Kansas City's Mid-America Arts Alliance has shared world class art with small towns for 50 years

Mid-America Arts Alliance has a relatively low-key presence in Kansas City, but it has a big impact across the Midwest — enriching cultural and creative life through exhibition programming, grant making and professional development for artists.
Art McSweeney is on the front lines of the Mid-America Arts Alliance's mission to get more art in front of more people.

"We’re trying to get people to know about art and what’s out there,” McSweeney says. “I'd say we were more of an educational organization."

As fabrication and preparation manager, McSweeney oversees the assembly of art for ExhibitsUSA, the nonprofit's traveling exhibition program.

His latest job is preparing to frame artwork for an exhibit called “Hemingway in Comics,” which explores the American novelist as a 20th century pop culture icon.