Community Curator
The Community Curator program of Kansas City Museum invites historians and history educators to share their perspectives on artifacts they choose from the Museum collection. This provides fresh insight about artifacts and collections of Kansas City Museum and Union Station, and welcomes diverse input from the Kansas City history community. Community Curator lectures are presented the third Sunday of each month in Collections Storage at Union Station Kansas City, allowing the actual artifact to be presented with the observations of our Community Curator.
April Curator: Sonie Joi Ruffin, Fabric Artist
About the curator:
Born, raised and educated in the state of Missouri. Sonie Joi Ruffin is a renowned fabric artist; she has lectured
and led workshops on African American quilting and color combining at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s
Renwick Gallery, the University of Missouri Kansas City, Lincoln University, Kansas City Museum of Art and the Carter Art Center. Sonie has exhibited her art work at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, the American Jazz Museum, International Quilt Festival 2006 and the Portfolio Gallery. Her art quilts can be found in permanent collections, such as galleries, museums, private and corporate collections. Sonie’s quilts are bold, intuitive and contemporary; they draw
from a centuries old wellspring that explores humanity through the crux of the African American experience. The stories and prayers that accompany Sonie’s designs are masterfully written, she shares her life’s experiences, the African American culture, life’s hardships and the courage to be triumphant through life’s disappointments. Sonie’s fabric collection “My African Village and Drums of Afrika” by Andover fabrics, is available in fabric stores nation wide.
Artifact:
Marionette
Kansas City Museum Accession No. 1981.27.1
Inclusive Dates:
ca. 1850
Artifact Background/History:
As a theatrical art form, “blackface” was invented in the United States of the 19th century. Perhaps it’s better to say adapted rather than invented. Referencing the institutional racism of the day, it draws on ancient theatrical genres ridiculing the lower classes and the disenfranchised. The marionette in the Kansas City Museum collection emerges from a period when blackface was in full flower in American theaters. This is a well-made and provocative object; because its origins are both loathsome and bigoted, and deeply historical, it has much to offer a contemporary museum-going audience.
About the Artifact:
Black-face (minstrel) marionette, with egg-shaped head painted black with black fuzzy hair on top, painted white eyebrows and red mouth, and black eyes with white backgrounds. Head is on block shaped long torso dressed in costume of black suit coat with blue, white and red striped and ruffled shirt and red vest (all one piece) with red and blue ruffled cuffs on arms; black and white buttons interspersed. Black pants in same material over long skinny legs end in oversized pointy shoes. Both hands hold white "bones," elongated shaped sticks. Scant information on date and provenance—item used on a Mississippi River Steamboat—have been supplied by the donor. Lent to the Kansas City Museum in 1977 then turned into a gift by Hazelle Rollins in 1981.
Where: |
Town Hall at Union Station Kansas City |
When: |
April 20, 2008 |
Hours: |
2 p.m. |
Admission: |
Free |
Address: |
30 W. Pershing, Kansas City, MO, 64108 |
Library Programs
Kansas City Public Library/North-East Branch
Little Ones and Moms
May 2nd at 10:15 a.m.
Spring is in the Air
Spring is here! Come and hear stories and sing songs about April showers and May flowers.
June 6th at 10:15 a.m.
Let’s Go on a Journey
Who do you think traveled down your street before you? Could it have been a Civil War soldier, an early pioneer, or even a dinosaur? Come and hear stories and sing songs about journeys other children have taken.
July 11th at at 10:15 a.m.
Quilt Stories and Stories
Quilts keep us warm at night, they decorate our walls, and they even tell stories. Come and learn about the importance of quilts through games, stories and songs.
August 1st at 10:15 a.m.
All about Color
What’s your favorite color? Listen to stories and songs about colors and make your own color book to take home with you.
Teen Programs
May 14th at 1:00 p.m.
Self-Portraits
A Self-portrait is a representation of an artist, drawn, painted, or sculpted by the artist. Look at examples of self-portraits, including individual portraits of the artist as well as portraits included in larger works. Create your own “masterpiece” using the materials provided.
June 11th at 1:00 p.m.
KC Internet Scavenger Hunt
Go on a scavenger hunt and discover new and interesting facts about Kansas City and its history.
July 9th at 1:00 p.m.
Record Your Own History
“History” is a word for information about the past. In this workshop, participants will focus on recording personal history as a way to understand how to save the stories of today for future generations. Different kinds of journals will be discussed, including scrap books, diaries and graphic novels. Participants will each hand-make their own journal to take home
August 13th at 1:00 p.m.
Exploring Architecture
“Architecture” is the art and science of designing buildings. It’s even possible to identify historic buildings by their size, shape and decoration. In this workshop, participants will view examples of different styles of architecture, and learn about what makes them different. The group will tour the Beaux-Arts-style Corinthian Hall, the home of Kansas City Museum, and examine its many decorative details. Then, each person will make their own architectural details to take home.
Kid’s History Reading Club
May 27th at 5:00 p.m.
Little House on the Prairie
Laura Ingalls is heading west! The Ingalls family packs up their covered wagon and sets off for the big skies of the Kansas Territory, where wide open land stretches as far as the eye can see. Just when they begin to feel settled, they are caught in the middle of a dangerous conflict.
Laura Ingalls Wilder
June 24th at 5:00 p.m.
Saving the Buffalo
Saving the Buffalo explores the astonishing fate of these huge animals. There is no simple answer to their near extinction. The interplay of natural forces and people, both Native Americans and settlers, played a critical role in the story of this American symbol. Many thousands of buffalo roamed the Great Plains for centuries. The first Native Americans had more than 100 uses for the buffalo, but only killed as many as they needed.
By: Albert Marrin
July 29th at 5:00 p.m.
Changes for Kit: a Winter Story
In 1934, during the Depression, Kit's cantankerous uncle comes to live in the Cincinnati boardinghouse run by her parents, enlisting her aid in transcribing his complaining letters to the editor of the local newspaper and inspiring her to write a different kind of letter of her own.
By: Valerie Tripp
August 26th at 5:00 p.m.
Daniel’s Walk
Spooner's adventure, set around 1844, has everything: danger, Native American myth, a gritty survival struggle, a little romance, comedy, and wonderful characters, all rolled into a quick-reading, high-interest, satisfying historical novel. When 14-year-old Daniel experiences an unsettling dreamlike vision informing him that his father, Etienne, a French trapper, is in trouble, Daniel sets out to find him. His plan to join a wagon train heading west seems safe enough, but he's immediately thrust into danger when he foils a vicious horse thief, who is determined to get revenge.
By: Michael Spooner
Plaza Branch
Preschool Story time
June 13 at 9:30 & 10:30am
Quilt Stories and Stories
Quilts keep us warm at night, they decorate our walls, and they even tell stories. Come and learn about the importance of quilts through games, stories and songs.
South-East Branch
July 15 at 10:00am
Quilt Stories and Stories
Quilts keep us warm at night, they decorate our walls, and they even tell stories. Come and learn about the importance of quilts through games, stories and songs.
Oak Park Branch
April 24th at 2:30 p.m.
“Experiment with Printmaking”
Take a journey back to the time of the first printing press. Experiment with historic and contemporary printing techniques.
Create your own calling and greeting cards.
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