Kansas City Art Appreciation

Kansas City is home to many remarkable art galleries, with three of her finest open to the public for FREE! The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,one of the largest galleries in the United States, maintains a permanent collection representing art from throughout history and around the world. Visitors enjoy the galleries and, on sunny days, picnic or stroll the landscaped museum grounds and sculpture garden. Before your visit, download the Nelson-Atkins Scavenger Hunt for the whole family.

For modern art enthusiasts, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art exhibit permanent and temporary galleries with special events and workshops for families.

Create family keepsakes at Paint, Glaze and Fire, Ceramics Cafe and more paint-your-own pottery shops. Patrons select and paint their own ceramic masterpieces—anything from piggy banks to plates, mugs to picture frames and many holiday pieces, as well. You can learn skills from painting to pottery, stained glass to sculpture at the Kansas City Art Institute, where community education is offered, or Urban Arts and Crafts, where modern skills are taught in a local shop.

Kookiedoodle Crafts in Downtown Overland Park is a one-of-a-kind arts and crafts shop where children purchase kits and make masterpieces all within the store walls—no mess at home, only a take-home masterpiece. Kids will enjoy painting, felt pillow projects, wooden crafts and more.

BYOB paint-your-own-canvas shops are one of the newest trends across the city, each offering diverse calendars with a variety of masterpieces you can create by following simple step-by-step instructions. Customers sign up for a class, bring their own beverage and spend an evening creating a personal work of art to take home and display. Read our guide to “Canvas Shops” for listings.