About the Honorary
Campaign Chairs

About the Honorary Campaign Members

Former Parks Commissioners Mr. Carl DiCapo, Mrs. Anita Gorman, and Mr. Ollie Gates join the Honorary Campaign Chairs to support the Kansas City Museum.

From 1986 to 1991, Mrs. Gorman, Mr. Gates, and Mr. DiCapo served together as Parks Commissioners. This legendary trio was responsible for the revitalization of Starlight Theatre, the Kansas City Zoo, and the National World War I Museum and Memorial.

Now they aim to lend their wisdom and experience to another major Kansas City cultural and civic treasure.   

About the Kansas City Museum Foundation Board

The Kansas City Museum Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to develop initiatives, convene leaders, and mobilize resources through inclusive partnerships to support the mission, vision, values, and strategic priorities of the Kansas City Museum.

The Foundation's Board of Trustees is raising private dollars and support to leverage public funding for the Kansas City Museum's restoration and renovation project. Foundation Vice Chair Kevin Pistilli serves as the Board Liaison to the #MakingAMuseumKC fundraising initiative.

Allen Dillingham and Shannon Cade also serve on the Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners. In addition, the Foundation has recently welcomed its newest member, Eric L. Wesson (image forthcoming).  

Our supporters make this vision a reality

The Visitor Experience

Visitors to the Kansas City Museum will experience the unfolding (and often untold) stories of Kansas City’s evolution and spirit through activities that are multicultural, intergenerational, and multidimensional. Narratives, artifacts, and images will be layered throughout the experience—in exhibitions, programs, events, amenities, and interactive technologies—to provide multiple points of entry into vibrant histories illuminated and interpreted by people from different backgrounds and perspectives.
 
Visitors to the Museum will find active, lively spaces for social interaction, participation, celebration, and conversation, as well as quiet spaces for more solitary contemplation and reflection. The Museum will evoke wonder and encourage exploration, inquiry, and interaction. From educational to entertaining, rigorous to relaxing, playful to poignant, and empowering to transformative, each visit will provide new opportunities to discover more about Kansas City, to realize how we are making history every day, and to recognize how our stories and histories define and unite us.

The Digital Technologies: Interactivity & Immersion

The Kansas City Museum will provide a welcoming environment and a “concierge” approach to serving visitors. Museum staff and docents will greet and guide visitors, providing orientations and tours, as well as making reservations for Museum programming.

In addition, the Museum will integrate interactive digital technologies (audio tours, touch screens, apps, etc.) to enhance the learning experience including educational exhibitions and programs. Low-key, low-tech interactive technologies will be seamlessly integrated into the experience of the first floor of Corinthian Hall so that they do not distract from the historic architectural restoration. More high-tech technologies will be used on the second and third floors in exhibitions galleries. Overall, the Museum's technology will allow visitors to access more and deeper levels of interpretation, content, and artifacts, and will support and enrich a multilayered, storied environment.

The French Renaissance Grand Hall

The Grand Hall has much of its original architecture and ornamentation. The main entrance of the Kansas City Museum will be the front doors of Corinthian Hall that look to the south. Once inside Corinthian Hall, visitors will be in the Grand Hall with its large stained glass window (already restored) and iconic Grand Stair that provides a beautiful, poignant, entry focal point.

The Grand Hall will be preserved and restored architecturally and used primarily for ticketing and admissions. Signage and welcoming staff and volunteers will direct visitors to exhibition galleries on the Second and Third Floors, as well as programs, art installations, and amenities. 

In the Grand Hall, there will be contemporary thematic art installations created by local artists that resonate with the interpretive stories, historical architecture, and materials from the Museum’s collection.

Also, the Grand Hall will be used for after-hours Museum programs and events such as “house concerts,” performances, and receptions, as well as private events such as wedding ceremonies, corporate gatherings, etc.

A major, lead gift has been provided by the R.A. Long Foundation, and the Grand Hall will be named the "R.A. Long Foundation Grand Hall."

Additional funding opportunities are available for the restoration and rehabilitation of original light fixtures that will be installed and re-illuminated, and the creation of art installations.

The Francis I Living Room

The Living Room lacks all original architecture, except for the wood flooring. Therefore, the Living Room will be reinterpreted, recreated, and rehabilitated architecturally. Molding around doors, wainscoting, ceiling beams, and wall fabric (crown and salamander motif) will be recreated with a modern interpretation. The original wall sconces will be restored, installed, and re-illuminated.

The Living Room will be used as an orientation and introduction space, as well as a gallery featuring content focused on Kansas City's Architecture and Building Boom from Story 2 – A City Beautiful on the Missouri: 1890s to 1930s. Through exhibits, programs, and interactive technologies (e.g. audio tours, touchscreens, etc.), visitors will explore the architectural growth and most iconic landmarks of the 1890s to 1930s, and they will learn about the history of the Kansas City Museum and the process of restoring and renovating Corinthian Hall.

Custom, modular display cases and platforms—in keeping with the room’s architecture and décor—will be installed around the perimeter and center of the room to display historical artifacts. Moreover, visitors will choose audio tours, and each tour will deeply explore Story 2 content and themes. Narration will be from diverse voices, perspectives, and experiences, and will feature first-person accounts.

A major gift has been provided by The Sunderland Foundation, and the Living Room will be named "The Sunderland Foundation Living Room."

Additional funding opportunities are available to support the restoration and rehabilitation of original light fixtures as well as interactive digital technologies.

The Louis XIV Dining Room

The only original architecture and ornamentation that remains in the Dining Room are its plaster ceiling, wood floor, some wood wall paneling, and pieces of the fireplace mantel. The Dining Room will be reinterpreted, restored, recreated, and rehabilitated architecturally. To the extent possible, the wood paneling will be restored and reinstalled, and decorative features, such as the chandelier and wall sconces, will be restored and reinstalled, and re-illuminated. Original furniture, such as the dining room tables and chairs, will be on display at times as an exhibit.

The Dining Room will be used as a gallery featuring content on Kansas City's Community and Cultural Life from Story 2 – A City Beautiful on the Missouri: 1890s to 1930s. Through exhibits, installations, programs, and interactive technologies (e.g. audio tours, touchscreens, etc.), visitors will explore the daily domestic, social, and cultural lives of Kansas Citians in 1890s to 1930s including both the working and upper classes. Visitors will learn about the European servants, who worked for the Long Family, as well as the eminent local, national, and international figures, who were entertained in the Dining Room. Also, the Dining Room will be used for special Mayoral meetings and events. 

Custom, modular display cases and platforms—in keeping with the room’s architecture and décor—will be installed around the perimeter and center of the room to display historical artifacts, including but not limited to original glassware, china, and silver.

The Museum Store

The Sun Parlor will be transformed into the Museum Store. The only original architecture and ornamentation that remains in the Sun Parlor is the stained glass skylights, which will be preserved and re-illuminated. No original furnishings or decorative features exist.

The Sun Parlor will be rehabilitated to create a destination
Museum Store that features merchandise made artists, designers, and artisans who live in the Greater Kansas City Metropolitan area. Merchandise will be commissioned, co-developed, and curated by the Kansas City Museum to create a “contemporary collection” of products that resonate with the Museum’s architecture, historical collection, and interpretive content and stories.

There will also be a rich collection of books, DVDs, CDs, and other print and digital materials for adults and children on Kansas City’s history and cultural heritage.

In addition to a legacy naming opportunity, funding opportunities exist to support the development of products made by artists, designers, and artisans.

The Museum Café & Demonstration Kitchen

The original Breakfast Room, Butler's Pantry, Kitchen, and Servant's Dining Hall will comprise the dynamic food experience at the Museum.

The only original architecture that remains in the Breakfast Room is the ceiling, wood floor, and the already-restored art glass window. The Breakfast Room will be preserved, restored, and rehabilitated architecturally to create additional seating and private dining for the Museum Café. The Breakfast Room will also be used as a private meeting space that will accommodate food service.

No original architecture remains in the original Butler’s Pantry, Kitchen, or Servant’s Dining Hall except for a small amount of white tile and a bathroom sink. The Butler's Pantry will be rehabilitated to create the service kitchen for the Museum Café. 

The Kitchen and Servant’s Dining Hall will be rehabilitated to create a chef-driven destination Museum restaurant that serves a menu of local and regional specialties. 

In addition, the Museum Café will feature a Demonstration Kitchen for culinary programs and events that will capture stories of Kansas City’s history and cultural heritage through the experience of making and sharing food.

The Otis Elevator, Vestibules, and West Stair

The original Otis elevator currently sits next to a modern elevator installed during the Museum’s first round of renovations (2005 to 2012). The modern elevator will be upgraded, and the cab of the Otis will be preserved and restored architecturally. The Otis will not be made functional; instead, the cab will be set in place on the Lower Level of Corinthian Hall and become an exhibit space where visitors learn about the historic elevator. Also, from the Lower Level, visitors will have the opportunity to “peek” at the elevator’s operating mechanism.

The East Vestibule will be preserved and restored architecturally, and used as an information hub with digital panels and print materials that outline and highlight daily programs, events, and experiences. The West Vestibule will be preserved and restored architecturally, and may have some custom, modular display cases—in keeping with the room’s architecture and décor—in the corners of the space to display historical artifacts.

The West Stair will be preserved and restored architecturally. It will be used as the staircase leading to the Second and Third Floor Exhibition Galleries. Also, the West Stair will contain a contemporary thematic art installation created by a local artist that resonates with the interpretive stories, historical architecture, and materials from the Museum’s collection.

The Grand Stair Landing

Much of the original architecture and ornamentation remains for the the Grand Stair Landing (at the top of the Grand Stair and in front of the restored stained-glass window), and the rest of the Grand Stair leading to the Second Floor Corridor. The Grand Stair Landing will be preserved and restored architecturally (without the original organ console), and used for performances, exhibits, and contemporary thematic art installations created by local artists that resonate with the interpretive stories, historical architecture, and materials from the Museum’s collection.

Custom, modular display cases and platforms—in keeping with the architecture and décor—will be installed in the Grand Stair Landing to display historical artifacts. The original ceiling chandelier will be restored, installed, and re-illuminated.

Funding opportunities are available to support the creation of the art installations.

The Elizabethan Library

Almost all of the original architecture and ornamentation remains in the Library. The Library will be preserved and restored architecturally. It will be used as a meeting and program space for after-hours Museum lectures, workshops, readings, and book signings, and as well as for special Mayoral meetings and for after-hours private events.

The Library will also be used as a gallery featuring content on Kansas City's Parks and Boulevards System and its Cultural Amenities from Story 2 – A City Beautiful on the Missouri: 1890s to 1930s. Visitors will explore how garden cities were intended to be self-contained communities surrounded by “greenbelts,” containing proportionate areas of residences, industry, and agriculture.

Custom, modular display cases and platforms—in keeping with the room’s architecture and décor—will be installed around the perimeter and center of the room and used to display historical artifacts including mantel ornaments, and items that were personal to the Long Family.

A major gift has been provided for the Library by the Milbank Family.   

The Louis XVI Salon

Almost all of the original architecture and ornamentation remains in the Salon. Like the Dining Room, significant pieces of the original furnishings remain in the Museum’s collection including the original tables, chairs, and an already-restored screen. This furniture will be on display at times as an exhibit. The original wall sconces will be restored, installed, and re-illuminated. The original ceiling chandelier does not exist.

The Salon will be preserved and restored architecturally and used as a gallery featuring content for Kansas City's Civic Life and Leaders from Story 2 – A City Beautiful on the Missouri: 1890s to 1930s. Through exhibits, installations, programs, and interactive technologies (e.g. audio
tours, touchscreens, etc.), visitors will explore the lives, work, and contributions of early visionary leaders of Kansas City during the 1890s to 1930s including R.A. Long.

Custom, modular display cases—in keeping with the room’s architecture and décor—will be installed around the perimeter and center of the room to display historical artifacts.

A major gift has been provided for the Salon by Katrina and Tom Henke, and the Salon will be renamed the "Betty Milbank Waldrop Family Salon." 

Additional funding opportunities are available for the restoration and rehabilitation of wall sconces and original furnishings, as well as the creation of a new chandelier or light sculpture.

The Second Floor of Corinthian Hall

Some of the original architecture and ornamentation remains in the Second Floor Corridor, which will be preserved and restored architecturally and used by visitors to access the Second Floor Galleries. The walls of the Second Floor Corridor will include wayfinding signage that directs visitors to the Second Floor Exhibit Galleries.

Almost no original architecture remains in the rooms on the Second Floor beyond the Second Floor Corridor (the Second Floor originally consisted of bedroom suites for Mr. and Mrs. Long and their daughters Loula and Sally).

The Second Floor will be rehabilitated into five exhibition galleries and one meeting room, which also will be used as classroom and education space for formal and informal history-based educational activities.

Visitors will arrive on the Second Floor Corridor by ascending the Grand Stair or West Stair, or by using the elevator. Interpretive panels relating to the exhibits on the Grand Stair Landing may be installed on the Grand Stair railing. 

The Second Floor Galleries will provide a rich and diverse survey of Kansas City’s history and cultural heritage through exhibitions, installations, programs, and interactive technologies (e.g. audio tours, touchscreens, etc.), which primarily feature historical artifacts from the Museum’s permanent collections, as well as items on loan.

Exhibitions and programming will be developed in collaboration with local museums and cultural institutions. Visitors will be encouraged and inspired to experience those partner organizations to learn more about specific content and areas of emphasis.

The Northeast Gallery

The Northeast Gallery will focus on Story 1 – Cultural Confluences: Rivers to 1880s.

Cultural Confluences explores the stories of Kansas City’s early history and the merging of people and cultures that gave life to Kansas City. The visitor’s narrative journey will begin with an understanding of the geography, significance, and impact of the mighty Missouri River. Long before there was a Kansas City, there was the land, the animals, and the indigenous peoples who lived in the region and at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers.

The Missouri River will serve as not only a fundamental narrative thread throughout the six core stories, but also as a key thematic and symbolic component of the visitor experience. In addition, the theme of transportation will be woven throughout the story structure. In the late 19th century, the rivers gave way to the coming of the railroads, which made the town of Kansas thrive and grow to become Kansas City.

Funding for the Gallery has been provided by the Barton P. and Mary D. Cohen Charitable Trust, and Northeast Gallery will be named “The Freedom’s Frontier Heritage Area Gallery.”

The Southeast Gallery

The Southeast Gallery will focus on Story 3 – Thriving Populations: 1890s to 1930s.

Prominent citizens settled in Quality Hill, the The Paseo and Armour Blvd. Other neighborhoods grew from thriving populations of immigrants coming to Kansas City to participate in rapidly growing industries and to make a home and new life in the Midwest. Their traditions and culture made the population of Kansas City more diverse and unique. Each distinguished neighborhood has its own rich flavor and history. The rise of transportation made it easier for citizens to move around, and businesses flourished as the City grew. The prosperity continued through Prohibition as Kansas City politics kept the City “wide open” with nightclubs roaring and the liquor flowing. This meant the City was not as hard it by the Depression as other cities, but the economy did not thrive as it should until WWII.

The Central Gallery

The Central Gallery will focus on Story 4 – Decline and Renewal: 1950s to 1990s.

The devastating flood of 1951 had many ripple effects, including a loss of industry from the packinghouses to longtime retail giants in the 1960s. Downtown Kansas City lost its businesses and shoppers. The time of turmoil in the country was reflected in Kansas City’s civil rights struggles—white flight, Black Panther movement, and the “riots” of 1968. But the Kansas City spirt proved stronger, and citizens found a way to come together more than break apart in redeveloping of districts, building up City culture, and finally finding a way to revitalize downtown.

The Southwest Gallery

The Southwest Gallery will focus on Story 5 – Cultural Renaissance: 1970s to Present.

There are numerous aspects that Kansas City historically, culturally, and artistically distinctive. These are the stories of the educators, artists, makers, athletes, entrepreneurs, developers, preservationists, and innovators who strive to make Kansas City exciting, socially and culturally vibrant, and intellectually, artistically, economically, and environmentally essential.

Kansas City’s growing industries, and Kansas City’s contributions to food, sports, music, recreation, humanities, art, architecture, neighborhood revitalization, and more will be featured in this thematic area.

The Northwest Gallery

The Northwest Gallery will feature Special Exhibitions of the Museum's Permanent Collections. 

In the Northwest Gallery, visitors will experience special exhibitions that delve into interpretive content and showcase the breadth and depth of the Museum’s permanent collections including the Archives, the Medical Collection, the Dyer Collection of Native American Culture, and the Clothing and Textiles Collection.

The Third Floor of Corinthian Hall

Almost no original architecture and ornamentation remain in the rooms on the Third Floor, which originally consisted of bedrooms for servants and guests. The Third Floor will be rehabilitated into three exhibition galleries, one interactive storytelling space, and an auditorium and theater.

The Third Floor will feature Story 6 – Our City, Our Stories: Past, Present & Future. The Third Floor will be a very inventive and dynamic learning environment for temporary special exhibitions and installations, which will change more frequently and invite a broad audience, as well as foster more regular and repeat visitors to the Museum.

Visitors will access the Third Floor Galleries through the Third Floor Corridor. Visitors may enjoy a space in the Corridor that is dedicated to showcasing on-loan personal collections of Kansas Citians.

The Northeast & Southeast Galleries

The Northeast and Southeast Galleries will feature changing exhibitions and installations that include interpretive content from any of the six core stories in the thematic framework. Content will be developed in collaboration with local historians, curators, educators, and artists. These galleries will provide an opportunity to create exhibitions and programming that examine contemporary issues through historical perspectives.

Interactive technologies (e.g. audio tours, touchscreens, etc.) will be integrated in the galleries to enhance learning, and there will be innovative opportunities for immersive experiences that explore stories and historical artifacts through wall projections and audio recordings.

The South Central Gallery

The South Central Gallery will be an interactive, immersive, and participatory experience, which includes recording and sharing opportunities for the Museum audience. Features of this gallery include:

• Existing database of oral histories (audio and video) and other stories from HUB projects.*
• A booth to record stories to add to the Museum’s growing database.
• Ways to contribute written documentation and feedback.

This space may also be designed with a small recording studio for live radio broadcasts and podcasts.

*HUB projects (Historical Urban Base) is an initiative that offers a collection of diverse personal and neighborhood stories of Kansas Citians.

In partnership with the Kansas City Public Library, the Kansas City Museum Foundation, and other local organizations, these stories will be recorded through a variety of formats including oral histories, video conversations, documentary film, digital storytelling, youth radio, and more. HUB projects is intended to document, interpret, and preserve Kansas City’s collective memory and history, to inspire engagement and civic unity, and to foster positive, sustainable community development and social change.

The Southwest Gallery – Our City, Our Stories

The Southwest Gallery will examine the growth and evolution of Kansas City’s vibrant neighborhoods. It will also introduce visitors to the “change-makers” and leaders in these neighborhoods—those who are educating, creating, preserving history, revitalizing, celebrating cultures, continuing traditions, bringing people together, and building legacies.

The Northwest Gallery
 

The Northwest Gallery will be a theater with flexible modular seating that shows documentaries about Kansas City, films that relate to exhibition content on the first, second, and third floors, oral history interviews and video conversations from HUB projects, and orientation videos for the Museum experience that puts all of the thematic frameworks into context.

In addition, the theater will be used as an auditorium for small performances and puppet shows, as well as for Museum programs and events including lectures, workshops, meetings, panel discussions, and other offerings.

The Lower Level of Corinthian Hall

The Lower Level of Corinthian Hall will contain a Billiards Room, Soda Fountain, interpretive content, custom built-in display cases for historical artifacts, and two contemporary thematic art installations created by local artists that resonate with the interpretive stories, historical architecture, and materials from the Museum’s collection.

Visitors will access the Lower Level from the north staircase (from the First Floor), the elevator, or a separate exterior entrance on the west side of Corinthian Hall near the Porte Cochère.

A service kitchen to support the Museum Café and the Soda Fountain will be adjacent to the Soda Fountain. A separate catering kitchen will also be located on the Lower Level.

Funding opportunities exist to support the creation of the arts installations.

The Billiards Room

Much of the original architecture remains in the Billiards Room, which was original to Corinthian Hall.

The Billiards Room will be preserved, restored, and recreated architecturally and used to play pool and other games. Also, the Billiards Room will be used for after-hours private events.

In addition to a legacy naming opportunity, there are funding opportunities to support new lighting features, as well as a new pool table.

The Soda Fountain

From 1980 to 2010, the Soda Fountain and Drugstore was an iconic feature of the Kansas City Museum. It contained original furniture from the Kirby Soda Fountain and Drugstore in Missouri and sold period treats, sweets, postcards, and stamps. 

The Soda Fountain will return in a reinterpreted and rehabilitated form using some of the original furniture including the marble bar and wood cabinetry. Visitors will enjoy classic ice creams and soda phosphates with flavored syrups.

In addition, a small menu of appetizers, snacks, and beverages will be available. The Soda Fountain will also be used for after-hours private events.

Funding for the Soda Fountain has been provided by the Barton P. and Mary D. Cohen Charitable Trust. 

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