I made plans to go to a couple of art museums in Kansas City (the Missouri side). I got tickets in advance for both the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art [to be further referred to as NA] and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.

The NA was a terrific museum. In addition to the museum, it has a huge sculpture garden. A couple of highlights from my visit today are

• The special lighting program for Monet’s Water Lilies, depicting how Monet would have seen the colors on the canvas “from dawn to dusk” as he painted all day and into the evening;
• The Thinker by Rodin in the sculpture garden;
• The “Art Course” miniature golf course comprised of 9 pieces of artwork. Bad planning again – I had no ticket and it was sold out for the day

After the NA, I got lunch at Jack Stack Barbecue. The baby back ribs were excellent! And then I got some ice cream and sat in Memorial Park for a few minutes. There seem to be a lot of green spaces in downtown Kansas City, which I thought was nice. 

In the afternoon I went to the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. I didn’t enjoy this one quite as much as NA. The main exhibit hall was closed while they were preparing a new installation, and I wasn’t familiar with the artists and works in the 3 smaller galleries. This wasn’t aided by the fact that the description cards didn’t give a lot of info about the work and its creation.

A couple of items stood out – the Crying Giant sculpture on the front lawn, and then Silver Surfer in Disguise work. Silver Surfer is a Marvel Comic superhero.

Oh and I bought a grill last week in Camping World and used it for the first time tonight to make dinner. No fancy vegetables to accompany dinner tonight, but maybe next time!