1st look: UMusic Hotel developer starts local arts program
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Primed and ready for renovation. Photo: Travis Meier/Axios
The developers behind Kansas City's anticipated UMusic Hotel quietly launched a program to support young artists' education, with plans to connect them with the hotel's future performing arts amenities.
Why it matters: KC lacks a good pipeline for students who want to develop their performance skills and enter the professional world, particularly those who can't afford private arts education.
- UMH Development, the investment, real estate and development arm of UMusic Hotels, seeks to implement a community music education program in cities across the world, and Kansas City is the blueprint, company representatives first told Axios.
Zoom in: The program focuses on the East Side, providing free after-school classes for more than 100 students at creative spaces along Troost Avenue and in the 18th and Vine District.
- Once the hotel is built, students will get to use its 1,400-seat performance venue and recording studio.
- The program is supported by UMH Development and Playing For Change, a global nonprofit.
How it works: The after-school education programming is already underway, thanks to a recently formed local group of industry professionals called The Creative Collective.
- The collective operates through three nonprofits — The Next Paige Foundation, Mutual Musicians Foundation, and DistrKCt IS Foundation — each of which is now hosting free classes funded by the program.
What they're saying: "The creative field is very competitive," Elaina Paige of The Next Paige Foundation tells Axios. "There's so much talent here in Kansas City, but there's just not enough opportunities."
- Paige says she grew up in KC but had to move away to learn how to make it as a dancer, model and actress. She then moved back to teach at Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey and start her own talent agency.
- "I grew up in Kansas City dreaming about a career in music with no roadmap for how to get there," DistrKCt IS Foundation founder Joseph "Jo Blaq" Macklin said. "The Creative Collective is that roadmap."
Zoom out: UMusic Hotels partners with record label Universal Music Group. The first hotel opened in Madrid in 2022 — with locations in London and Tulum, Mexico expected to open soon.
- "We anticipate launching similar programs in each market we enter," UMH Development CEO Lawrence Bain said in a statement.
What's next: Construction on the hotel at 9th and Grand in downtown Kansas City, plus a new 319-unit apartment tower next door, is expected to begin early next year with a target completion date in 2030, per a recent Port KC document.
Go deeper: City leaders want Grand Boulevard to make a comeback.