Nerman MoCA

Join us at The Salon on Wednesday, May 13, 6-7:30 p.m., for a Tarot Study Hall led by Laura Pensar of art studio Moth & Candle. Drop in with questions or just stop by to get some practice with the cards. Laura is an experienced Tarot reader with over 35 years of card experience. She will be on hand to answer your questions, guide or talk to Tarot practitioners of all levels, and offer exercises and tips for expanding your own practice. Open to all experience levels. This event is free, but space is limited, and RSVP is required. Link in bio. Amy Kligman: The Salon for Possible Futures will be on view in the Nerman Museum’s Oppenheimer New Media Gallery, Second Floor, March 28, 2025 through December 22, 2026.

This is the last week to stop by the Nerman Museum to see the artworks created by the Shooting Stars 2026 finalists, including these pieces from the scholarship winners - local Johnson County high school seniors nominated by their art teachers. Works will be on view through May 10. Created in 1997 by Chairman Emeritus Robert Endres, a then member of the Board for the Arts and Humanities Association of Johnson County, the Shooting Stars Program is a community initiative to honor high school students and their arts educators for artistic excellence in the literary, performing, and visual arts through recognition, scholarships, and awards. Learn more about these works, the Arts Council of Johnson County and this collaboration in our digital guide on Bloomberg Connects. 📷: 1st Place · Two-Dimensional Art - Devika Krishna, Flying with the Fish (detail), 2024, watercolor on paper, 24 x 18 in. Courtesy the Artist, Blue Valley Southwest High School, Emily Patterson, instructor 📷: 2nd Place · Two-Dimensional Art - Yongjoon (Daniel) Cheon, Effervescence (detail), 2025, acrylic and pen on paper, 17 x 21 in. Courtesy the Artist, Blue Valley High School, Ashley Moll, instructor 📷: 1st Place · Three-Dimensional Art - Heidi Nance, Mink Quiver (Reverence) (detail), 2025, recycled leather and mink fur, 18 x 4 x 1 in. Courtesy the Artist, Notre Dame De Sion High School, Elizabeth Smith, instructor 📷: 2nd Place · Three-Dimensional Art - Carolyn Meuret, The Ocean’s Coin, 2025, sterling silver, copper, solder, leather, 1 1/2 x 1 x 1/4 in. Courtesy the Artist, Blue Valley High School, Michael Johnston, instructor 📷: 1st Place · Photography - Jacob Walter, Periapsis (detail), 2025, inkjet print, 18 x 12 in. Courtesy the Artist, Olathe East High School, Melissa Sellers, instructor 📷: 2nd Place · Photography - Nolan Kruske, Intermission (detail), 2025, inkjet print, 20 x 16 in. Courtesy the Artist, Shawnee Mission South High School, Caroline Ewing, instructor

Join us at the Nerman Museum on Wednesday, April 29, from 6-7 p.m. for an artist talk and opening reception celebrating A Field with Roots (Un campo con raíces), a special installation by Betsabeé Romero. Romero will be introduced by Consul Soileh Padilla Mayer. A reception will follow. Livestream option available. This event is free; RSVP is encouraged. Link in bio. Betsabeé Romero lives and works in Mexico City. For more than 20 years, her work has focused on creating critical discourse about issues like migration and mobility through the re-contextualization of symbols and daily rituals of global consumer culture, such as cars, tattoos, and urban signage. She has had more than 100 solo exhibitions on five continents, has participated in numerous residencies and international exhibitions, and her work is part of numerous museum collections around the world. A Field with Roots (Un campo con raíces) will be on view in the Nerman Museum’s Richard I. and Jeanne S. Galamba Lobby, First Floor, from April 30 through December 6, 2026. Betsabeé Romero’s works in Kansas City, spanning both sides of the state line, are part of a collaboration between the Consulate of Mexico in Kansas City, Belger Arts, the Kansas City Convention Center, Mattie Rhodes, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson County Community College. 📷: Artist Betsabeé Romero 📷: Betsabeé Romero, The Reflection and the Trace: Around the Globe, 2026, security mirrors, LED, and stainless steel, 112 1/2 x 112 1/2 in. Courtesy the Artist

Join artist and exhibition organizer Amy Kligman in The Salon on Saturday, April 25, 2-3 p.m., to make buttons to give to friends and family and stock the salon drawers for future visitors. This event is free, but space is limited, and RSVP is required. Link in bio. The Salon for Possible Futures is an exhibition organized by Amy Kligman as an interactive space for community gathering and collective imagining. Themes of fostering humanity and relationships, learning from the past, and building sustainability, hope, and magic are the underpinnings of the salon’s assembled objects and imagery. Amy Kligman was the Executive Artistic Director at Charlotte Street 2015-2025. Kligman’s career and experience as an exhibiting artist and grassroots curator/arts administrator spans 20 years of studio and exhibition work, independent curating and organizing, and artist-run projects. Amy Kligman: The Salon for Possible Futures will be on view in the Nerman Museum’s Oppenheimer New Media Gallery, Second Floor, March 28, 2025 through December 22, 2026.

Artist Betsabeé Romero is bringing a dynamic series of activations across various locations in the Kansas City metro area in honor of the World Cup 2026, kicking off with events hosted by Mattie Rhodes and the Nerman Museum. Romero’s work explores themes such as migration and mobility through the recontextualization of symbols and daily rituals from global consumer culture, such as cars, tattoos, and urban signage. APRIL EVENTS 📅: Saturday, April 25 - 11 AM Tejiendo Redes Opening Ceremony Kansas City Convention Center 📅: Wednesday, April 29 - 6 PM A Field with Roots Artist Talk and Opening Reception Introduction by Consul Soileh Padilla Mayer Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art Betsabeé Romero’s works in Kansas City are part of a collaboration between the Consulate of Mexico in Kansas City, Belger Arts, the Kansas City Convention Center, Mattie Rhodes, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson County Community College, with additional events and installations continuing through December 2026. @belgerarts @kansascity @nelsonatkins

A five-decade survey of Linda Lighton’s ceramics, where domesticity, politics, labor, nature, and violence collide as expressions of power. @lindalighton On view through May 3, 2026 at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art. Don’t miss it before it closes! @nermanmuseum “Above all else, it was [Lighton’s] use of humor and wit to deal with profoundly serious topics that really crystallized my understanding of her practice. She doesn’t shy away from topics that others might not want to touch, which I love. Still, she does this carefully, with such a sharp mind but playful hand.” - Sydney Stutterheim, guest curator Read the full article by Blair Schulman at moca-ny.org. Link in bio. #LindaLighton #ContemporaryCeramics #FeministArt #CeramicArt #MoCANY

THE DEATH OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION A Performance   Join us for a wake and funeral presided over by one of the most consequential performance artists of our time.   Friday, April 3, 2026 Wake: 7:00–8:00pm | Funeral: 8:00pm   📍 Crossroads Hotel 2101 Central Street, Kansas City, MO   Dress code: Funeral chic This is a free event.   Guillermo Gómez-Peña Presents: A Spoken Word Ritual for the End of Times   Guillermo Gómez-Peña has devoted his life and practice to exploring issues related to the US/Mexico border. Born in Mexico City, he moved to the United States in 1978 and has lived in the space between two nations, two languages, and two irreconcilable versions of the same history ever since. For over 40 years, his practice has placed people from the margins at the center, highlighting who has been historically excluded.   For this project, Gómez-Peña’s main artistic tool is the spoken word, and his own body the performance site.   La Pocha Nostra, the transdisciplinary live art laboratory he founded in 1993, has worked across national borders, race, gender, and generations as an act of radical citizen diplomacy, creating ephemeral communities of rebel artists at over one thousand venues worldwide.   Guillermo Gómez-Peña is a MacArthur Fellow, Guggenheim Fellow, and USA Artists Fellow.   In dialogue with the work of Elaine Buss, currently on view at the Crossroads Hotel gallery.   On-site production: Balitronica (La Pocha Nostra co-artistic director) & Indigo June (LPN core member and Performer)   Organized by @petrichorprojectsmx | Artist residency supported by @nermanmuseum   @lapochanostraworldtour @balitronica @mad.mex55 @elainebuss @crossroadshotelkc   📷 Elaine Buss, Entombment series, “he woodworked, she quilted; He teaches, She nourishes” 📷 Guillermo Gómez-Peña photographed by Geloy Concepcion, 2024

Join us at The Salon on Wednesday, Mar. 25, 5:30-6:30 p.m. or on Wednesday, Apr. 1, 1-2 p.m., to learn how to weave your own belt or band. The tradition of band weaving is found in almost every culture throughout history. This workshop dives right into weaving a band with guidance from artist and instructor Rebecca Vaughan. Participants will learn how to prepare and set up a band-weaving loom, which makes this versatile and portable fiber art possible to create anywhere. These workshops are free, but space is limited, and RSVP is required. Link in bio. Rebecca Vaughan was born and raised in Denver, CO. She has lived in the Netherlands and Canada. She received her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University and BFA in Sculpture at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She teaches at the Kansas City Art Institute and at Johnson County Community College. Vaughan is a member and Treasurer for the Artnauts, an art collective that puts on exhibitions in countries healing from conflict. Amy Kligman: The Salon for Possible Futures will be on view in the Nerman Museum’s Oppenheimer New Media Gallery, Second Floor, March 28, 2025 through December 22, 2026.

Join us at the Nerman Museum on Sunday, March 22 for an artist talk and reception for Visionary: The Work of Michael Brantley. Brantley will be in conversation with guest curator, Harold Smith, from 3-4 p.m. with a reception to follow. Livestream option available. This event is free; RSVP is requested. Link in bio. Michael Brantley (b. 1970) is a multi-disciplinary figurative artist living and working in Kansas City, Missouri. Using oil paint as his preferred medium, his work reflects and celebrates the lifestyle, heritage, and culture of American Africans. Brantley’s art inspires, informs, and provokes dialogue. His large-scale monochromatic paintings draw on 1920s artistic styles and jazz-era themes, and have been spotlighted by the NFL and exhibited at the American Jazz Museum and at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Harold Smith is an artist, curator, educator, and writer. Smith received an AA from Kansas City Kansas Community College, a BS from Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska, and a MAT from Webster University in St. Louis. Visionary: The Work of Michael Brantley will be on view in the Nerman Museum’s McCaffree Gallery, Second Floor, through May 3, 2026.

Join us at the Nerman Museum on Wednesday, March 11 for an artist talk and reception for Angeline Rivas: I Had a Dark Night of the Soul and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt. Angeline Rivas and Christina Catherine Martinez will engage in conversation from 6-7 p.m. with a reception to follow. Livestream option available. This event is FREE, RSVP is requested. Link in bio. Angeline Rivas (b. 1981) was born and raised in Kansas City, MO and is now based in Los Angeles, CA. Rivas earned her MFA in 2022 from the ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena, CA and her BFA in 2005 from Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA. Christina Catherine Martinez lives and works between Los Angeles, Mexico City, and New England. Her practice is a marriage of her experience as a freelance art critic and her background as a classically trained clown. Christina has written for The Eric Andre Show and Women Wearing Shoulder Pads, the first ever Spanish-language show on Adult Swim. Angeline Rivas: I Had a Dark Night of the Soul and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt will be on view in the Nerman Museum’s Kansas Focus Gallery, First Floor, through May 3, 2026. 📷: Angeline Rivas, Suboptimalist Manifesto / Birth of Venus (detail), 2025, acrylic, gouache, and graphite on panel, 84 x 60 in. Courtesy the artist and Chris Sharp Gallery. Photo: EG Schempf

Alumna Linda Lighton’s (‘89 Sculpture) exhibition “Linda Lighton: Love & War, A Fifty-Year Survey, 1975-2025” is a powerful body of subversive ceramic sculptures that explore desire in all its complex forms. Her work uses wit and seduction as conceptual weaponry to mine the relationships between sex, power, and politics. This exhibition is on display at the @nermanmuseum until May 3, 2026. You don’t want to miss out on this exhibition. @lindalighton #kcaialumni #kcai #lindalighton #nermanmuseum

❗Due to unforeseen circumstances, this even has been canceled❗ Come to The Salon on Sunday, February 22, 1-3 p.m., to enjoy an afternoon of playing cards and board games in The Salon for Possible Futures. Guests are invited to come together and play the artist-made games in the Community-themed cabinet in The Salon. This event is designed for folks of all ages! The Salon for Possible Futures is an exhibition organized by Amy Kligman as an interactive space for community gathering and collective imagining. Themes of learning from the past, fostering humanity and relationships, building sustainability, hope, and magic are the underpinnings of the salon’s assembled objects and imagery. Amy Kligman was the Executive Artistic Director at Charlotte Street 2015-2025. Kligman’s career and experience as an exhibiting artist and grassroots curator/arts administrator spans 20 years of studio and exhibition work, independent curating and organizing, and artist-run projects. Amy Kligman: The Salon for Possible Futures will be on view in the Nerman Museum’s Oppenheimer New Media Gallery, Second Floor, March 28, 2025 through December 22, 2026.