Music Credit: “NY” written and performed by Kosta T, from the cd Soul Sand. Used courtesy of the Free Music Archive.

Jo Reed: From the National Endowment for the Arts, This is Art Works. I’m Josephine Reed

This week, as we’re gearing up for back to school, I’m speaking with Jenny Mendez—she’s the director of the Mattie Rhodes Art & Cultural Center in Kansas City, Missouri.  The Mattie Rhodes Center believes that the arts are a basic and integral part of every person’s education and growth and they have a significant role in arts education throughout the district. Working closely with schools and the community to provide important services to the neighborhood. Mattie Rhodes takes a holistic approach to its mission. Its main focuses are the Art Center with its in-school and after-school programs, emergency services, family services, and community support. The various art programs speak to and intersect with other services addressing these community needs.  All are working together-- and while it reaches all ages from childhood up to the elder care, there is a special focus on school-age children.  The Mattie Rhodes Center has been a force on the west side of Kansas City, Missouri for over 125 years, while its Art Center has been an integral part of the neighborhood for 50 plus years.  Jenny Mendez began working there over 25 years ago, first as a teacher, now as a director, but her relationship with Mattie Rhodes and the art center began much earlier than that…….

Jenny Mendez:   I grew up on the west side there in Kansas City and in the 1970s, my mom had signed us up, me and my sisters, for day camp, and we got to go on a bus and go different and we were able to go up to the Mattie Rhodes Center. And I remember walking into this awesome space as a little girl.  I was probably around, I don’t know, seven or eight maybe, and walk up and alley and then you go into this cool garage that was turned into an art center, a place where kids could create art, and the memory that I have of it is just walking in and seeing everything that you could possibly think of to make art with, just stayed in my mind and was a really great memory that I have of my childhood and just those experiences that my mom was able to give us and then after that my heart was pretty much set on, “I’m going to work there one day.”

<laughter>

Jo Reed:    And now you are.  My God.

Jenny Mendez: Yeah. <laughs>

Jo Reed: How has the neighborhood changed over the time since you were a little kid there?  I’m assuming it has.  Everything has.

Jenny Mendez: Oh, my gosh.  It’s changed tremendously.  I mean, especially within the past 10, 10-plus years, and even just me in my 25 years of working there.  It’s definitely has seen gentrification.  It’s a cool neighborhood.  Lots of high-end properties have been built there, whether it’s apartments, flats that are right next door to our art center -- it’s what they’re called, <laughs> and condos to houses that have been, revamped and redone.  I’m in the middle of it all.  I see both sides of that spectrum and understand what it is to take property and better them and make them more livable; but I also see the other side of where families that give up their homes, that were really something that they had to work so hard to get and own a piece of property, and then they don’t have the means to keep them up. And so, they move out and then new families come in, new generation of families. A lot of the neighborhood, at one point or another had been majority Hispanic, African-American. Historically though, it was Polish, German, a lot of different European cultures that had first settled there in Kansas City. Then Mexican-American families started coming in due to the railroad and other jobs that were there, along with my family coming in and my grandmother making a home here in Kansas City and so it’s a lot of change.  You know, the school, Primitivo Garcia Elementary School, sits right across the street.  It’s an elementary school that’s part of the Kansas City school district, and it’s a wonderful thing for us to be directly across the street.  Our Art Center sits there and we receive the majority of our children for our after-school programming from the school, so we have a wonderful relationship with them and the district. So it’s really nice, but what’s going on around it is a lot of change and one of the things that we’ve made an impact on there in the neighborhood is we actually built a Cultural Center, and our brand-new Cultural Center opened in March of this year. We knew we wanted to stay rooted there on the West side, and we know we wanted to make sure that people knew that we were there and we weren’t going to go away from the neighborhood even though other families may or just the makeup of the neighborhood is definitely changed.  We wanted to stay rooted in a community that means something to us, and we’re dedicated to continue to provide not only art services but also all other services that Mattie Rhodes provides, like social services, mental health, you know, all of the things that make great families and great people and giving the resources to those that most need them.

Jo Reed: Are most of the kids in the program now, most of the community you serve, are they still Hispanic, or has that really changed?

Jenny Mendez: Most of they’re Hispanic.  Not all Spanish-speaking, but there still are a good amount of students that are Spanish-speaking.  In our program there on the West Side, it’s a good mix of children.  We see Middle Eastern children, African nation children.  Of course, African-American, Caucasian and then definitely the Hispanic families that still live in the neighborhood. Then our programs in the northeast location, which is a whole different neighborhood, you know, there’s definitely Spanish-speaking, more first-generation, and then a lot of other diverse families throughout that neighborhood, but in our program though a lot of Spanish-speaking families for sure.

Jo Reed: Mattie Rhodes provides, and this is the language that you have on your website, “a holistic approach to individual and family services,” and I want you to talk about how that works, because holistic is a word that’s used a lot, but I think often people aren’t quite sure what that really means.

Jenny Mendez: Sure.  I think every level, holistic approach means we’re helping them ,if, say, they have drug addiction.  So maybe we’re helping them with that but then maybe their son is having issues in school and they need assistance, you know, but then maybe they just need resource for food for the month because they lost their job or got cut hours, something like that.  So it’s like being able to hit the family on all levels, you know.  Being able to say, “Not only can we provide you the major assistance that you may need, whether it’s mental health or it’s a crisis situation, but then we can also provide other things to help you to make sure that you are getting the best care.” Maybe their youngest child receives a scholarship so they can come to art camp.   So hitting them from all angles and making sure that they understand that those resources are available to them and that that’s what we’re there for.  So the holistic way of looking at it, is to look at it at all levels, and being able to make sure to incorporate any aspect to give them the resources that they need.

Jo Reed: And one of the goals of the center are the resources to thrive, and when you think about that, what does that mean for you?  What does that mean for the Mattie Rhodes Center?

Jenny Mendez: Oh, it means a lot.  I know, especially within the past 5 to 10 years, our agency has grown.  Just like the west side has grown in so many different ways and changed, our agency has really expanded and grown, and being able to know that through the years, over a hundred years that we’ve been a part of this neighborhood and a part of the Kansas City community, that we continue to just be able to continue with that mission and that drive to continue to work with those people that don’t have those resources that a lot of us do and being able to provide any connections, any type of help, assistance that we can, and even through the arts, you know.  It’s like if art can be seen as more of a venue, a place where people can gather and feel happy, especially in the past couple years <laughs> that we’ve had this pandemic, it seems like more and more people are coming out because they want to gather, they want to feel good, and through the arts, we’ve been able to provide that.  So I feel pretty good about our mission and what we continue to do.

Jo Reed:  We just came out of a difficult time and a difficult school year, as any teacher you talk to will tell you, and I wonder what you saw in the after-school programs, the art programs, that you ran?  Was that a place where students could really kind of express their difficulties or challenges in adjusting to classroom learning again, or were you experiencing some of those same challenges that classroom teachers were?

Jenny Mendez: Yes, and yes. <laughs> Little bit of both for sure.

Jo Reed: Okay. <laughs>

Jenny Mendez: I think we saw our children that came after school into our building, which is a really cool art center space, and they were really excited about the opportunity of going into the new building but they had all this like-- I don’t know any other word-- would say like just kind of built up type of anxiety or behavior issues that they would come over to our space with and we had to kind of figure that out just like everybody did.  You know, all the classroom teachers had to figure out how to rework with-- work with their children, right, <laughs> and trying to figure out how to connect better, and we just saw a lot of, oh, I don’t know.  It seemed like a lot of excitement and-- but not in such a great way, you know, so we kind of had to figure out like, “How do we get them involved and get them straight to work. So we dealt with that a lot, but we worked so closely with the school so we kind of already knew what was coming behavior-wise and some of the kids that had come to the program years prior, you know, even their behavior was a little bit off, and-- but once we kind of got settled in it was only in the spring so we had programming in the fall, but it was just starting and it wasn’t as consistent as it started to become once the holiday break happened and we came back at it.  We had our annual children’s exhibit happen in our new space, so that was really exciting and we hadn’t had it in two years.  So our children’s exhibit is one of the ways that we highlight the work that our kids have done and one of our goals is to be able to show that our program really does do wonders for children, and being able to have that exhibit and give those kids something to look forward to helped us. So we were able to kind of guide and maneuver any type of behavioral issues, all the things that the school was dealing with that we knew was happening.  You know, we were able to kind of take it on in stride and move forward with it and we had a great exhibit and the parents showed up and we had wonderful visitors. So that really helped, but I think overall, we just had to kind of take it in and figure out how to make it work.  It was a little bit of that challenging part in being able to kind of just move forward with it and make the best of the situation.

Jo Reed: I’m wondering about, as you’re getting ready for the upcoming school year, I would have to think school shootings have to be in front of mind for everyone.

Jenny Mendez: Yes, 

Jo Reed: No.  And I don’t mean to imply that art classes are a panacea, but it also strikes me as that’s a place where kids can work out anxieties.

Jenny Mendez:    Yeah, and I think we saw that in after-school programming where I think they got into the artwork, they knew that there was accomplishment, that they could create things that they knew would be put into an exhibit so we could showcase them and the work that they did. Then as we move into this new school year, looking at it even with a different lens that says, “Wow.  Children are not feeling safe.”  Kids, I’d heard, you know, after the most recent shooting in Texas, you know, was with young children.  You know, it’s just like what a horrible impact that that would have on so many kids.  Because I know during our summer camps this summer, myself and the staff, we talked about it, talked about making sure that children feel safe in our environment, that we are aware of things that are around us.  So it’s taking that information and figuring out how do you use it in our programming and make sure that we don’t lose what our intentions are in the program.  You know, we want to be able to have a safe, creative environment for children to make art, and we want them to feel at home and comfortable and have ownership to the space.  We don’t want them coming in with some type of anxieties that I’m sure children will come in with this school year coming up, you know, with our after-school program again, and let alone what’s happening, what will be happening in the schools, but hopefully if everyone can be a little more conscientious over it and we hope that they can work through it in their art.  I think, for example, talking to my staff and saying, “You know, maybe we open up with something that really reflects on feelings and how art can create this place for people to escape and jot down things that they might feel or do drawings or sketches that may reflect just a certain type of a feeling or anxiousness or even just write-- being able to draw things that make them happy and then you switch kind of that mindset of a child.”  So we’ll do our best <laughs> and I know it’ll be challenging not only for us but for others, and I definitely see that as something that we’ll have to deal with.

Jo Reed: Yeah, I would think so.  Let’s talk specifically about the programming of the Arts and Cultural Center.

Jenny Mendez: Sure, our longest-running program is our after-school program, which started when the Craft Learning Center started in 1971, and so that, that program, is something dear to my heart just because I know when I first came in to Mattie Rhodes 25-plus years ago, it was going on and we were working with kids in the community, kids at the school, and kids could come and make anything that they wanted to make, and that’s what I remember as coming as a kid, being able to come in and make whatever I wanted, and the teachers were there kind of to guide you.  But as I started in teaching and saw that these kids <laughs> were like, you know, didn’t want to finish anything, <laughs> and so we had to start kind of coming up with lessons and rethinking of how we wanted to approach children with our activities, and I know that program  means a lot and so many children that have come to the program, you know, those children are now parents and they want that same experience for their children and even their grandchildren.  So my grandchildren now get to come to the Art Center and get to experience the lessons, and it’s so great to be able to kind of have this multigenerational thing that happens within our Art Center and our arts programming. But we offer not only after-school program but we also offer workshops throughout the school years, depending on what activities we’re doing.  If it’s an exhibit, we’ll do different workshops based on a particular exhibit at our Cultural Center now. If somebody comes up with a plan or an activity, we love to kind of be able to create that for them.  Field trip opportunities for schools, daycare centers, those are definitely something that we love doing and love seeing, especially preschool children that come into our space and we come up with some wonderful activities for them.  You know, process art to, you know, any kind of hands-on type of activity.  We do have a ceramics studio that is where the original Craft Learning Center was, which is our old garage that we still use, and the old house is where the rest of the arts get created in our space. Then our new building, our Cultural Center, we’re able to have about six to seven exhibits a year.  We started it with really having a focus on Hispanic art, and now it’s kind of grown from that but definitely still has an emphasis on Hispanic or Latinx art and giving a venue to those artists that may not be showing anywhere in Kansas City.  But we are very focused in on local, regional, national and even international artists that have come through our space, and now with our new Cultural Center it allows us to do more, you know, being able to really create that space into something that can get on the map, and we want people to visit us.  We want it to be a destination.  It’s a beautiful building and we have murals outside the space that really show not only culture but just show community, and it’s definitely a community space.  We want to be able to continue to provide conversations with artists, to community workshops to classes.  Our summer art camp just ended last Friday, so I’m still recovering, but...

<laughter>

Jenny Mendez: But   we had over, I’d say, about a little over 200 students that came throughout the summer from our Itty-Bitty Art Camp, which is 2- to 5-year-olds, to our Teen Art Camp.  You know, I don’t know which one was harder, the itty bitties or the teens, but   both were great, <laughs> and then we had our School-Age Art Camp, which is four sessions, and each one is different.  So our teachers really have to throw it all out there on the table, create some amazing pieces of artwork with the kids and do the lesson planning, the whole bit, and it’s a lot of fun, but this summer really zoomed by and it was all hands.  You know, we were at half capacity for the past two years, so this year we’re at full capacity and I hope that this continues and things just, you know, really show the people the things that we can provide and offer in our space, and we’ve had some amazing events.  Our next event coming up is our big Dia de los Muertos, our Day of the Dead celebration and festivals that will happen starting-- we kick them off the first Friday in October and we do all of our educational programming throughout the month of October into November and then we also do sugar skull workshops, which are big part of Day of the Dead and making sure that people understand the meaning of that and what everything entails.  And then we have a big parade and festival, nighttime parade and festival, that happens on the first Friday of November.  We get so many visitors throughout the run of the exhibit, so when we have our big festivals it’s important to incorporate local businesses, you know.  So we have food trucks that come in and are selling just amazing traditional foods and drink. And we have music, traditional music, traditional dance.  All of it really kind of intertwines with one another, so we want to be able to give that experience as if a person was in Mexico during Day of the Dead.  It’s only a little bitty piece, but at the same time you want them to feel that, right.  It’s not just every other event or festival that someone else may have. We want to make sure that people that are visiting our space during those events, that they feel like they’re a little bit a part of it, that as if they were walking into a festival or a celebration in Mexico during Day of the Dead.

Jo Reed: And I’m assuming, and I could be wrong, but I’m assuming the students are also part of making the exhibits.

Jenny Mendez: Yeah, and a lot of times we’ll do like a workshop in after-school program so that they know.  They end up doing sugar skulls.  They ask about it, you know, months prior to or whatever it is, or the year prior and waiting for the fall to hit so that they can-- “Are we going to do sugar skulls?” and being able to have them a part of it so they understand, and then our ceramic instructor will usually do a piece … an activity where the kids create something that’ll go in the exhibit. We definitely want the kids to be a part of it and be able to connect with what’s happening in our exhibit space, in our events that happen, but definitely the students will be a part of it and take that experience and bring their families to the events when we have it.  We love seeing the kids that attend our programs come at night on an evening event to listen to music, to see the show when it’s up, the exhibit, or, you know, so it definitely gives that feeling that we want to happen in that space and for our events that we create. So lots coming.  We thought summer was busy.  We thought the spring actually was really busy with moving into the new space, but yeah, it’s been pretty nonstop, so <laughs> lots of exciting things. <laughs>

Jo Reed: Yep.  I’m sure you’re already preparing for that.  How are you preparing for the school year in general?  I mean, okay, you’re just taking a deep breath, camp is over.

Jenny Mendez: Yes.

Jo Reed: When does the after-school programming begin?

Jenny Mendez: It’ll begin on September 6, so yeah, it’ll be here before we know it.  We’ll be going to <laughs> all of our, all of the schools’, you know, back-to-school type things, and, you know, it’s really great to be a part of a school system so we can put our face and name in front of the parents and in front of the kids.  We have a lot of kids that come not just from the west side neighborhood but also from kind of extended neighborhood, and so it’s really, it’s a challenge every year because we don’t get the same kids necessarily every single year.  The ones that stick with us though that stay or they hang out, that live in the neighborhood, whatever it is, they really get to have ownership of the program, so we look forward to seeing them, but even having new kids every year, that’s a good challenge.  You know, we just want to get to know them, continue to be a face in the school.  It’s really important for us to be a part of picking up kids in the school.  You know, during COVID we couldn’t do that. But it’s great to be able to go in the school system and into the school and be a part of their events or activities, so we want to do that but then we also want to extend ourselves out to neighborhood children too, and that’s really important.  We have lots of changing neighborhood families, you know, so we want to reach out to them and make sure that they’re included. We just have lots of stuff to get going and it always happens.  I have a great feeling about this after-school program, the school year.  You know, with all the things going on in the world, it’s nice to be able to focus in on art and focus in on giving a great creative experience to young people.

Jo Reed: How do you work with the schools, Jenny?  What is that relationship and how do you work with teachers or administration?  How does that go?

Jenny Mendez: Well, our CEO is really connected with the school district, keeps really a good relationship.  A lot of the other programs, you know, we want to make sure that in the different neighborhoods that we’re in that we stay connected to the schools that are closest to us, you know, so we have lots of in-school service staff that go into the schools and work directly in the schools and then we have programs like ourselves, the Art Center and the after-school art program, that happen to be right across the street <laughs> from a school, that we’ve been grandfathered in, you know, and it’s great to keep those relationships going from one principal to the next principal or the next after-school coordinator at the school, to be able to build those relationships and know that we can connect and continue to share with them what our resources are.  But actually, the school across street from us, Primitivo Garcia, they have a couple of our Mattie Rhodes staff that are in the school.  So we have a therapist that’s there, a clinical therapist that actually offices out of the school during the school year, and then we actually have a in-school coordinator that works with families that need food assistance and so there’s a food pantry and there’s also a clothing pantry, so if there’s a child that didn’t have a clean uniform that day and she can put a uniform in the wash and give them another one and then they get to take a clean uniform home that day and they get to also wear one during the school day.  So, that particular staff person, she used to work at the Art Center and she was able to build these relationships with families and with the school and so, it’s a perfect fit for her to be in the school now. So yeah, it’s just, you know, making sure that we attend the meetings in the neighborhood and community and the school systems that we need to be at so we can be up to note on what’s happening in the district, let alone in the city, things that are concerns for just a everyday person. You know, we see all these needs and we want to react to them. Mattie Rhodes is great at reacting and making things happen.

Jo Reed: Got it.  First, who are the teaching artists who teach at the Art Center or through your program in schools, and what do you look for in a teaching artist?

Jenny Mendez: Oh, that’s a good one.

<laughter>

Jenny Mendez: I’ve been doing this for long time..“Mm, okay.”  I’m an alumni of the Kansas City Art Institute here in Kansas City.  A lot of amazing artists end up staying in Kansas City because of our Art Institute, and cost of living, you know, places to open up studio spaces or their own businesses, whatever it may be, those types of things are happening, and our arts district here in Kansas City has boomed in the past 10, 15 years for sure. It’s been really great for me when I’m looking for people, that I can look for this resource that’s right under our nose, you know.  Artists that are here in town, and so lot of the teachers are alumni of the Kansas City Art Institute.  Not all, but a lot of them have been through the years, and really just looking for someone that has an interest in working with young people, and especially children, because our after-school program is based mainly in that school-age range of children, it’s really important that they like to work with little ones, you know, littler kids, kindergarten through fifth, sixth grade.  So people that are interested in that, but I love giving even experiences to people that are finding out.  They like kids, they think they like to teach, but they want to kind of delve in a little bit and see if that’s exactly what they want to do.  So if that means by starting off by having them teach a workshop and figuring out is it something that they like and getting to know them in that way and figuring out or they volunteer and then they end up becoming an art instructor.  So that’s pretty much how it works—so pretty a creative person, an artist that has a kind of a vision and a thought on being able to help someone see a vision, create a lesson, create an activity, and it takes a lot to be a teacher.  You know, some of us are really great at it, <laughs> and some of us aren’t that great but can learn.  You know, I want to be able to kind of provide that type of journey for them of learning and figuring it out and working with other staff that may know it and can help them through it.

Jo Reed: And Jenny, what art did you study?  What was your art practice?

Jenny Mendez: I was in painting, a painting major, and I did photography throughout because I loved going into the photo lab and I ended up doing a lot of murals as a teenager and into college. I love painting.  Don’t really do it too often anymore but yeah, it’s definitely something that I hope to get back to someday soon.

Jo Reed: I was going to say, was it a difficult choice to say, “Okay.  I’m going to be a teaching artist.  I’m going to be an arts administrator,” rather than primarily a painter?  Was that a hard decision to come to or did it just make total sense?

Jenny Mendez: It made total sense.  I’ve always known I was going to be a teacher.  I knew that.  But I think as I went to art school I wasn’t quite sure where I was going to head after that.  I knew I wanted to teach but it wasn’t, you know, and then Mattie Rhodes happened, I was really blessed.  I love art education.  I love being able to expose children and students and even adults to things that they may not feel that they are comfortable with.  Everybody says, “Oh, I’m not an artist,” but then once they, sometimes when they get into it though, they realize that they can do it, you know, and especially little kids.  If we can show kids that there’s things that they may not think that they’re good at but that they have to just put a little bit of effort into it, that they can do it, you know.  They don’t even see sometimes that things are even art and it is, and then they realize, “Wow, I can accomplish this,” so that’s something that’s important.  But yeah, it happened very naturally for me.

Jo Reed: Okay.  As you’re looking back at all of this...

Jenny Mendez: Mm-hm. <laughs>

Jo Reed: What is the most challenging?

Jenny Mendez: I would say the most challenging is probably just trying to figure out how to do it all <laughs> and not wear yourself thin and making sure that staff understand all the importance of not only our arts component but the whole agency.  You know, we all get wrapped up in our own things and trying to figure out and sometimes it’s we don’t even realize something’s happening within our own agency let alone in the community, so just figuring out how to keep the pulse on all of it, you know, and that’s probably the most challenging, especially for me through the years.  There’s so much going on, let alone in the neighborhood, in the community, in the arts world-- figuring out how to balance that all.  That’s probably the most challenging, and always keeping the awareness of what other art institutions and art organizations are doing to help families and artists.  You know, generations of families that have come through Mattie Rhodes’ doors and the Art Center and our programming doors, that we want to continue that.  So we want to be able to kind of see what they want out of our programs and what they’d like to see and so putting the trust in where it needs to be to make things happen.

Jo Reed: And what’s the most gratifying?

Jenny Mendez: Well, the most gratifying, I think, is to hear people talk about the work not only that the agency does but even the work that I do.  It’s really hard for me to take  compliments, <laughs> but, you know, being somewhere for so long, very passionate about the work that I do, and then when I get an award-- I recently received an award from our Hispanic Chamber of Commerce here-- and it was a Nuestra Latina Award, and it was just really one of those moments when you reflect on yourself and I’m very happy to be able to say like, when a child comes back years later as an adult and says, “Wow, you made an impact on me.  I’m so glad that I did that mural with you 20-some years ago,” you know, that’s those things that I want to remember and keep close to my heart so that when it’s a rough that I can look back on that and remember, “Wow, this is such an impact that we’ve made on our families, in our neighborhood, in our community,” and it’s great to be a part of that and make a difference in the arts and how important the arts are.

Jo Reed: Okay.  And I think that’s where I’m going to leave it, thank you for all the wonderful work you to, Jenny, truly.  I really appreciate it.

Jenny Mendez: Thank you.  I appreciate you.  Thank you so much.

Jo Reed: You’re very welcome.  Thank you.

That was Jenny Mendez, She’s the director of the Mattie Rhodes Art & Cultural Center in Kansas City, Missouri. You can find out more about the Art & Cultural Center and all the services Mattie Rhodes offers at Mattie Rhodes.org. You’ve been listening to Art Works produced at the National Endowment for the Arts. Follow us where ever you get your podcasts and leave us a rating on Apple, it helps people to find us. For the National Endowment for the Arts, I’m Josephine Reed. Thanks for listening.