Studios Inc and Hadley Clark present “This Water”, a solo exhibition opening September 12th, through October 25th 2025. Studios Inc will host an opening reception on Friday, September 12th from 5 – 8 pm with an Artist Talk on September 20th from 12 – 1 pm.

Hadley Clark walks an ever-expanding circuit connecting her life and her studio practice; from sewing table to home closet to backyard compost to garden beds to kitchen stovetop, and changing with the seasons, and back again, and a little wider next time. Functionally, this belief system results in work that is made slowly and humbly with plant-dyed, found, and donated textiles, often incorporating discarded cuts from the floor of Clark’s studio, and leans in the direction of the emotional, psychological, and memorializing qualities of a garment in the life of its wearer. This exhibition captures the artist as she eschews garments’ utility on the body in favor of the personal and spiritual signifiers they carry on the wall.

“This Water” is a summative exhibition of sculptural works made by Hadley Clark during her time as a resident at Studios Inc, 2023 – 25.

Launched to serve mid-career artists, Studios Inc is Kansas City’s only nonprofit arts organization offering pivotal three-year residencies to mid-career artists who are poised to significantly expand their careers. Studios Inc offers a unique immersive experience for resident artists, who use their studio and exhibition space to produce and exhibit work, network and learn from one another, and attract and cultivate relationships with art patrons, collectors, and arts professionals.

“This Water” will be on view in the Studios Inc Exhibition Hall September 12th through October 25th. Exhibition hours are Wednesday through Friday 10am-4pm and Saturday 12 – 4pm.

Art of the Wish–If you had a wish for the world, what would it be? Two artists traveled the country asking this question to elders from diverse backgrounds and locations. Inspired by more than 250 wishes, Art of the Wish is a poignant and memorable reflection of the beauty in generational storytelling.

In 2017, artists Marn Jensen and Andy Newcom spent six months traveling the country, talking to dozens of 80 to 100-plus-year-olds asking, “If you had a wish for the world, what would it be? ”They contacted senior living communities, visited hospices, and connected with caregivers to create artworks embodying each individual’s wish.

“We were very deliberate in finding a diverse crowd,” Jensen said in a recent interview, “making sure we reached people with different ethnicities, religious affiliations, sexual orientation, income levels, political beliefs … It was important to us to get lots of different people with different backgrounds.”

Equally important to the artwork is the accompanying extended label “story” behind each wish. “We both have a love for story telling as well as the visual work, and it was important to give each piece a slice of context to set the stage,”Newcom says. The works in Art of the Wish are composed of several mediums — from photography to sculpture, textile to encaustic, mixed media to painting — allowing the “wish” to inspire the direction of each piece. The artists are very intentional about the materials used, often incorporating repurposed, found objects that had once been tossed aside. They scoured thrift malls and flea markets to look for things that were discarded or had “vulnerability” because those characteristics applied to so many of the people they spoke with.

“Breathing new life into these objects is a perfect metaphor for appreciating the potential and beauty in old things,” Jensen explained.

One piece in the exhibit is a joyful, quilt-like collage of correspondence and memorabilia collected from generations of one family. The subject’s wish: “I wish I knew how to honor their lives, their meaning, their importance to me.” While another work incorporates thousands of knots shaped from clothesline, acknowledging the thousands of hours spent on mundane chores — such as washing clothes and hanging laundry — performed by so many women that the artists interviewed.

The artists’ “wish” is to inspire people to have a simple conversation with an older person because “it not only will make their day, it will make your day, too.”

Art of the Wish offers plenty of engaging intergenerational programming opportunities, creative reuse and hands-on “making” workshops, storytelling activities, and much more

Join us for an exhibit of exquisitely rendered icons made in the Byzantine style by artist Connie Ehrlich. Made using traditional egg tempera with natural pigments and genuine gold leaf on special wood panels, each icon reveals magical nuances of light and color. These contemplative artworks were created specifically to remind us of the intersection between the physical and spiritual worlds. The result is a set of quiet, sacred objects of luminescent beauty, an antidote to a world of neverending noise.

We will be hosting First Friday receptions on September 5 and October 3. Connie Ehrlich will be giving an artist talk at 6:30pm on September 5, followed by an audience Q&A.

We will be open for gallery hours every Saturday in September and October, from 2 – 4pm.

The Mother and…Project celebrates motherhood as a source of expansive creative potential and alternative modes of being. 

Focusing specifically on women who identify as both mothers and artists, the project highlights the diversity of their lived experiences. It asserts that artist-mothers are not a monolith, but encompass a wide range of intersectional identities, perspectives, and practices. 

At the heart of the exhibition is the concept of “the ethics of mothering”, the guiding vision through which the artist-mother raises her children and teaches them to engage with the world, emphasizing curiosity, relationality, and care. This ethical framework not only shapes her parenting but also informs her studio practice, defining the methodologies, materials, and narratives she employs, as well as the way she navigates life more broadly. Embedded in both her caregiving and creative work, the ethics of mothering reveals that mother and artist are not divided selves, but one whole body — fluid, intuitive, and evolving. In her life and work, mothering becomes art, and art becomes a kind of mothering. 

The project aspires to build a community centered on collaboration and support among artist-mothers and the broader public. Our programming includes family workshops specifically designed to foster creative exploration and support the development of young artists, affirming the gallery as a space for intergenerational engagement and imaginative growth.

The participating artist-mothers are mid-career, nationally and internationally exhibited artists, carefully selected to represent a range of disciplines, mediums, and cultural contexts. They include: Debbie Barrett-Jones, Rahele Jomepour Bell, Laura Berman, Mona Cliff, Julie Farstad, Nancy Friedemann-Sanchez, Diana Heise, Cory Imig, Sarah Irvin, Priya Kambli, Samantha Krukowski, Linda Lighton, Beili Liu, Sukanya Mani, Adrienne Maples, Amy Meissner, Althea Murphy-Price, and Sonié Joi Thompson Ruffin. 

The Mother and… Project seeks to make visible and celebrate the empowering visual narratives of these artist-mothers. Their contributions will be presented through an exhibition, supported by written essays and visual images in the exhibition catalog and audio interviews in the podcast series. The full scope of the project will be documented and archived online via a dedicated website and social media platforms. The project will contribute to the growing body of feminist and art-historical scholarship at the intersection of artistic practice and motherhood.

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, and by an Express Grant from the Missouri Arts Council and was conducted with the support of a Faculty Development grant and the Outstanding Special Project Award at the Kansas City Art Institute. Additional support comes from the Kansas City Artist Coalition, DBACO, and Hotel Indigo.

The Mother and…Project celebrates motherhood as a source of expansive creative potential and alternative modes of being. 

Focusing specifically on women who identify as both mothers and artists, the project highlights the diversity of their lived experiences. It asserts that artist-mothers are not a monolith, but encompass a wide range of intersectional identities, perspectives, and practices. 

At the heart of the exhibition is the concept of “the ethics of mothering”, the guiding vision through which the artist-mother raises her children and teaches them to engage with the world, emphasizing curiosity, relationality, and care. This ethical framework not only shapes her parenting but also informs her studio practice, defining the methodologies, materials, and narratives she employs, as well as the way she navigates life more broadly. Embedded in both her caregiving and creative work, the ethics of mothering reveals that mother and artist are not divided selves, but one whole body — fluid, intuitive, and evolving. In her life and work, mothering becomes art, and art becomes a kind of mothering. 

The project aspires to build a community centered on collaboration and support among artist-mothers and the broader public. Our programming includes family workshops specifically designed to foster creative exploration and support the development of young artists, affirming the gallery as a space for intergenerational engagement and imaginative growth.

The participating artist-mothers are mid-career, nationally and internationally exhibited artists, carefully selected to represent a range of disciplines, mediums, and cultural contexts. They include: Debbie Barrett-Jones, Rahele Jomepour Bell, Laura Berman, Mona Cliff, Julie Farstad, Nancy Friedemann-Sanchez, Diana Heise, Cory Imig, Sarah Irvin, Priya Kambli, Samantha Krukowski, Linda Lighton, Beili Liu, Sukanya Mani, Adrienne Maples, Amy Meissner, Althea Murphy-Price, and Sonié Joi Thompson Ruffin. 

The Mother and… Project seeks to make visible and celebrate the empowering visual narratives of these artist-mothers. Their contributions will be presented through an exhibition, supported by written essays and visual images in the exhibition catalog and audio interviews in the podcast series. The full scope of the project will be documented and archived online via a dedicated website and social media platforms. The project will contribute to the growing body of feminist and art-historical scholarship at the intersection of artistic practice and motherhood.

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, and by an Express Grant from the Missouri Arts Council and was conducted with the support of a Faculty Development grant and the Outstanding Special Project Award at the Kansas City Art Institute. Additional support comes from the Kansas City Artist Coalition, DBACO, and Hotel Indigo.