Digital Dreams

When I moved back to Kansas City, the arts scene I'd grown up around was thriving — but entirely analog. A city with a world-class First Fridays culture had no venue dedicated to the fastest-growing medium in contemporary art. Screen-native work was being made here, collected here, and discussed everywhere except here.

Rather than wait for an institution to close the gap, I built the proof of concept myself: first as a series of pop-up exhibitions around the city, then exactly a year later - as a permanent gallery at 2018 Main Street in the Crossroads Arts District.

The Work:
Digital Dreams opened in April 2024 as Kansas City's first gallery devoted entirely to digital art. The model was built for the medium rather than adapted from a traditional white cube: an all-screen exhibition space running (10) 55" museum grade 4K displays, programmed through monthly themed exhibitions sourced by international open calls in partnership with Transient Labs & HUG, each premiering on First Fridays and running for the entire month. Submissions came from around the world; my curatorial mandate was to place global screen-native work in conversation with Midwest audiences — and to pull local artists into a medium the region hadn't yet claimed.

The gallery became more than a venue. It operated as an education platform (workshops on digital art, blockchain provenance, and collecting), a community hub for KC's emerging art-tech scene, and a launchpad for off-site curation.. including a sold-out laser artwork presentation I curated at Union Station's Arvin Gottlieb Planetarium.

Digital Dreams evolved from a fixed address into what it had really been all along: a curatorial practice and the foundation for everything I do now.

Results:
Digital Dreams put Kansas City on the digital art map — literally: it's listed among the Crossroads' notable galleries alongside institutions decades older. (aIt proved a Midwest audience for screen-based art exists, built the collector and artist network I now work with nationally, and earned coverage across the city's press.)

It raised awareness to how under represented this area of art, technology & culture is within this region. Which allowed the conversations to take place, and those created partnerships built on the deep love & appreciation of art and the enhancing of the cultural fabric of the Midwest.

Press:

Kansas City Magazine

Voyage KC