Abby Hoover
Managing Editor

The Kansas City community is embarking upon a new journey of community connection and community aspiration through an arts and cultural focus. 

The Kansas City Museum announced their partnership with renowned artist James Turrell and the International Architects Atelier to create Turrell Skyspace at the Kansas City Museum. 

“This will bring people together and bring people of multiple perspectives and backgrounds and experiences and this project will do that,” said Anna Marie Tutera, project director and first initial contact within the beginning of the project. 

The project’s initial planning and creation began in 2014 and is set to be completed in 2024. 

The skyspace will be a proportioned chamber that includes an aperture in the ceiling and allows the upper top of the building to be exposed to the sky. Those visiting the chamber will be able to embark on a unique and reflective experience by entering the observation chamber and embracing the powerful view of the sky and experiencing the artistic pleasure of the sky during dusk and dawn. 

Additionally the space will be used for community programs and music performances that will allow the entire community to come together to celebrate Kansas City history and heritage as one unit. 

“Overall, this space on the property can create a space that visitors can come to for this experience and have this place of reflection and connection,” Tutera said. 

A structure such as this one has yet to be implemented in Kansas or Missouri and this project will allow for the community to grow and take on new aspirations as a community. Only 38 existing structures are in the United States, with 85 overall existing structures in the world, and Kansas City is proud to be a part of the artistic journey. 

“The spaces are so powerful because they are the embodiment for light itself and you start to understand how you see things in life,” Tutera said. 

The project’s first initial focus was to create a space that would honor the beloved and “iconic planetarium” that once occupied the space and allow for the community to have a location that thrives on reflection as individuals and as a community. 

“As we continue with the project,” Tutera said. “I realize that this skyspace can be a restorative space for contemplation and healing.”

The space will be created through the repurposing of an existing underground cooling structure to honor and repurpose the history that stands before this healing structure. 

The aim of the project is to honor the history of Kansas City entirely, while also giving the community an opportunity to heal and to grow as one unit. The project’s main focus is to bring together the assorted districts of Kansas City and restore Kansas City into one entire unit and facilitate community conversations and unity. 

“This space will allow us to process the past and be present in the present and be inspired by and to think about what we all hope and dream for our cities’ future,” Tutera said. “We don’t always have those spaces.”

Tutera continues with: “I am proud that we can continue to offer these exceptional experiences for the Kansas City community and I am proud that I get to be a part of it.”