City: Kansas City, MO

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (913) 469-8500

Address: 12345 College Blvd.

Description: Imagine the silence on the end of the line when museum director Bruce Hartman called big-time art dealers in New York to schedule a buying trip for a gallery at the Johnson County Community College in Overland Park. Now imagine their surprise when they see the art displayed in this glorious new space designed by architect Kyu Sung Woo. It has placed Kansas firmly on the international art scene. Named for local philanthropists (and revered collectors of postwar art) Jerry and Margaret Nerman and their son Lewis, the 38,000-square-foot space is the largest contemporary art museum in the four-state region and the only contemporary art museum in Kansas. The spare, minimalist structure, composed of two glass and pale limestone boxes that jut out of the college’s austere brick facade, is the architect’s latest masterpiece. Kyu Sung Woo is also known for the Olympic Village in Seoul and the Arts of Korea Gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Actually, JCCC has been famous for its outdoor Oppenheimer Sculpture Garden for years, gifts of Tony and Marti Oppenheimer that include the striking 6-foot Walking Man (on the Edge) by Jonathan Borofsky. The couple donated to the new museum’s acquisitions as well. The building’s interior is a planned process of continual discoveries where elements are gradually revealed—giving visitors a sense of surprise at every turn. But it’s the art that will have you swooning. Within the 4,000 square feet of permanent collection space you’ll find the works of 21 big names, including Frank Stella, Leon Golub, Uta Barth, Brian Finke, Amy Sillman, and Aaron Young, as well as artists with Kansas City connections—James Brinsfield, Warren Rosser, and Eric Sall. Highlights are Kehinde Wiley’s Alexander the Great, Variation, an immense painting of an African-American man, and Do-Ho Suh’s Some/One, a shimmering, almost fluid suit of armor constructed of thousands of dog tags.There is also a changing art gallery, the Oppenheimer New Media Gallery, as well as education and community spaces, and Cafe Tempo (which seats around 100).