Angular forms and a dramatic entrance canopy announce the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, a gem of a museum that opened in 1994 and has quietly built one of the most distinctive contemporary collections in the region. The building itself — designed by Gunnar Birkerts — is a striking piece of contemporary architecture, its angular forms and dramatic entrance canopy signaling that what is inside will not be polite or conventional. The Kemper focuses on art from the 1940s to the present, with particular strengths in works on paper and sculptures.
Among its signature holdings are works by Georgia O'Keeffe, Robert Motherwell, and Frank Stella. The museum is free to the public — an unusual and admirable policy that reflects its founding commitment to accessibility — and it sits immediately adjacent to the Kansas City Art Institute, the region's leading art school. That proximity is not accidental: the Kemper has always positioned itself as a bridge between the working artist community and the broader public.
Café Sebastienne, the museum's restaurant, is itself a work of art — every surface covered in painted murals. It is a museum where the building, the café, the sculpture garden, and the galleries all feel equally considered. Not every museum can say that.