Entertainment and Culture

Fine arts, fine dining, and first-rate shopping: The Kansas City region has much to boast about, and the out-of-state license plates you see here testify to that.

America’s illustrator, Norman Rockwell, paid tribute to this community nearly 60 years ago with his iconic “Kansas City Spirit,” a painting depicting iron-jawed resolve to rebuild after the horrific Flood of ’51. Rockwell understood what this community was capable of when it rolled up its sleeves.

A decade ago, this same region put its mind to remaking the Downtown core, which had fallen into decline while our attention was focused on newer, shinier—and more distant—locales in what are now our suburban fringes. But we conjured up the Kansas City Spirit, and the results today are obvious.

Perhaps the most tangible recent example of that spirit is still going up on the west side of the Downtown Loop, where the twin orbs that define the Kauffman Performing Arts Center continue to grow into the city’s skyline. This $413 million crown jewel, that opens in the fall of 2011, will burnish this region’s credentials as a serious player in the fine arts.

With two seating venues of 1,600 and 1,800 seats each, this glittering facility will be home to the Kansas City Symphony, the Lyric Opera and the Kansas City Ballet, with all manner of dancing and musical performances factored in. The facility, tucked into a thriving Downtown at the southern end of the sprawling Kansas City Convention Center, will serve as a physical and symbolic link between Downtown and the bustling Crossroads Art District, an area reclaimed by this region’s artistic and creative community from a series of vacant and underused warehouses.

And, just blocks away, the new Todd Bolender Center for Center for Dance and Creativity will also open at nearly the same time as the Kauffman Center. In the refurbished building that was once the power house for Union Station, it will be home to the Kansas City Ballet and various other dance-related programs and activities. Combined with the Kauffman Center, that will give this region powerful new performing-arts infrastructure.

That broad sweep, from Union Station south of the Downtown Loop through the convention center and $850 million Power & Light entertainment district (including the new Sprint Center arena), has repositioned Downtown as a place to be not only locally, but from throughout a four-state area.

Power & Light, at nine square blocks, includes upscale restaurants with outdoor seating, creative landscaping and a permanent performance stage. After dark, high-tech light displays add to both the atmosphere and a new dimension to roughly 450,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space. And all that sits across Grand Boulevard from the $275 million Sprint Center. The arena has helped redefine Downtown attractions as a venue for big-name music and large entertainment draws.

Downtown is enjoying a renaissance, but the region’s fine arts appeal, while centered there, is by no means limited to that geography. We’re also home to the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, Kansas City Chorale, Kansas City Camerata and the Friends of Chamber Music. Theaters include the Folly Theater, the Kansas City Repertory Theatre, New Theatre, Yardley Hall at Johnson County Community College, Unicorn Theatre, Quality Hill Playhouse, American Heartland Theatre, Coterie Theatre, and the new Off Center Theatre.

A Rich History

This is a region awash in historical contributions to American culture, arts and entertainment. Of course, Kansas City pioneered jazz and blues music, and it alone has revived the legacy of the Negro Leagues of professional baseball. Museums dedicated to these vitally important aspects of Kansas City and American culture are the heart and soul of the 18th & Vine Entertainment District—not coincidentally, the historical center of African-American culture and commerce in Kansas City.

And when it comes to Kansas City culture, don’t overlook the barbecue. It’s not just something we eat here; it’s a way of life. Texas and the Carolinas may take umbrage to our claim as the Barbecue Capital of the World, but it’s a title we believe is well-deserved: This area boasts more barbecue eating establishments per capita than any other major metropolitan area in the world—more than 120 at last count, and KC is home of the American Royal BBQ—the world’s largest competition of its kind, as well as multiple state- and regional-level grilling/smoking championship events.

Physical Attributes

Boulevards? Got ’em. Fountains? Got ’em. Combined, they give the urban center a level of sophistication and grace unmatched by most other cities of our size. And because Kansas City made those pillars of its infrastructure early in its development, it set a standard that has been embraced in fast-growing communities throughout the region.

Again, within short distances of the booming Downtown area, you can find entertainment and retail districts to suit almost any taste. The Country Club Plaza is the pinnacle of dining and shopping, and draws a successful and generally mature crowd. Nearby, the Westport nightclub district caters to a somewhat younger set, and on “Restaurant Row”—39th Street—you can find something for
virtually everyone.

Flanking the region are multiple retail and entertainment venues, almost all of which still haven’t worn the shine of “new” off: Zona Rosa and the Briarcliff Center are the best examples of that in the Northland; Kansas City’s eastern gateway has been redefined by the retail boom in the twin Eastland and Hartman Heritage centers.

On the Kansas side, no emerging entertainment venue has come close to matching the drawing power of the Village West retail district. In less than a decade, that 400-acre slice of farmland has been transformed into the top tourist attraction in the Kansas City area, and the commercial add-ons that followed have rewritten the economic fortunes of Wyandotte County.

And, of course, there’s Johnson County, a suburban powerhouse of more than 542,000 people, with all the attendant shopping, dining and entertainment options you’d expect to find in a county that consistently ranks among the 20 wealthiest in America.

Casinos and water parks, now on both sides of the state line, art museums and galleries, smaller performing arts venues and sporting venues for both professional baseball and football and Division I college athletics round out this region’s broad appeal.