(left to right) Lily Mueller, Rachelle Gardner-Roe, Lisa Grossman, KC Current owners Angie and Chris Long and Laura Nugent celebrate the opening of the art collection at CPKC Stadium. (Kansas City Current)
When Laura Nugent attended her first KC Current game this spring at CPKC Stadium, it was also the Kansas City artist’s first time at a soccer game.
“I definitely cheered,” Nugent says of her reaction to the action at the world’s first women’s professional sports stadium, which opened in March. “The thing that I noticed about watching the game was the fearlessness. To dive in. Get hit in the head. Skin your knee.”
But Nugent had an extra-special interest in that day’s spectacle: She was among the female artists invited as VIP guests of the team to recognize their work in “Line of Sight,” CPKC Stadium’s first art exhibit, which is free to fans with access to stadium suites and the Pitch Club.
Presenting works by 12 Kansas City women artists, “Line of Sight” is a permanent exhibit organized by team owners — who purchased existing artworks or commissioned new ones from artists, as opposed to obtaining pieces on loan — in cooperation with representatives of leading Kansas City arts and culture organizations.
The soccer game was fun, alright, Nugent says, but the lasting thrill was “when I realized that there were only 12 of us (in the exhibit),” she says. “That’s what really gave me goosebumps. It’s a rare honor.
“We’re all women, and that was obviously at least one of the parameters set for the collection. But I do think that they picked artists, who, even with a great range of age and experience and background, all have a very well-defined vision.”
Nugent views “Changing Bodies No. 53” — her large, irregular, mixed-media artwork that’s part of the “Line of Sight” exhibit — as the apex of the art that she began making during the early phase of the pandemic to “embrace personal imperfection.”
“I had been meaning to break out of the traditional surface, the traditional picture plane of the square, the rectangle and the traditional materials I’d always used,” Nugent says. “And at that point, my whole calendar for the year was cancelled. So it seemed like that was the chance to make a break for that.”
The execution of an evolving artistic vision requires the confidence forged by doing the work that must be done. Sometimes it’s good work. Sometimes it’s not. Perhaps it’s not really different from the hard-earned confidence of a developing KC Currents player. Sometimes you make a good kick. Sometimes you don’t.
But, hey, there’s no giving up.
“I’m sure no one goes onto a playing field and says, ‘I can’t. I can’t do this,’” Nugent says. “And artists are well-served when we give up saying, ‘I can’t.’ We’re the first viewer of our work. We need to be the biggest fan of our work. You have to have that confidence. You really do have to grow in that. And I think that’s what the collection really shows.”
Nugent is also heartened by the confidence demonstrated by the KC Currents organization to spend real money on local artwork.
“There is no shortage of opportunity in Kansas City for hundreds, if not thousands, of artists to show our work,” she says. “There’s never not a place, a venue to exhibit your artwork and get an audience for it. That’s one of the pluses of living here. But having entities of any kind actually make that investment into a collection, it’s rare. And it’s a trend that I would really like to see continue.”
The inaugural CPKC Stadium art exhibit artists and their pieces:
Patty Carroll: “Red Balls,” 2020; photograph; on loan from the artist while she creates a commissioned work
Kate Clements: “Marigolds,” 2023; kiln-fused glass, plexi, glue; on loan from the artist while she creates a commissioned work
Mona Cliff: “Morning Bird,” 2023; acrylic on canvas
Rachelle Gardner-Roe: “Meadowtree Sunrise,” 2018; thread, natural and hand-dyed Shetland wool, silk
Lisa Grossman: “Long Reach of the Middle Kaw,” 2015; oil on canvas
Glyneisha Johnson: “Gettin’ Familiar,” 2019; mixed-media collage with recycled Madeline Gautreaux paintings; on loan from the Bill and Christy Gautreaux Collection while Johnson creates a commissioned work
Kathy Liao: “Surfacing,” 2019; oil on canvas
Spandita Malik: Shabeena Bhegam, 2023; from the series Jali – Meshes of Resistance; photographic transfer print on khadi fabric with zardozi embroidery
Jessica Manco: “Mujer,” 2024; hand-cut paper
Lily Mueller: “Baja California Sur,” 2023; hand-dyed silk velvet, hand-dyed silk rayon satin, hand-dyed cotton, machine-quilted
Laura Nugent: “Changing Bodies No. 53,” 2022; acrylic on panel
Debra Smith: “After Reflection,” 2016; “Finishing Conversations,” 2023; pieced vintage silk
