Our Purpose
The Arts Engagement Foundation of Kansas City (AEFKC) was founded to promote engagement and increase participation in the arts in Kansas City. The foundation works with the arts community and arts supporters to help the city’s arts organizations grow and thrive by cultivating audience awareness of and support for arts productions and programs.
It is also the publisher of KC Studio magazine, Kansas City’s leading independent journal of the visual, performing, literary and cinematic arts.
Our Mission
It is the Arts Engagement Foundation’s goal to build audiences and increase participation in the arts through education and promotion of the region’s cultural offerings. We also seek to create and expand funding initiatives that would support both presenting organizations and artists. Additionally, we aim to build partnerships and coalitions to promote, educate and advocate on behalf of performing, visual, cinematic and literary arts disciplines in Kansas City.
The flagship project of AEFKC is the publication of KC Studio, Kansas City’s leading publication of the visual, performing, literary and cinematic arts. The magazine’s mission is to provide informed coverage of the arts in Kansas City, with an emphasis on artists and ideas. Its contributing writers are specialists in their fields and include many former critics and writers from the Kansas City Star’s now defunct arts and entertainment staff.
The foundation also produces publications in collaboration with various arts organizations and special issues devoted to diverse topics.
Our Vision
The foundation’s formation has enabled KC Studio magazine to increase the number of pages it devotes to coverage of the arts in Kansas City and to expand the magazine’s roster of professional writers and critics. This growth has had a significant impact on our audience, local arts groups and artists and the overall arts ecology in Kansas City.