Kansas City Explored Study Tour

THURSDAY OCTOBER 24-SUNDAY OCTOBER 27, 2024

This study tour will focus on the culture of Kansas City as seen through its art, architecture, city planning, food, and investment in sports. Stephen Fox will lead us through the city’s downtown, landscape architect George Kessler’s greenway and boulevard system, real estate developer J. C. Nichols’ Country Club District (models for Houston’s Hermann Park and River Oaks), and the Hall family’s utopian Crown Plaza. We will visit the Nelson-Atkins Museum, the World War I Memorial as well as several private art collections. Kansas City has an abundance of artist’s studios, and we plan to visit several of them.

We will enjoy the local barbeque as well as meals at chef-driven restaurants. Along the way we will hear from well-informed speakers, thoughtful collectors, and perhaps visit a few of Kansas City’s notable shops! Travelers will stay at Crossroads Hotel, a 2018 architectural transformation of the 1911 Pabst Brewing Depot with an appealing bar and restaurant, an art gallery, and an artist-in-residence program co-curated by Houston curator Hesse McGraw. Architectural historian Stephen Fox, our guide, has long wanted to take a group to Kansas City because of the city’s influence on Houston. Here is your chance to come along!

Itinerary (subject to change)

Thursday, October 24
Arrive Kansas City (MCI) via United #6300 at 11:51 AM or Southwest #4765 at 10:00 AM. Please email [email protected] to indicate which flight you will arrive on.

Board bus, drive through George Kessler Park
Lunch, lecture and self-guided tour of Kansas City Museum.
Luncheon lecture by historian Bill Worley, author of Kansas City: Rise of a Modern Metropolis; J.C. Nichols and the Shaping of Kansas City, and Beale Street: Crossroads of American Music.
Drive through Kansas City’s graceful boulevards, esplanades, and historic neighborhoods, historic Westport, the Country Club Plaza, and the Sunset Hill section of the Country Club District.
Visits to two private art collections: Christy and Bill Gautreaux and Sharon and John Hoffman.
Check in at Crossroads Hotel, 2101 Central Street.
Rooftop welcome reception, followed by dinner in the Blue Ribbon room. Josh Rowland and Adam Sachs will introduce us to the Kansas City they know in a wide-ranging conversation on civic engagement, philanthropy, jazz, race and J.C. Nichols, and contemporary Kansas City and its commitment to becoming a sports destination.

Friday, October 25
Early departure on bus for driving tour of downtown.
Erin Dodson, curator, will welcome us to the Hallmark Corporate Headquarters and give us an inside view of their storied art collection. From there, we will walk to the adjacent Crown Center, J.C. Hall’s visionary corporate center designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes (1970). Matthew Naylor, director, will welcome us to the Liberty Memorial, 1926, and the National World War I Museum and Memorial, 2006.

Walk through the massive Kansas City Union Station, 1914, and across the Freighthouse pedestrian bridge to lunch at Jack Stack BBQ.
Visit Belger Crane Yard Studios, a warehouse facility converted into studios, exhibition space and a lithography gallery by owners Evelyn Craft and Dick Belger.
Visit the adjoining American Jazz Museum and Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
Reception hosted by Rod Parks, owner of Retro Inferno, a midcentury furniture emporium, at the 1964 Nicol house, designed by Bruce Goff.

Saturday, October 26
Visit Charlotte Street Foundation, home to 30 studios for artists in residence, a theater, exhibition gallery, dance rehearsal studio, library and meeting rooms. Executive director Amy Kligman will give us a tour and visits to a few studios. En route to the Kansas City Art Institute, we will drive through the historic Roanoke neighborhood. This will be followed by a catered lunch at, and tour of, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.
Visit Asiatica and meet founder Elizabeth Wilson Journey across State Line Avenue into Kansas to see the artworks of two generations of collections, Sue and Lewis Nerman and Mr. Nerman’s parents, Margaret and Jerry Nerman.
Visit Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, a far-sighted collection built by Bruce Hartman on the campus of Johnson County Community College.
Dinner at chef Michael Smith’s restaurant Farina.

Sunday, October 27
Check out of Crossroads Hotel and depart.
We will end our trip with a leisurely morning at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Travelers can visit the museum at their own pace. We will depart around 1:00 PM for the airport. Travelers leaving on an earlier flight may need to depart early.

Southwest# 1766 departs MCI at 2:05 p.m., arrives HOU 4:10 p.m.

United #6113  departs MCI at 3:02 pm, arrives IAH 5:18 pm

Registration Details

Reservations will be made on a first come-first served basis upon receipt of a $500 deposit, the online Reservation and Deposit Form, and the signed Release of Claims form.

Airfare is not included in study tour registration. Please see suggested flights below. Email [email protected] if you plan to arrive/depart by these flights.

Option 1:

Thursday, October 24:  United #6300    IAH 9:45 a.m.-MCI 11:51 a.m.

Sunday, October 27: United #6113  MCI 3:02 pm- IAH 5:18 pm

Option 2:

Thursday, October 24:  Southwest #4765 HOU 8:00 a.m.-MCI 10:00 a.m.

Sunday, October 27: Southwest #1766 MCI 2:05 p.m- HOU 4:10 p.m.

Travel Registration and Cancellation Policy

Reservations will be made on a first come-first served basis upon receipt of a $500 deposit, the Reservation and Deposit Form, and the signed Release of Claims form. Payment in full is due on August 24, 2024. Reservations received after August 24, 2024, may be accepted if space is available and payment is made in full. Your reservation is not confirmed until you have received written confirmation from the Houston Seminar.

If payment in full for the tour is not made by August 24, 2024, your reservation will be canceled, and your $500 deposit will be forfeited. Should the Houston Seminar cancel the tour for any reason, your deposit and any additional payments will be refunded in full. Should you have to cancel for any reason, you must notify the Houston Seminar in writing. For cancellations before August 24, 2024, all payments, less the $500 deposit, will be refunded. A cancellation between August 24, 2024, and September 24, 2024, will result in the forfeiture of your $500 deposit plus 50% of all other amounts paid. After September 24, 2024, cancellation will result in the forfeiture of 100% of all amounts paid. We recommend that you consider purchasing travel insurance.

$500.00

13 in stock

$3,450.00

9 in stock

$3,000.00

9 in stock
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