Leave a Lasting Imprint on the Children's Wall
Date: July 15, 2008
Author: Kauffman Center
Should children be allowed to get their hands all over a project as important as the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts?
The answer is a resounding “Yes!” and the Kauffman Center has launched a unique donor recognition project to place a thousand handprints on a prominently displayed Children’s Wall. “Children will be important audiences in this wondrous building,” says Jane Chu, president and CEO, “and they’re future performing arts patrons, too. We want to include them right now.”
The Children’s Wall consists of one thousand children’s handprints with the name of the child and the year the handprint was created. All are artistically arranged near the escalators that rise to the majestic glass lobby of the Kauffman Center.
The handprints are rendered in a bright color, a delightful reminder of a thoughtful gift that helped launch a project of which the Kansas City community will forever be proud. The flowing pattern of the hands suggests the creativity and beauty of the performing arts and their unmatched power to engage the spirit, lift minds and connect audiences to performers on the very highest levels of human artistry.
Parents and grandparents are invited to get children involved early on, by placing young handprints on the Children’s Wall. A one thousand dollar donation per handprint, payable as a multi-year pledge if desired, provides a great way to make a lasting recognition of beloved children. (Children must be 18 years or younger.)
Because the process of making the image and transferring it to the wall doesn’t require a child to physically be present (handprints can even be mailed in), grandparents especially are encouraged to make contributions on behalf of grandchildren wherever they might live.
Imagine those honorees in the future coming to the Kauffman Center and comparing their now-grown hands to the ones that were image transferred to that special wall way back when the building was just being opened for the first time. What a thrill to have a permanent, publicly viewed space of your own on the walls of one of the world’s great performing arts centers.
Honoring a child on the Children’s Wall is truly a hands-on way to engage in the great civic and artistic enterprise the Kauffman Center represents. It combines the individual donor and child with the spirit and drive of the whole community. It shows support in a way that will last far into posterity.
It says to all who will ever view it that at one moment in time an individual child touched a physical space and left a lasting imprint for all to see. It says someone cared enough to make that happen. Isn’t that just the kind of impression we all want to leave?
For more details about how to create and submit a handprint for someone 18 years old or younger contact Kristin Smithson at 816-994-7239 or ksmithson@kauffmancenter.org.
