In celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary and the 2026 FIFA World Cup, The Museum of Kansas City presents two exhibitions that honor Indigenous history, cultural heritage, and art from Missouri and the surrounding region.
- Homeland: The Osage in Missouri
- Voices Now: Contemporary Native American Art
Both exhibitions were organized by The Museum of Kansas City to recognize the 250th anniversary of the United States through the extraordinary history, culture, and art of America’s Indigenous people and particularly those with ancestral connections to the Kansas City area. These exhibitions serve as cornerstone events in The Museum of Kansas City’s 2026 commemorative programming, offering visitors the opportunity to engage with America’s complex, layered histories through Indigenous storytelling, tradition, and artistic innovation.
Homeland: The Osage in Missouri
On view – February 21, 2027
Exhibition are free, no tickets required.
The Missouri Humanities Council (MHC) has been awarded a grant to The Museum of Kansas City to support Homeland: The Osage in Missouri. The MHC is the only statewide agency in Missouri devoted exclusively to humanities education for citizens of all ages. It has served as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities since 1971. Additional support is provided by the Sosland Foundation and corporate members including Commerce Bank, Dillingham Enterprises, Inc., Evergy, International Architects Atelier, JE Dunn Construction, Mark One Electric, and Milbank Manufacturing.
Osage history is deeply rooted in the waterways and landscapes of Missouri, which is the ancestral home of the 𐓏𐓘𐓻𐓘𐓻𐓟 | Wah-zha-zhe | Osage People, originally known as 𐓁𐓣𐓶𐓤𐓪͘𐓮𐓤𐓘 | Ni-u-kon-ska | People of the Middle Waters. Although the Osage Nation is centralized in what is now the state of Oklahoma, their spiritual and cultural connection to Missouri endures. Homeland: The Osage in Missouri explores and celebrates the history, heritage, worldview, and cultural continuity of the Osage people.
Organized by The Museum of Kansas City, Homeland: The Osage in Missouri is curated by Jimmy Lee Beason II, a citizen of the Osage Nation and professor of Indigenous and American Indian Studies at Haskell Indian Nations University. Featuring materials from the Museum’s collection and items loaned to the Museum, this exhibition centers the Osage culture and worldview while exploring how the Osage were affected by and adapted to European settlement and industrialization.
Homeland is located in the changing gallery on the second floor of Corinthian Hall.
Photographer: E.G. Schempf
Voices Now: Contemporary Native American Art
On view – February 21, 2027
Exhibition are free, no tickets required.
Kansas City’s Jedel Family Foundation has awarded a grant to The Museum of Kansas City to present Voices Now: Contemporary Native American Art. Established by well-known art collector and businessman, Harrison Jedel, the Foundation supports a wide range of educational, medical, and arts organizations in the Kansas City area and beyond. This groundbreaking exhibition marks the first contemporary Native art showcase of its kind in Kansas City, celebrating the living history, voices, and visions of Indigenous communities throughout the region.
Organized by The Museum of Kansas City, Voices Now is co-curated by Dr. Jami Powell, Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs & Curator of Indigenous Art at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, and Bruce Hartman, Founding Executive Director & Chief Curator (retired) of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art.
Voices Now features 15 artists with a variety of tribal affiliations as well as a wide range of artistic mediums and expressions. Fittingly, the exhibition is intergenerational and even includes extended family members. Artists include Norman Akers, Julie Buffalohead, Bruce Caesar, June Carpenter, Lydia Cheshewalla, Tom Farris, Anita Fields, Yatika Starr Fields, Chris Pappan, Wendy Ponca, Ryan RedCorn, Addie Roanhorse, Richard Zane Smith, Jason Wesaw, and Holly Wilson. Norman Akers, Wendy Ponca, Richard Zane Smith, and Holly Wilson are graduates of the Kansas City Art Institute.
Artists in Voices Now have garnered national and international acclaim. Their works address themes of beauty, identity and belonging, the land and environmental issues, colonialism, resistance and subversion, appropriation, relationality, futurity, and more. Their collective voices speak not only to Native America, but America today.
Voices Now is located in the changing gallery on the third floor expands beyond this gallery with installations in Homeland, the second-floor corridor, and the grand stair landing.
Photographer: E.G. Schempf
Connecting Cultures Across Kansas City: The Hand-in-Hand Folk Art Collection
On view – January 10, 2027
Exhibition are free, no tickets required.
This exhibition is organized by the Mattie Rhodes Center and presented in collaboration with The Museum of Kansas City.
The Hand-in-Hand Folk Art Collection was started by Alice Ann Biggerstaff (1924–2007) and later donated to Mattie Rhodes. A Kansas City native, Alice Ann was an artist who worked for more than three decades at Hallmark Cards. Upon retirement, she moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she continued collecting artwork and created a vibrant, welcoming home.
Showcasing more than 150 rarely seen works of folk art from across the globe, with a particular focus on pieces from Latin America and the American Southwest, Connecting Cultures Across Kansas City explores how folk art reflects shared values and human experiences across communities and cultures. Through cultural expression, identity, and time-honored traditions, these works bridge local communities and global traditions.
In this exhibit, you will encounter works by multigenerational artisan families, including the exquisite ceramic traditions of the Aguilar and Blanco families of Oaxaca, as well as the whimsically carved wooden animals of the Alvarez and Rodríguez families of the American Southwest. Also included are countless works created by artisans whose names were never recorded or have been lost to history.
For centuries, the contributions of people of color, women, and other marginalized groups have too often been misattributed or erased, even as their work has shaped cultural identity and community memory. Connecting Cultures invites viewers to honor both the named and the unnamed makers, and to consider how artistry survives through generations by blending ancient techniques with cultural storytelling, acting as a living link to history, identity, and resilience.
The exhibition also emphasizes the vital role of collecting as a form of cultural stewardship—preserving stories, supporting artists, and ensuring that meaningful objects remain accessible to future generations. An installation inspired by Alice Ann’s home in Santa Fe will be featured, alongside selected pieces of her clothing, offering insight into the personal vision behind the collection.
Folk art encompasses a wide range of handmade objects created for daily life, ritual, and celebration, often using region-specific materials and techniques. These works embody lived experience and serve as carriers of cultural knowledge, helping sustain identity across generations. Whether a colorful and imaginative alebrije—a fantastical creature rooted in Mexican folk traditions—a giant painted wooden crocodile from Santa Fe, or an intricately crafted ceramic Tree of Life, these pieces are gentle reminders that beauty and imagination have existed for thousands of years and will endure long after the item itself is gone.
‘Garden of Eden’ Tree of Life, 20th Century
Artist Once Known
Izúcar de Matamoros and Metepec, México
Painted Ceramic
Dunbar: Kansas City’s First Black Suburb
On view – June 27, 2027
Exhibition are free, no tickets required.
A new exhibition debuting on Saturday, June 27, 2026, in the Museum’s third-floor gallery, A Cultural & Community Restoration: 1970s to Present Day, The Edward F. Swinney Foundation, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee Gallery.
Organized by The Museum of Kansas City, Dunbar: Kansas City’s First Black Suburb is co-curated by Kathryn Persley, Damon Patterson, and Dr. Jacob Wagner in collaboration with current and former Dunbar residents Earline Gillum Bentley, Pamela Nicholson Collins, Joan Mathis, Ada Oliver Shaw, Vivienne Starks Smith, and Janice Vertreese. The exhibition is presented in partnership with the Heart of the City Neighborhood Association and the Center for Neighborhoods at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. It is dedicated to the memory of Yvonne Starks Willson (1929–2019) and Anita Dixon-Brown (1956–2026).
Since its founding in 1915, the Dunbar neighborhood has embodied resilience, community, and cultural pride. Despite the challenges of redlining, economic hardship, and natural disasters, residents have remained steadfast in preserving their heritage and advocating for progress. Today, revitalization efforts are bringing renewed energy to the neighborhood through the restoration of historic homes and buildings, support for Black-owned businesses, and initiatives focused on affordability and environmental stewardship. Longtime residents, newcomers, and community partners are working together to honor Dunbar’s past while shaping a vibrant future. The story of Dunbar is not simply one of survival—it is a testament to perseverance, growth, and a commitment to preserving a rich legacy for generations to come.
The Dunbar neighborhood and its first school were named in honor of Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906), one of the nation’s most celebrated Black poets and literary voices. At a time when African Americans faced segregation, violence, and limited opportunities, Dunbar’s work expressed dignity, intellect, resilience, and hope. In tribute to his enduring legacy, the exhibition opens on June 27, his birthday.
