.m. and will remain on view through May 16, 2026. Featuring recent work by 123 graduates majoring in Animation, Art History, Ceramics, Creative Writing, Fiber, Filmmaking, Graphic Design, Illustration, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Product Design, and Sculpture, with minors in Asian Studies, Entrepreneurial Studies, Social Practice, and Sound, this annual exhibition provides many of these artists with their first public exhibition opportunity while also representing the culmination of their BFA degree program. The 2026 Annual BFA Exhibition is co-hosted by the Artspace and the KCAI Gallery, and both venues are free and open to the public. Visitors do not need reservations, however, please note the difference in gallery hours at each venue when planning your visit. Artspace, 16 East 43rd St. Hours: Wednesday through Saturday, 12–5 p.m. @artspace_kcai KCAI Gallery (Tony Jones Studios, North Tower, 1st floor) 4415 Warwick Blvd. Hours: Thursday through Sunday, 12–5 p.m. @kcai_gallery Images from a selection of artists featured at the Artspace, courtesy of the artists: 1. Gage Austin Macias (Photography), “Midwest Boy Gospel,” 2026, photographs and wood paneling (detail). 2. Amber Mate (Illustration / Entrepreneurial Studies), “I Walked With an Imaginary Friend The Other Day,” 2024, digital print. 3. Brenna Jean-Paul (Animation), “Memory Lane (Because I Love Running Into You), ” 2026, digital video, 4:00 minutes, television, bedside table, pillows, glazed ceramics. 4. Finn Smith (Ceramics), “Towers 4,” 2026, glazed earthenware. 5. LouLu Walton (Product Design), “Piece by Piece,” 2025, machine-quilted cotton fabric. 6. Artspace exterior photo by Ashley Story. 7. 2026 BFA visual identity courtesy of Lisa Maione and Denisse Beltran.

@kcaianimation seniors Mazzy Woodring (@mountain.sprout ) and Bentley Allen (@bentleylarie ) discuss their upcoming collaboration, which they describe as a medieval double feature, while celebrating Mazzy’s previous film being included in this Saturday’s (2/21) Cinemorphia Animated Film Festival at @atlas9.kc . See the link in bio for event details. Mazzy’s film, “Go Grandpa Go,” is a stop-motion paleo-art piece focused on an ancient fish called Tiktaalik and the evolutionary moment when fish first began walking on land. She is one of 14 KCAI students and alumni with films featured in the festival. Mazzy also explains the drive to make the titular character, “Grandpa,” really fit a plushy aesthetic, feeling toy-like in the same vein as Rankin Bass stop motion films. “There’s something just, like, so whimsical and nostalgic about the idea that a character moving on screen can be someone you attach yourself to, but also, at the same time, be a toy that you can play with.” “It plays not only with educating people who are just approaching the subject of history,” Mazzy explains, “but also with the idea that we can feel nostalgic for things that aren’t part of our own lived past, like ancient history.” Currently, Mazzy is collaborating with fellow Animation senior Bentley Allen (@bentleylarie ), experimenting with new materials and techniques. Bentley recently animated a swimming fish made entirely of pancakes, darkening certain textures simply by increasing the heat on the skillet. “I love building little worlds and sets. It’s been really fun to imagine and basically play with toys all day, honestly,” Bentley says. “I don’t think I would have seen such a drastic leap or change if I hadn’t come here. Being able to ask questions and connect with people who are excited about the same kinds of things has helped me think about my work on a much bigger scale.” See Mazzy’s work, along with animated films by 14 other KCAI students and alumni, this Saturday at @atlas9.kc for the Cinemorphia Animated Film Festival: 7 p.m. | February 21, 2026. #kcai #stopmotionanimation #independentanimation #kcfilm #tiktaalik 📷 by @ashparsonsstory

@kcaianimation Senior Mazzy Woodring (@mountain.sprout ) is one of 14 KCAI students and alumni with films featured in this Saturday’s (2/21) Cinemorphia Animated Film Festival at @atlas9.kc ! See the link in bio for event details. Mazzy’s film, “Go Grandpa Go,” is a stop-motion paleo-art piece centered on an ancient fish known as Tiktaalik and the evolutionary moment when fish first began walking on land. “It plays not only with educating people who are just approaching the subject of history,” Mazzy explains, “but also with the idea that we can feel nostalgic for things that aren’t part of our own lived past, like ancient history.” Mazzy also explains the drive to make the titular character, “Grandpa,” really fit a plushy aesthetic, feeling toy-like in the same vein as Rankin Bass stop motion films. “There’s something just, like, so whimsical and nostalgic about the idea that a character moving on screen can be someone you attach yourself to, but also, at the same time, be a toy that you can play with.” Currently, Mazzy is collaborating with fellow Animation senior Bentley Allen (@bentleylarie ) on what they describe as a medieval double feature, using the project to experiment with new materials and processes. Bentley recently animated a swimming fish made entirely of pancakes, darkening certain textures simply by turning up the heat on the skillet. “I love building little worlds and sets. It’s been really fun to imagine and basically play with toys all day, honestly,” Bentley says. “I transferred here my sophomore year, and since then I feel like I’ve really grown in my work. I don’t think I would have seen such a drastic leap or change if I hadn’t come here. Being able to ask questions and connect with people who are excited about the same kinds of things has helped me think about my work on a much bigger scale.” See Mazzy’s work, along with animated films by 14 other KCAI students and alumni, this Saturday at @atlas9.kc for the Cinemorphia Animated Film Festival: 7 p.m. | February 21, 2026. #kcai #stopmotionanimation #independentanimation #kcfilm #tiktaalik

@kcaianimation recent graduate Grace Rathbun (’25 Animation) / @graceannimation says she’s intentionally slowing down her development process, spending more time refining her characters and their designs before diving into the animation stage she first fell in love with. “I always start as big of a picture as you can go,” Rathbun says. “I start with the genre, and I think about the setting, and my characters. And then I move into colors and lighting. And then the last step is when I actually think about what the character looks like in the scene.” “Because animation is, unfortunately, the final part of these things that I like to work in, even though animation is what I want to do in the whole process.” This is wisdom learned during the creation of SHAMDEMONIUM, her KCAI senior-year film now screening at festivals and earning enthusiastic feedback. But it didn’t start there. “The original pitch was beyond rough,” she says with a laugh. “The majority of my classmates, while we were studying it, didn’t exactly know what’s going on. But I knew going into it that I wanted it to be as professional as possible.” As she moves forward with new projects, she reflects on the approaches emphasized at KCAI. “I’m really broadening how I start things,” she says. “The way I like to see it is like a pyramid. It doesn’t work if you’re building it upside down.” “You have to have a solid, large, base, and then you work yourself up to the very fine point,” she says. #kcai #animation #studentanimation #indieanimation #behindtheanimation

Grace Rathbun (’25 @kcaianimation ) / @graceannimation reflects on her creative process behind SHAMDEMONIUM, her KCAI senior-year film now screening at festivals and earning enthusiastic feedback. She approached the project sequentially, carefully considering each move frame by frame. “I would look at the drawing I had done, and then I would think about what would interest me in that moment, and what I thought would be really cool to animate at that time. That’s how every shot started to become a little more dynamic, a little more interesting, a little crazier,” she says. When developing a project, she now spends more time focusing on her characters, building the world around them. She believes this approach creates a more compelling narrative, allowing environments to flow naturally as the characters move through them. She also values seeing how her personal animation style evolves with each film. In SHAMDEMONIUM, two contrasting settings play a central role, and she intentionally used color to heighten the visual and emotional differences between those worlds. “I was very excited to have a very purple character, weirdly enough, because I knew I was going to toss her into a world full of reds and yellows,” she says. “I wanted it to be a film where it confuses you in a good way.” In her current practice, she is intentionally slowing down her planning process. She knows herself well enough to recognize how eager she is to jump straight into the animation stage which is the part she finds most joyful. “I think about my goal,” she says, “whether I want to practice a specific movement, focus on backgrounds or composition. I consider which stage of the animation I want to emphasize, and I ask myself what would feel exciting if I were watching a movie and saw this moment in a trailer.” “You just see what’s in front of you, and you make the best of it,” she says. #kcai #animation #studentanimation #indieanimation #behindtheanimation

The recent @creative_capital award announcement comes as Eva Louise Hall / @theseacircus (’12 Animation) begins editing the teaser trailer for her upcoming stop-motion film, “Pluck.” While her work on the preview may suggest the animation is nearly finished, Hall emphasizes that the project is unfolding on a longer timeline, with the $50,000 Creative Capital grant supporting its development and eventual completion over several years. (🔗 in bio) “They look for artists with ambitious projects, someone they can collaborate with over a longer period, beyond just six months or a year. For someone like me, who works with a particularly laborious process, this kind of support makes a project like this feasible,” said Hall, Assistant Professor and Chair of @kcaianimation . For her previous film, “Mira,” Hall worked alone, chipping away at the filmmaking process during nights and weekends over the course of three years (“a one-woman circus,” she says). For Pluck, she estimates it would take five years to complete if she were to work the same way. But this time she’s not alone. The Creative Capital grant now gives her the flexibility to hire a small team of artists, enabling a hopeful two-year timeline for completion. “We have quite a few graduates who are still in the area, so I’ve been talking with them about fabrication and having them start this summer, working with me full time to carve out a large portion of the film in terms of filming and animation,” she said. Pluck is a stop-motion surrealist horror short that follows Amaia, a talented athlete at the height of her career, as she struggles to conceal a horrifying terminal diagnosis that grotesquely starts mutating her body into that of a chicken. The film is being created using physical sets, animated puppetry, and experimental media, all handcrafted frame by frame. Renowned for supporting original and ambitious proposals, @creative_capital provides artists with up to $50,000 in unrestricted project funding, along with professional development services and community-building opportunities to foster risk-taking, groundbreaking work #kcai #stopmotionhorror #independentfilm #animation #stopmotion #kansascity

@kcaianimation recently set up at @nelsonatkins for “Night/Shift,” a recurring event that transforms the museum every few months with a free, free-form evening of creative encounters. Read more about it in 🔗 in bio! Students and faculty brought a professional camera station, along with a collection of two-dimensional puppets and cutout images for stop motion. Using verbal prompts, they sparked a series of improvisational animations among visitors. Assistant Professor of Animation @mfmurfie said that guests had a general understanding of the process: by shifting objects little by little over time, you create the illusion of movement. The event, however, offered professional-level access with the tools and play set for participants to explore just how much they could (or couldn’t) accomplish. The footage, rendered hourly by members of the KCAI Animation Department, resulted in a work reminiscent of Terry Gilliam’s animated sequences for Monty Python or the distinctive, collage-like pieces by Scorpion Dagger. “But this felt like a cool way to let the visitor be the artist. Rather than passively consuming, it gave a chance to remix the imagery of the museum. It was improv in real time but instead of making a film, you were making a scene,” Murphy said. Get to know Molly Murphy better (and learn more about her motion capture work!) in 🔗 in bio! (Slides 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 15 Photography by @nelsonatkins Digital Production and Preservation photographer, Dana Anderson) #kcai #animation #nightshiftkc #nelsonatkins #stopmotionanimation #kcartscene #kansascity

✂️ 📷 🎬 This stop-motion animation resulted from an experience led by Kansas City Art Institute Animation students and guided by faculty advisors during Night/Shift at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. On Thursday, Oct. 9, hundreds of guests remixed and reinterpreted cut-out detail images of works in the museum's collection with magazine images and other materials to create this playful stop-motion animation. The project drew inspiration from the event theme Yes, And, and the experimental and improvisational spirit in the exhibition More Is More: Reinventing Photography Beyond the Frame, on view through January 18. Find full artwork credits on the Nelson-Atkins YouTube channel.

We’ve got 55 KCAI Animation students participating in this year’s 24 Hour Animation Contest! Wish them luck, they’ll be animating all day and night to create 30 second short films before tomorrow evening! #24houranimationcontest

On Oct. 9, join in on the improv and ad libs in Night/Shift: Yes, And! Collab with local artists for a free night of ditching the script and diving into spontaneous creativity. What’s in store? Spin the Wheel of Jass with @jassrcouch to create new tunes on the spot Let the power of water lead you through music- and movement-based meditation with @vice_versa.co Make a few random noises and jokes with @TruckNoisesKC @kcaianimation will help you put art into motion Experience karaoke like you never have before with @whatifpuppets … and so much more, including gallery side quests, light bites, and cocktails.   Get all the details: nelson-atkins.org/night-shift