The Zhou B Art Center recently celebrated its grand opening on June 1, in Kansas City, MO, introducing a vibrant new arts center that establishes an anchor at the east end of Kansas City’s 18th Street Cultural Corridor, linking the Crossroads Arts District to the Historic Jazz District. The project involved the transformative renovation and stabilization of the nationally-listed historic Crispus Attucks School, an endangered building in disrepair. BNIM worked with the Zhou B Art Center to give new life and renewed purpose to this building, providing expansive art galleries, a restored auditorium, and over 40 studios for working artists.

The building’s main entrance is relocated into a new addition facing 18th Street for a stronger connection between the Art Center and the Jazz District, and the former school playgrounds are renovated as a sculpture garden and outdoor event space. Permanent installations by the internationally recognized artists ShanZuo and DaHuang Zhou complement space for rotating exhibitions featuring local, national, and international artists. Gallery spaces also serve as leasable event space, helping to subsidize artist studio rent.

The Zhou Brothers, ShanZuo and DaHuang Zhou, founded the first Zhou B Art Center in Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood in 2004, and is now expanded to Kansas City as the first offshoot location for a new center. The project now serves as a home base for artistic exchange between the Zhou B Art Center’s locations in Chicago, Kansas City, and future outposts. Zhou B Art Center furthers the revitalization of the historic 18th and Vine Jazz District, where Kansas City’s African American community developed world-class contributions to jazz, baseball, and barbeque, leading to today’s designation of Kansas City as a UNESCO Creative City of Music.