Rocket Grants provide direct funding to artists in the Kansas City region who are creating exceptional, under-the-radar, and artist-centered projects in public spaces. Rocket Grants award up to $6,000 to individuals or artist groups for projects that exist outside established venues such as museums, galleries, theaters or arts districts. Artists are encouraged to address the community at large, or choose a smaller, targeted audience. The long-term goals of the Rocket Grants program are to encourage emerging and non-traditional artistic practices in the Kansas City region; to contribute to a thriving arts community; and to build bridges between geographic and cultural communities. The 2024 recipients are as follows:
FRUIT TREE COMMUNITY CHOIR
SKYLER ADAMSON AND HAZLETT HENDERSON
The Fruit Tree Community Choir celebrates the planting of community fruit trees around the Lawrence Public Library, accompanied by collective song. The primary artistic medium for this project is music, but artists Skyler Adamson and Hazlett Henderson also emphasize the role that trees play in the visual landscape as orchards, elements of architecture, and garden structures.
FLEW THE COOP SESSION
CODY BOSTON
Flew the Coop Sessions is a live music video series that provides local artists with high-quality video and audio recordings of their live performances, celebrating the thriving music scene in Kansas City and the Midwest at large. By showcasing musicians from a variety of backgrounds and genres, Flew the Coop aims to celebrate the multicultural tapestry of Kansas City while promoting inclusivity and a sense of unity through the universal language of music.
KAWSMOUTH RIVER CARNIVAL
JAC DANGER, MATTHEW LLOYD, AND KIMMON SMUTZ
The Kawsmouth River Carnival is a playful, interactive festival on the Missouri River offering an immersive art experience for the Kansas City community. The floating river parade will feature navigable, floating works of art created on common watercraft and DIY built rafts. The festival’s goal is to expand the public’s imagination about the possibilities for arts and culture on the water; the artists hope to showcase that the river is not only vital to Kansas City’s existence, but is a place for creative engagement, experiencing art, and community connection.
THE KC QUEERTET LIVE VIDEO SERIES
ADEE DANCY
The KC Queertet is a string quartet comprised of two violinists, a violist, and a cellist, dedicated to uplifting and accompanying queer musical artists in Kansas City. This ensemble hopes to bring communities together by creating a holistic experience in the pop/modern and classical world, generating a live-video series with a studio audience.
ON BORN CHILDREN AND GHOSTS
TIMMIA HEARN DEROY
This project will premiere a new play On Born Children and Ghosts by Timmia Hearn DeRoy, produced by Three-Faced Productions. The script speaks to local and international experiences of pregnancy and childbirth, highlighting traumas and mortality, and seeking empowerment and healing, among African Diaspora populations through intergenerational storytelling centering a queer same-sex interracial couple.
POETRY TAKES (P)RESIDENCE
RHIANNON DICKERSON
Poetry Takes (P)residence is a micro-residency for regional poets of color, amplifying LGBTQIA, female, immigrant, and rural voices. Taking place in various music venues, the project aims to engage new audiences and improve artists’ access to financial, professional, and cultural opportunities.
SEASONS AND CYCLES
KYLE JONES AND PAUL BERLINSKY
Kansas City saxophonist and improviser Kyle Jones is partnering with composer Paul Berlinsky to envision a public concert that will take place in February 2024 at the Arvin Gottlieb Planetarium. Featuring baritone saxophone and electronics, the new work centers our relationship to nature as human beings, as well as the importance of cyclical change.
KANSAS CITY’S REMOVAL ACT: THE RECKONING OF ANDREW JACKSON MONUMENTS
NEYSA PAGE-LIEBERMAN
Curator Neysa Page-Lieberman will embark on a community-centered research project that explores the reckoning of Andrew Jackson monuments in the Kansas City-area. Working within a public art framework, Page-Lieberman hopes to research, document, and facilitate public dialogue around the Andrew Jackson monuments, creating opportunities for the public to exchange ideas around what happens after their removal.
THE BLACK FARMER’S 2 DILEMMAS
RYAN TENNEY
Written and directed by Martin Chisolm, the play The Black Farmer’s 2 Dilemmas will be performed at Sankara Farm, a Black family-owned and operated agro-ecological farm in Kansas City. The production reflects the strengths and struggles that Black farmers face while trying to survive, produce, and distribute culturally appropriate local produce in the context of food apartheid.
THE TRENDSETTERS: TEEN FASION SHOWCASE WITH SOCIAL IMPACT
REMY WHARRY
Visual artist and designer Remy Wharry will work in collaboration with Deeply Rooted Clothing Company to produce eight monthly workshops with high school students, followed by a fashion showcase at 18th and Vine. Students will design custom shoes, bags, shirts, and pants, with special attention to refurbishing gently used clothing and accessories.
