Dates & Deadlines
Welcome to Mid-America Arts Alliance’s events calendar, where you’ll find workshops, grants, and other opportunities for artists and arts organizations in M-AAA’s six-state region of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, and beyond.
First Friday at M-AAA Culture Lab: Through Darkness to Light
May 2 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Mid-America Arts Alliance’s Culture Lab will be open on First Friday, May 2, 2025, in Kansas City, Missouri, and will feature Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad, photographs by Jeanine Michna-Bales.
The Culture Lab at Mid-America Arts Alliance is located at 2018 Baltimore Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri, 64108.
About the Exhibition
Photographer Jeanine Michna-Bales spent more than a decade meticulously researching “fugitive” enslaved people and the ways they escaped to freedom. While the unnumbered routes of the Underground Railroad encompassed countless square miles, the path Michna-Bales documented encompasses roughly 2,000 miles and is based off of actual sites, cities, and places that freedom-seekers passed through during their journey.
Whether they were enslaved people trying to escape or free Black and white persons trying to help, both sides risked everything for the cause of freedom. From the cotton plantations south of Natchitoches, Louisiana, all the way north to the Canadian border, this series of photographs by Michna-Bales helps us imagine what the long road to freedom may have looked like as seen through the eyes of one of those who made this epic journey.
Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad features beautifully dramatic color photographs, ephemera, and narratives that together tell the story of the Underground Railroad. This important exhbition has been touring the nation through M-AAA’s ExhibitsUSA program since 2017, and will continue through 2032.
The exhibition will be on view May 1 through July 11, 2025 and open to the public for First Fridays in May and June.
Other viewing times are available by appointment and are subject to staff availability, please call 816-800-0926 to make arrangements.
About The Culture Lab
The Culture Lab is the Mid-America Arts Alliance’s space for exhibitions, presentations, and events at our headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri. The Culture Lab allows us to showcase programs in the vibrant Kansas City Crossroads neighborhood and participate in the city’s First Friday celebrations.
Past projects have included music presentations, dance, theatre performance, fine art exhibitions, and humanities projects. Traveling exhibitions from our program ExhibitsUSA frequently launch their tours here.
Header Photography: Jeanine Michna-Bales, Decision to Leave, Magnolia Plantation on the Cane River, Louisiana, 2013, digital c-print. Courtesy of the artist.
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For questions, please contact communications@maaa.org.