Kansas City Culture

“Kansas City is an art-lover’s town, with… fabulous museums, a famous art school, and oodles of outdoor sculptures.” – Southern living

Kansas City’s most famous of the museums, the Nelson-Atkins Celebrates its 75th Anniversary in 2009. This internationally recognized art museum features a collection of more than 33,500 objects, and is acknowledged as one of the nation’s top art museums. The Museum opened its doors in 1933 as a gift to the community from William Rockhill Nelson, founder of the Kansas City Star. Contributions from Mary McAfee Atkins helped with the construction of the building, combining the names of these two Kansas City icons gave rise to the name Nelson-Atkins.

Known as the City of Fountains Kansas City has over 200 outdoor public fountains and the list in constantly growing. This is good enough to rank Kansas City as second in the world in number of fountains erected in the city. Only Rome, Italy, has more. The first city-built fountain was at 15th & Paseo in 1899. This $12,000 fountain was designed by George Kessler. After many renovations over the years equaling approximately $125,000, the fountain is now called, The Women's Leadership Fountain, and plans to inscribe the names of 12 local women who had shown their leadership for the city are in place.

Blues and Jazz, Kansas City here I come

Some of the great jazz players in all of history got their start in the clubs of Kansas City. World-class musicians such as William "Count" Basie, Charlie "Bird" Parker, and Orin "Hot Lips" Page, among many others, came together to create a sound the town can call its own. Jazz, as a musical genre, was born out of a marriage of down-home blues and ragtime just after the turn of the century. While New Orleans was the birthplace of jazz, America's music grew up in Kansas City.

One of the major contributing factors for the success of jazz and blues in Kansas City oddly enough was prohibition. Prohibition effectively ended the activity at traditional nightclubs and dance halls. But in Kansas City, mob boss Tom Pendergast, known as "Boss Tom," controlled the police, the politics, and essentially the entire town. So much so, that even at the height of Prohibition, liquor flowed freely, and gamblers and musicians played most of the day, and all of the night at "private" clubs. This made Kansas City a national jazz Mecca.

Barbecue Kansas City Style

When it comes to lip-smackin', finger-lickin', chin-dribblin', literally rib-stickin' barbecue, Kansas City holds its own. The Carolinas can rightfully claim to be the cradle of American barbecue and Texas is by far the brisket capital of the world. But Kansas City brings it all together with more than 90 barbecue joint - from little bitty eateries to full-blown, nothing-but-barbecue restaurants. Some of Kansas City’s most famous barbecue restaurants include, KC Masterpiece, Arthur Bryant’s, Gates, Rosedale barbecue. Kansas City's first recorded barbecuer was Henry Perry. Perry started working out of an old trolley barn at 19th & Highland and, by 1908, was serving up succulent slow-cooked ribs on pages of newsprint for 25 cents a slab. When “Old Man Perry” retired, Charlie Bryant along with Brother Arthur began to run the old barbecue restaurant. Together they gave rise to the now famous Arthur Bryant’s which has seen the likes of famous faces such as presidents Carter and Truman, and still stands at 1727 Brooklyn, in Kansas City, MO.