Missouri Arts Council

🚗 Arts all over Missouri: This Thursday to Saturday is the 43rd annual Spring Festival by Heart of the Ozarks Bluegrass Association (Hoba Bluegrass) in a shaded outdoor setting just five minutes from downtown West Plains, the Creative Community of our 2026 Missouri Arts Awards. Six bands, instrumental workshops, Thursday evening Gospel Night with free bean supper, and more! HOBA is a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the rich tradition of bluegrass music in the Ozarks, hosting annual festivals every June and September. bit.ly/SpringBluegrassHOBA

Olivia Emert often compares her dances to a children’s parachute. “I strive to build a world for people to feel a part of, like those parachutes we played with in second grade,” she says. “In this world, audiences, dancers, and collaborators can attach their own memories and narratives to the work. We’re all experiencing a moment together . . . in our own ways.” You’ll find her together with all our at missouriartscouncil.org/featured-artists. | oliviaemert.com

June is Show Me Neighborhood Art Month! Express your creativity in your own front yard or your neighborhood’s shared spaces. Use whatever materials and skills you have. The University of Missouri’s statewide MU Extension and University of Missouri-St. Louis’ Creating Whole Communities program created the event “to empower public art made by all Missouri residents as a contribution to the area’s sense of place where they live.” More info at pears.io/events/mu/4880 and bit.ly/ShowMeNeighborhoodArt.

When he’s creating portraits, like “Bradley’s Shadows,” says Joe Craig, ”I shape the encounter, then withdraw—so the person can stand in their own gravity.” Tour his online gallery at soulmarks.com, and meet all his fellow and sample their art at missouriartscouncil.org/featured-artists. | Joe Craig's Soulmarks

“The sights and sounds of nature feed my soul and create a sense of wonder!” says Rose Anne Stanard. She loves painting not only across a distance but also close up, like “Wild Columbine” (left) and “Sumac on Fire.” thecreeksidestudio.com The Creekside Studio of Art & Design | missouriartscouncil.org/featured-artists

🚗 Arts all over Missouri: Tomorrow is the Kansas City Folk Festival – “a free, all-day city festival that celebrates the music and arts of our neighborhoods, region and beyond.” The fest promises “song, poetry, dance, storytelling, local art, demos, workshops, food trucks, craft market and more—a little something for everyone.” www.kcfolkfest.org

“My art and life,” says Maria Ojascastro, “interweave resilience, community, and creativity—offering reflections on healing, and metamorphosis.” In her mixed-media “Let Go,” she says, “Water symbolizes life, resilience, and transformation.” bextraordinaire.com/ojascastro-gallery | missouriartscouncil.org/featured-artists

collagraph print on Arches paper, linoleum print on Bristol paper, Brown-eyed Susans, Celosia, gel pens on Bristol paper, and acrylic on canvas

Steaming out of a building at the southern entrance to downtown Mexico, being dedicated in a ceremony this morning, is the new mural by Ray Harvey for our America 250 Missouri Stories, Missouri Murals. It’s one of five for our project that Mr. Harvey, our 2026 Missouri Arts Awards Individual Artist honoree, is making across the state. His design pays homage to two aspects of Mexico’s early history that continue to impact the city today—the railroads, and the International Order of Odd Fellows public service fraternal organization. Mexico’s I.O.O.F. chapter began in 1857, meeting in the very building on which the mural is painted—and they still meet there! The next year, trains began connecting Mexico to the rest of the country—and the I.O.O.F. building faces the train depot. Congratulations to all! 🎉 | Ray Harvey Art

“My work does not stick to a traditional standard. We dance in buckets of water, in yards of fabric and pounds of topsoil,” says choreographer Olivia Emert. “The worlds we build have no codified limitation.” On this ’s six-minute 2026 sample reel, bit.ly/OliviaEmert2026, you can enjoy excerpts of both dances we’ve pictured. EMBODIED (top) is at 1:18, and WOMB.DIRT.SKY is at 4:45, and. | missouriartscouncil.org/featured-artists | oliviaemert.com

Attention KC artists - Mid-America Arts Alliance sounds the alert that there are just two more days to take their survey “to help bring accurate, artist-centered data to conversations about funding, policy, space, sustainability, and professional development.” The survey is open through May 30.

Kansas City Artists: We Need Your Voice Kansas city artists, make your voice heard. Decisions about funding, policy, space, and sustainability often rely on incomplete information.