KANSAS CITY, MO.- Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art announces a transformative $1 million gift from the Stanley J. Bushman Foundation. Bushman, a dedicated philanthropist and longtime supporter of the Kemper Museum, was in the real estate business in Kansas City with Charles Helzberg for over 60 years. Especially interested in youth development, Bushman and Helzberg gave a major gift to the Museum in 2018 to help launch Kemper Museum’s Teen Arts Council.
This new gift will establish the Stanley J. Bushman Fund for Youth Education, ensuring sustained support for the Museum’s education initiatives serving local youth. The fund will expand access to high-quality arts programming and help nurture the next generation of artists, thinkers, and community leaders.
Says Bill Gautreaux, chair of the board of trustees for Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, “We are profoundly grateful to Stan’s foundation and to its board, led by Charley Helzberg, for stewarding this important gift, which will advance our programming and community engagement for years to come. This gift epitomizes the philanthropic leadership of our dedicated audiences supporting Kansas City’s contemporary art museum and its programs and we believe it will inspire our entire community.”
Adds Jessica May, PhD, Executive Director of Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art: “This gift is an essential part of our continued growth as a center for excellence in museum education and will help us further our vision to present groundbreaking exhibitions that support artists and ideas, as well as to be an inclusive center for creative expression and meaningful engagement with contemporary art.”
Charles Helzberg comments, “The Bushman Foundation’s gift supports Stanley’s legacy as a knowledgeable collector of contemporary art, who advocated exposing and educating young people to that art form through the Kemper Museum, which he welcomed as an important addition to cultural life in Kansas City."
Stanley was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1928. He grew up in Kansas City, graduated from Westport High School, and later earned a degree from the University of Missouri. He worked in a partnership, lasting over 60 years, with close friend Charles Helzberg, to invest in various types of real estate and other businesses. Stanley earned great respect in the Kansas City community for his business, acumen. His real estate knowledge and position in the real estate community was recognized by Mayor Ilus Davis, who appointed him to The Kansas City Housing Authority, where he continued to serve under Mayor Charles Wheeler. Stanley was a visionary in the philanthropic community, serving as President of the Jewish Community Foundation, leader and major supporter of Village Shalom Continuing Care Retirement Community, creator and original funder of the Bushman Community Endowment Program, creating education for non-profits in the Jewish community to raise millions of dollars for their endowment programs, and with Charles Helzberg, Ann Canfield, and Sandy Baer, was an original funder of the Teen Arts Council at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, was on the Board of Councilors of the non-profit Menorah Hospital, and, as a young man, a Sunday School teacher at Congregation Beth Shalom. He served on several corporate boards, including Prom Motor Hotels. He devoted much time counseling leaders of profit and not for profit organizations, plus many people from varied backgrounds for whom Stanley, always, made time to hear their challenges and offer his advice. He often gave financial help to people, in his private and confidential style, with love and compassion, for which he consciously avoided recognition. Stanley was a lifetime student of varied interests, including art, ballet, travel, architectural design, barbeque, and, perhaps, most of all, he was an exceptional and compassionate listener who loved life and enjoyed giving back to his community, a man of keen mind and strength of character. His was a life of work, generosity, and passion. He passed away in 2025.
