Brush Creek Community Partners-Monthly Newsletter

The Kansas City Public Library aims to become the city’s leading center for civic engagement, public dialogue and lifetime learning in the liberal arts. If the last quarter of 2008 provides any indication, it is well on its way towards that goal.

In October the Kansas City Public Library was awarded the 2008 National Medal for Museum and Library Services. It is one of five libraries from across the country to have received the honor from first lady Laura Bush in a White House Ceremony.

The Plaza Branch Library’s Truman Forum was filled with people listening
to Kansas City’s Tom Bloch discuss his book, Stand for the Best, last August.
This lecture is typical of the programming that has earned
the Kansas City Public Library national honors this year.

The library was recognized for its leading edge outreach and programming targeted to serving all of Kansas City’s diverse community, including through its newest and largest facilities, the downtown Central Library and the Plaza Branch Library. One programming example is the Books to Go project, which delivers books monthly to more than 7,000 preschool-aged children through Head Start programs and other similar venues. The library also offers wireless Internet access and computer competency courses in its effort to help all of its constituents remain connected.

Also in October, the Kauffman Foundation announced it was making a $4 million Legacy Fund grant to the library. With the grant, the library will build upon its extensive programming and events featuring historians, novelists, economists, journalists and public policymakers. A portion of the grant will be devoted to establishing a new entrepreneurs’ resource space within the library system, as well as creating programs focused on the themes of entrepreneurship and innovation.

In December, Carol Levers was honored as one of ten librarians nationwide recognized for service to their communities, schools and campuses as a winner of the Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award. Levers is a community services librarian at the Kansas City, Kansas Public Library and a weekend supervisor at the Plaza Branch Library. More than 3,200 library users nationwide nominated a librarian.

For more information about the Kansas City Public Library and its programming, visit www.kclibrary.org.

The Kansas City Art Institute is the winner of the 2009 Missouri Arts Award for arts education. The Missouri Arts Award is the state’s highest honor in the arts.

The award, announced by the Missouri Governor’s office, will be presented February 11 in Jefferson City. Awards also will be presented to winners in five additional categories: arts organization, arts leadership, creative community, philanthropy and individual artist.

Kathleen Collins, president of KCAI thanked the Missouri Arts Council for recognizing the college, which traces its history to 1885 and is the oldest arts organization in the Kansas City area. A four-year college of art and design, the college is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and by the Higher Learning Commission. The college has an enrollment of more than 670 students and awards the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in twelve major areas of study ranging from animation to sculpture.

High school art teachers participate in the Kansas City Art Institute’s ArtLab class,
a program contributing to KCAI’s earning the 2009 Missouri Arts Award for arts education.

The Kansas City Art Institute is the only institution of higher learning in the seven-state region devoted exclusively to visual arts education. The college not only serves full-time students enrolled in its Bachelor of Fine Arts program but also learners of all ages who participate in weekend, evening and summer classes or who attend the college’s ongoing series of free weekly public lectures by outstanding artists and designers from around the world.

Collins noted that the college’s art gallery, the H&R Block Artspace, is a teaching gallery that serves as a resource not only for KCAI students but also for the community at large. The Jannes Library and Learning Center, which opened in 2002 at KCAI, is open to the public and provides resources in visual arts and design. KCAI’s continuing education programs serve the needs of children, youth and adults, including high school art teachers from all over the state of Missouri who attend the college’s free week-long summer residency programs, known as Educators ArtLab, where they learn new techniques, hone their skills and have an opportunity for creative renewal in fellowship with their peers.

Recently the Kansas City Art Institute announced plans to expand its special programs and continuing education programs to a location north of the Missouri river. The Northland Campus for Special Programs is scheduled to open in February in a 5,000-square-foot building in the Briarcliff Professional Plaza now under construction at the junction of Highway 9 and Briarcliff Parkway in Riverside, MO.

Julie L. Quirin is the new chief executive officer of Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City. Quirin, who joined Saint Luke’s Health System in 1996 as vice president of Marketing and Strategic Planning, has been chief executive officer of Saint Luke’s South in Overland Park since 2002.

Quirin assumes a role held by G. Richard Hastings, who became president and chief executive officer of Saint Luke’s Health System in 1995 and since 1999 has served in a dual role as CEO of Saint Luke’s Hospital and the health system. Hastings continues as President and CEO of Saint Luke’s Health System.

“Julie is an enthusiastic leader with the ability to engage employees, doctors, and community business leaders to further Saint Luke’s Hospital’s long-standing tradition of providing the best care and service to our patients,” said Hastings. “We are delighted about the leadership and energy Julie brings to her new position in Saint Luke’s Health System.”

Saint Luke’s Hospital is a 623-bed acute care and teaching hospital. The hospital is currently undergoing a $330 million campus construction and renovation.

Leo Morton, interim chancellor of the University of Missouri-Kansas City since August, has been named the school’s permanent chancellor.

Morton is a Kansas City civic leader who had just retired as an executive of Aquila after 14 years before being named interim chancellor by University of Missouri President Gary Forsee. Morton replaces Guy Bailey who became president of Texas Tech University in Lubbock last summer. Morton was serving as chairman of the University of Missouri-Kansas City Board of Trustees when he was named interim chancellor and needed to step down from that volunteer role.

Although Morton was not a candidate for the chancellor’s post during the search process, members of the chancellor search committee agreed with Forsee’s decision to make Morton’s appointment permanent.

Morton’s executive team will include Vice Chancellor and Provost Gail Hackett, who had been a finalist for the provost position at Texas Tech, but withdrew her name as a candidate in early December.

Verneda Bachus Robinson has been named president of Swope Health Services (SHS), the health care arm of Swope Community Enterprises (SCE). She succeeds Barrett Hatches as SHS president; he has been serving as chief executive officer of SHS since 2004 and chief operating office of SCE since 2006, a role he retains. Robinson joined SCE as senior vice president and chief human resources officer in 2001. In 2005 she became responsible for the development of SCE’s shared services organization, Swope Community Enterprise Services. Prior to joining SCE, Robinson was president of a management consulting firm.

J. Mariner Kemper, chief executive officer of UMB Financial Corp, is one of three executives named Community Banker of the Year by American Banker magazine. The publication recognized the Kansas City-based UMB for becoming a better retail bank by expanding its branch network and retraining lenders to be better deposit gatherers since Kemper became its head in May 2004.

Michael Chesser and R. Crosby Kemper, III have been honored as 2008 Difference Makers by the Urban League of Greater Kansas City. Chesser, chairman and chief executive officer of KCP&L and Great Plains Energy, received the Difference Maker Award for Civic Leadership, collaborating with the community to develop and promote renewable and sustainable approaches to energy. Kemper, chief executive of the Kansas City Public Library, was named the Difference Maker for Multicultural Education and Inclusion for leadership in expanding the library’s programming and outreach to a broad base of underserved youth, individuals and families.

The Rev. Dr. Robert Lee Hill, pastor of Community Christian Church has received the first annual Steve Jeffers Interfaith Leadership Award from the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council. The council is an independent assembly of the metropolitan area working to build the most welcoming community for all people by fostering participation by a diversity of world religions. The tribute was presented at its fourth annual Table of Faiths celebration.

Midwest Research Institute has announced a number of research ventures including:

H& R Block Inc. has been named one of the Ten Best Companies Supporting the Arts in America for 2008 by the Business Committee for the Arts Inc. H& R Block and the H&R Block Foundation were recognized for contributing more than $12 million to the arts in the past ten years. The company has more than 400 pieces of art displayed at its downtown Kansas City headquarters and collaborated with the Kansas City Repertory Theatre to build the Copaken Stage at the headquarters site.

Saint Luke’s Health System has received a leadership award for Value-Based Health Benefits from the Institute for Health and Productivity Management (IHPM) for its innovative Value-Based Health Benefits initiatives. Initiatives include Saint Luke’s preferred premium and co-pay health plan design, free preventive care, addition of biometrics, collaborative diabetes and cardiovascular disease management programs, free health coaching, free health risk assessments for employees and their spouses, and its online and on-site health enhancement programs.

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has launched a $10 million, five-year program to support research by leading legal and economic scholars on how best to shape the U.S. legal system so that it promotes innovation and growth. The "Law, Innovation and Growth" initiative will support wide-ranging legal research, legal fellowships for new faculty, and seminars at multiple law schools.

In honor of its 75th anniversary, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art has launched a major, year-long initiative to collect significant works of art that will culminate in a celebratory exhibition in 2010. The initiative was announced December 11, the actual 75th anniversary of the museum’s opening, during the museum’s event A Sparkling Night: A Toast to Our 75th.

“Captain’s Coat”, ca. 1789, is one of the eleven acquisitions unveiled
as part of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art’s 75th anniversary celebration December 11.
This rare American Indian coat is of the Ojibwa of Ontario, Canada.
These acquisitions constitute the kick off of the museum’s
year-long initiative to collect significant works of art.

Gifts and purchases will be part of the 75th Anniversary Collecting Initiative that honors the Nelson-Atkins’ success in building an encyclopedic collection of art. At the event, more than 1,200 museum members saw firsthand eleven of the initial acquisitions curators have secured as the museum recognized 34 donors who already have given or pledged works of art to the Nelson-Atkins.

“The people who first imagined and built the Nelson-Atkins did not possess an established art collection, but instead possessed the will and desire to create an excellent Museum,” said Marc Wilson, the Menefee D. and Mary Louise Blackwell director/chief executive officer of the Nelson-Atkins. “It required tenacity, skill and good fortune to build the existing collection throughout the past 75 years, and the best way to honor that legacy is to continue seeking works that add depth and excitement to the Nelson-Atkins collection.”

Curators will continue to request gifts and buy major works throughout the year. For more information about the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, visit www.nelson-atkins.org.

CARING COMMUNITIES IN THE CORRIDOR

Five area neighborhoods have a clearer route to resolving community issues with the opening of the Southeast Caring Communities Neighborhood Resource Center at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 5931 Swope Parkway. Caring Communities is an initiative of the Local Investment Commission in partnership the City of Kansas City to encourage volunteerism and community improvement, and provide neighborhood-based services in low-income neighborhoods. While its priorities include addressing abandoned houses and absentee landlords, crime and drugs and minor home repair, here residents discuss animal control issues. For more information, visit www.kclinc/southeast.

PARTNERS NEED TO PULL TOGETHER IN HARD ECONOMIC TIMES
SAYS BCCP BOARD MEMBER GARY BROWN

Despite the dismal economy, the Chair of the Brush Creek Community Partners’ Evaluation and Compensation Committee is optimistic about this organization’s future. Gary Brown acknowledges that he worries about the current economic condition and the impact it could have on BCCP’s ability to move forward with the great ideas it has on the table right now.

Gary Brown

But he’s also confident the organization is up to the challenge. He says BCCP is proactively taking steps to sustain itself. Brown cites BCCP’s upcoming role as a sub-consultant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ bi-state Brush Creek Basin Study as one example, and sees the need for similar steps. Generating fee for service revenue to facilitate community engagement on the project is not only consistent with the mission of the partnership but contributes to the organization’s bottom-line.

“We also need to look at continuing at expanding our membership. And the membership needs to pull together” so the organization can keep moving forward, Brown says.

Brown thinks BCCP’s greatest success is as a convener that fosters community engagement and helps to establish community initiatives along the Corridor

Brown, an Olathe native, serves as general counsel for Swope Community Enterprises. He grew up in Kansas City and attended the University of Kansas and then Washburn University School of Law. Then Brown left the area for two decades to work as an attorney and general counsel for for-profit companies in Denver. In fact, Brown lived in Columbine and his children were attending schools in the Columbine School District when the tragedy happened there. His children were not in the high school where the shooting occurred, but Brown says the events were a rough ordeal for both the community and his family.

Brown’s return to Kansas City in 2003 also marked his entry into the non-profit world. As General Counsel at Swope Community Enterprises, he negotiates contracts, provides advice and offers legal analysis. Brown finds working for a non-profit interesting, but challenging.

“It’s more challenging than working for a for-profit because you have a social mission as well as sustainability issues,” he says.

Brown also is enjoying his position on the BCCP Board of Directors. He’s been happy to watch the progress of Kansas City’s downtown in the past five years, and sees great things ahead for the Brush Creek Corridor.

“The Brush Creek Corridor has so much potential and promise. It’s the cultural entrance to the city. We have major employers, cultural amenities and the Parks and Recreation Department has done a great job making improvements,” Brown says. “It’s just a matter of time until the economy turns around and the Corridor takes off again.”