October 12, 2020

As we continue to protest the brutal murders and attacks of Black and Brown people at the hands of the police in Kansas City, the moment has arrived to demand real change. To effectively do so, we must expose various institutions’ racism and long-held hypocrisy within our community. The administration, Board of Trustees, and various staff at the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) have not come to terms with the ingrained and overt racism which the school was founded on. This allows individuals and groups within the school to behave in ways that promote and allow white supremacy to exist, resulting in a culture of deeply embedded institutional and structural racism, with little to no accountability. In an effort to establish public awareness, facilitate further education, engage in conversations about reconciliation, and hold KCAI and its affiliates accountable, we must bring attention to KCAI’s ongoing institutional and structural racism through truth-telling and demand immediate change.

On July 16, 2020, students from the Black Student Union and KCAI Solidarity Network met with Executive Leadership, Board of Trustees, and faculty and staff representatives to provide a list of demands to the college which outlined how KCAI has been complicit in the perpetuation of systematic racism, anti-black and colonial systems that continues to harm and erase Black, Indigenous, POC, Queer and Disabled folk in our communities. The July 2020 meeting prompted the administration to respond with their own letters and updates to the school’s website featuring a page entitled, “Path Forward” which outlines various platitudes of promises toward a more transparent and diverse culture at the school.

KCAI’s current President, Tony Jones, states that KCAI is a “school between two showrooms” but fails to mention how KCAI and other arts institutions in Kansas City are a part of a larger network of colonialism, racial capitalism, and exclusion. He fails to mention that the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art participates in the colonial practice of harboring stolen global artifacts. He fails to mention their recent decision to allow riot police to stage on their property during the June 2020 uprisings in Kansas City, where officers used excessive force and military tactics against peacefully protesting civilians, including KCAI students, on the plaza. He fails to mention that the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art participates in racial capitalism by way of the Kemper Family Foundation trust which is administered by UMB Bank, which continues to participate in a for-profit publicly run detention facility in Rhode Island. Jones fails to mention KCAI’s own instances of exclusion through structural and institutional racism through its curriculum and language, which largely focuses on white, male, European teachings, and the persistent lack of representation of racially and culturally diverse administration and faculty.

If the dismissal of the true nature of arts institutions in Kansas City wasn’t alarming enough, equally alarming in this moment of national reckoning on race and equity, is KCAI’s current and historic behavior of squelching dissent and limiting the free speech of Black, Indigenous, POC, Queer and Disabled students and faculty who wish to address issues of discrimination, and systemic and institutional racism at the school. Evermore concerning, KCAI has continuously allowed and supported white students and faculty who have created racist, discriminatory, or defaming works on campus throughout its 135-year history.

In 2012, a white male student at KCAI was given an assignment in one of his liberal arts classes to create a work of art on campus to evoke people to hold public dialogue. He proposed writing or painting “words” on the outside of the sculpture building, and when his proposal was approved without question, he began work that persisted for weeks. The first week, “RAPIST”, was painted in black block letters on a 6’ x 11’ wall at the sculpture building’s front entrance. Students who had direct experience with sexual violence in the past or on campus immediately requested the administration do something to remove the painting, but nothing was done. A couple weeks later, students arrived on campus one morning to find the N-word, spelled out, and painted in black block letters on that same 6’ x 11’ wall. Black students, faculty, and even the school’s President, who at the time was a Black woman, were continually silenced for expressing their concerns to the Board of Trustees and the administration. The N-word was left on the wall in full view from the President’s office for several days before it was painted over. Throughout the duration of this student's hearing with school administrators, he was allowed to continue going to classes and work within his studio. His hearing resulted in the school dismissing the case against him based on several faculty coming to his aid to decry anti-censorship on campus. This is just one of many instances in which a white student at KCAI was allowed to create anti-black work at the school. The person who created this work has since grown tremendously and has routinely acknowledged the harm of his past behavior. But KCAI has not.

In early October 2020, Dante Moore, a BIPOC Queer student at KCAI, was suspended from the school for creating a piece of art that brought attention to the exchange of money between KCAI Board Chair Frank D. Uryasz III and the Kansas City Police Department. Mr. Uryasz, who became Board Chair at KCAI in 2018, also serves as the Board Chair of the Kansas City Missouri Police Foundation. Mr Uryasz also operates a family trust, The Uryasz Family Foundation, which has given charitable donations to the Kansas City Police Department on numerous occasions. Dante’s work of writing on walls within their studio and on campus highlighted the ways in which the philanthropic world of the wealthy and elites in Kansas City benefit from the very entities that systematically promote pain and suffering in our communities. KCAI’s administration, and some faculty members, very quickly created a narrative to silence and criminalize Dante for what they say is not following school policy and protocol for creating artwork on campus, and claimed that Dante destroyed campus property. Dante is currently suspended, access to their studio and campus buildings was revoked, and they were asked to leave and await a hearing from administrative officials at the school.

On August 15th, 2020, KCAI published a statement regarding their stance against racism. The statement states: “We stand in solidarity with those protesting police brutality, and we support those who demand to be heard. We join them in speaking out against systemic racism, grounded in a long history of inequity and violence, which continues to devalue to the lives of Black people in this country.” This statement directly conflicts with their current pursuit to silence and punish Dante, who created work in an effort to be heard as a BIPOC Queer artist living in a world and attending a school that continues to marginalize and discriminate against Black, Indigenous, POC, Queer and Disabled folk. Dante has said, “I don’t want people to forget what my piece was about. It’s about the KCAI administration being held accountable, being transparent with the student body, and removing their bloody money from supporting the racist systems of government like KCPD and the prison industrial system.”

How can KCAI claim to encourage a “Path Forward” while suspending, silencing, and refusing to listen to or respect the concerns of Black, Indigenous, POC, Queer and Disabled staff and students? How can KCAI say that it participates in non discrimination when the school actively allows white students to hold “public dialogue” on race, but not Black and Brown students? How can the Kansas City Art Institute claim to be a safe environment, when sitting Board members and other donors of the school give money to the Kansas City Police Department and other anti-black organizations?

Former faculty members who have brought attention to the schools structural and institutional racism and discrimination were often bullied by superiors and KCAI administration until they resigned, had contracts expire, or were terminated. Past students and Alumni of KCAI have witnessed this silencing, and have too been silenced or ostracized, furthering a culture of fear within KCAI, the broader art community, and various arts institutions in Kansas City. Since Dante’s suspension, students at KCAI who support Dante and the dismantling of structural and institutional racism at the school have been creating artworks within their studios to bring light to what the school is doing to Dante and their demands for change. To view their protest follow @kcai.protest #FreeDante on Instagram.

With the current student body of KCAI facing yet another instance of targeted intimidation, harassment, and direct harm due to their efforts and desires to see lasting substantive change at KCAI, we as alumni, colleagues, artists, activists, and community leaders stand in solidarity with them. We fully support KCAI students in their demands listed below:

1. Frank Uryasz III Resign from the Police Foundation of Kansas City.

2. Frank Uryasz III Divest from Kansas City Police Department, and invest in life-affirming, pro-black social programs.

3. If Frank Uryasz III fails to meet criteria in the first two (2) demands, he must resign from the KCAI Board of Trustees.

4. KCAI drops the case against Dante Moore, and that Dante be immediately allowed to return to school with a clean record.

5. KCAI divests from the Kansas City Police Department and other organizations that participate in human rights violations, and that they add all forms of policing, incarceration, and detainment to their list of divestments.

6. KCAI creates a forum for alumni and former faculty to come forward about their previous experiences of abuse and harm.

7. KCAI dedicates a portion of their 7.4 Million yearly gross income to a community fund and hires a Restorative Justice Manager to oversee these cases.

8. KCAI fully follows through on lists of demands from the Black Student Union and KCAI Solidarity Network.

9. KCAI stops construction projects that raise the cost of tuition and focuses on a plan towards tuition independence.

10. KCAI works to divest from relationships with developers who use students' work and projects as tools in city gentrification.

11. KCAI publicly acknowledges and apologizes for the way they have caused harm, and works to reckon with those actions through swift policy changes and community engagement strategies.

12. KCAI recognizes their position as a foundation of the Kansas City arts community and works to use their power to dismantle the influence of racism and white supremacy in the community surrounding and supporting the school.

We demand these terms as a wide network of individuals and entities that exist across Kansas City, the country, and internationally. We invite the Kansas City Art Institute to engage in dialogue with students and faculty whose demands must be met in order to change and heal the wounds of racism within the school, and authentically serve the faculty, students, and broader Kansas City community.

This letter was authored by various alumni and current students of the Kansas City Art Institute, inspired by countless artists, activists, and organizations from around the country who are working toward dismantling structural and institutional racism and white supremacy.

Sign and share the form today to stand in solidarity with students at the Kansas City Art Institute.