Paragraph Mission and History

Press
Empty + Art = Success | Alice Thorson for The Kansas City Star — Download PDF
Trading Spaces | Gina Kaufmann for The Pitch — Download PDF
Cutting-edge Art | Lawrence Journal World — Download PDF

MISSION
Paragraph is an artist-run project space showing emerging Kansas City-based artists, designers and architects alongside national and international artists, designers and architects working in a variety of media. Paragraph’s multi-disciplinary activities aim to connect diverse media, genres and audiences and broadly engage the hybridized field of contemporary culture. Paragraph presents exhibitions alongside screenings, performances, lectures, experimental music events, informal conversation, parties, picnics and other forms of public benevolence.

HISTORY
Paragraph was founded in Lawrence, Kansas in July 2002 in a vacant space adjacent to the Eldridge Hotel by Shelly Horst, Hesse McGraw and Cobi Newton. After being ejected from that space six months later, McGraw reopened the gallery in Kansas City in May of 2003 as an Urban Culture Project, under the not-for-profit umbrella of the Charlotte Street Foundation. He directed Paragraph until October 2005 and since the fall of 2006 the gallery has staged diverse projects by independent curators and artists. The 2006 – 2007 season highlighted the 10th anniversary celebration of the Charlotte Street Foundation awards.

SPACE
Paragraph is located on the ground floor of the Chambers Building in the center of downtown Kansas City. The recipient of an American Institute of Architects Merit Award, it was designed by Brad Satterwhite, then of BNIM Architects, and McGraw.

URBAN CULTURE PROJECT
Urban Culture Project transforms empty storefronts in Kansas City's urban core into new venues for exhibitions, live performances and studio residencies, thus creating new opportunities for local artists and curators and contributing to urban revitalization. A progressive blend of Kansas City’s business and art communities, Urban Culture Project is a program of Charlotte Street Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to visual artists in Kansas City.