The community-wide open house for Kansas City’s elegant new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts took place this past Sunday and thousands upon thousands came to finally (and freely) get a closer glimpse of the city’s freshly unwrapped and sparkling crown jewel. The weather was perfect and the crowds cheerful despite the hours-long lines. The Chiefs may have taken a severe beating this day in the Motor City, but here, at home in Kansas City, on the crest of a formerly grassy and high field at 16th and Broadway, the mood was cheery and lighthearted and football scores seemed, for a day at least, a little less important.
The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
This clearly was a day of victory. The swarming masses of humanity in (literal) orbit around this exquisite, yet graceful, new edifice to artful human expression seemed preternaturally buoyant. It was a splendid day to look, learn, reflect, and maybe walk a little taller with a refreshed and genuine sense of metropolitan triumph. It was a day to muse and imagine. A day to hoist one’s chin and proudly confirm to any old smug out-of-towner pit-stopping in from the coasts, ”Yes, I live here. Kansas City’s my home.”
Thousands visit Kauffman Center.
Julia Kauffman welcomes guests.
The Muriel Kauffman Theatre
Helzberg Hall at Kauffman
SM West Band entertains the line-waiters.
The Kauffman Center Lobby.
- The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
