KANSAS CITY, MO.- The Charlotte Street Foundation is excited to announce the upcoming release of “10,” its new ten-year anniversary book. The publication will first be available for purchase on Tuesday, September 11, 7:30-10 pm, at a release party open to the public at Charlotte Street Foundation’s Urban Culture Project gallery, la Esquina, 100 West 25th Street. The price of the book is $30.

What started as an idea jotted down on a napkin between friends 10 years ago was a very simple concept — give money and recognition to artists, highlight their quality work, and bring a new appreciation to the artists community. In essence, if you build it, they will come.

Ten years later, Charlotte Street Foundation (CSF) has developed into a national model for other cities to follow through its innovative annual Awards Program and its Urban Culture Project (UCP). CSF started its annual awards for emerging artists with the granting of $2,500 each to four outstanding artists in 1997 and, recently, awarded $10,000 to four exemplary artists in 2007. UCP has sparked the transformation of vacant downtown spaces into venues for contemporary arts programming. Through it all, CSF has been a force infusing Kansas City’s urban core with a new creative vitality. The “10”-year anniversary book presents the work of 56 artists recognized with Charlotte Street Foundation Awards from 1997 through 2006. “10” showcases each award-winning artist, including color images of recent work, and texts written by leading curators and academics. The limited-edition coffee table book underlines the value of its Awards Program, while illuminating the history and impact of a grassroots organization that has served as a catalyst for the art world and for other cities looking to foster and develop their community of artists.

“This is a landmark year for our organization,” said Charlotte Street Foundation Director David Hughes. “The book ‘10’ is testimony to our support and recognition of outstanding local visual artists and the cultural richness and vitality they bring to the city. As we celebrate ten years, we also honor the profound impact of hundreds of individuals whose passion and hard work has contributed to the vibrant arts scene. Kansas City is increasingly recognized as a great city because of its art and artists.”

Many of those artists have contributed to and benefited from the success of CFS’s program to transform vacant downtown buildings, lent by local businesses, into exhibition and studio spaces for visual and performing artists through its innovative UCP program. With its monthly Third Friday Art Downtown exhibitions, openings, and performances, UCP has emerged as an edgier alternative to other regional arts programming and events. “Charlotte Street Foundation has developed as a resource for artists that is to be cherished and copied by other cities,” said Colleen Keegan, co-chair, endowment committee, Creative Capital Foundation of New York. “We are extraordinarily impressed and admiring of how the organization has made a seminal impact on Kansas City and its community of artists.” Gregory Volk, New York-based art critic and curator, adds, “Charlotte Street Foundation is exceptionally unique in how it has worked with businesses to turn vacant buildings into galleries. It is a national model of how to enlist the help of businesses to contribute to the growth of the artistic community and the local economy.” For 10 years, CSF has supported and nurtured artists and the arts community, receiving national recognition in the process:
 As of February 2007, CSF has awarded $352,500 to 61 artists.
 In recognition of its high-quality and esteemed programming, The Andy Warhol Foundation awarded a $60,000 two-year grant to support UCP, including helping to fund the 2007 opening of a 2,500-square-foot exhibition/performance space.
 Kansas City is selected as one of four new “creative communities” (joining 10 existing communities) by Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC), a national organization funded by the Ford Foundation, supporting artists of all disciplines; participation in this prestigious national program will amplify CSF’s work on behalf of Kansas City artists and connect Kansas City to a national network of resources. This project is a joint effort of CSF and the Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City.
 Former CSF award recipient, David Ford, is selected for the prestigious Art OMI summer residency program in upstate New York.
 CSF, in partnership with the Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City, hosts the first of three annual Professional Development Weekend Retreats for artists in the spring of 2007, led by the Creative Capital Foundation of New York; these retreats will help artists in multiple disciplines (music, theatre, dance, film/video and visual) with marketing and fundraising practices.
 In collaboration with the Nelson-Atkins Museum, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, the Artists Coalition, and the Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City, CSF instigates the development of a new Web site to showcase visual arts in the Kansas City area.

CSF’s book “10” will be available at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, the Nerman Museum (to open in fall 2007), Rainy Day Books, Dolphin Gallery and Urban Culture Project’s Paragraph gallery for $30. It will also be viewable on the www.charlottestreet.org Web site. “Big things start small,” said Jan Schall, Sanders Sosland Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. “Charlotte Street Foundation was an early step in the right direction.”

Charlotte Street Foundation Since 1997, Charlotte Street Foundation has been providing financial support, critical recognition and increased exposure for leading artists through its innovative programming, including Charlotte Street Foundation Awards Program and Urban Culture Project. In so doing, Charlotte Street Foundation seeks to contribute to the vitality of Kansas City’s art community and to enhance Kansas City’s desirability as a place for artists to work and live.