Leedyville Studio Artists

For more than four decades, the studios within the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center have provided affordable workspaces to hundreds of artists across all disciplines. Painters, sculptors, photographers, designers, and makers of every kind have called Leedyville home. These artists form the beating heart of our community, creating new work every day within the same walls Jim once filled with his own creations.

The Leedy Foundation is committed to maintaining these studios, ensuring that artists have access to affordable, sustainable spaces to create. By supporting our studio artists, you are investing in the future of Kansas City’s cultural landscape.Visitors are welcome to experience the studios firsthand during First Friday, with entrance through the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center’s Opie Gallery. This offers a unique opportunity to see the creative process in action and engage with the artists who continue Jim Leedy’s vision today.

Nancy Clay

Painter

Studio Above Artist - Open Most First Fridays

ARTIST STATEMENT
I look for patterns of color in nature.

ARTIST BIO
I’ve been a life long artist. I studied at the Dallas Museum of Art and The Meadows School of Art. I graduated from the Art Magnet School for the arts in Dallas then went to Stephen’s college and the University of Missouri and graduated with a BFA. I was in arts sales , framing and graphic design for Ad agencies. Then found my way back to studio art. It’s been very rewarding and my passion for the past two decades.

"Being a part of Leedyville has has been the most positive impact of my art and studio career "

Arden Dale Cranston

Maker, sewist, multidisciplinary

ARTIST STATEMENT
My work is planted in the intersection of functionality and fluctuation, where the organic and the technical converge. As a sewist, I create soft, sculptural garments that explore both form and function—pieces that respond to the body. Using primarily natural fibers and often secondhand materials, I embrace the imperfections and unique textures that come with repurposed fabrics, seeking to create something entirely new in the process. In my creative practice, I balance technical precision with organic expression. I am deeply influenced by the fluidity between masculine and feminine, softness and structure, and the rejection of rigid binaries in favor of more nuanced, hybrid forms. This exploration of “soft & not” serves as both a personal and philosophical reflection of my desire to push against the limitations of categorization and embrace the complexity of identity. Though I primarily work in textiles, I am also a practitioner of other disciplines—printmaking, graphic design, and knitting—each of which informs and expands the ways I approach my work. Each piece I create is an attempt to move away from conventional labels and embrace the in-between spaces, celebrating uniqueness in every stitch and texture.

ARTIST BIO
Arden is a Midwest based multidisciplinary artist. Rooted in generations of femme creative energy, they have been shaped by an unrelenting craving to explore every avenue of artistic expression. Arden’s pieces reflect a commitment to creating unique, sustainable works that reject binary thinking and embraces the complexity of identity and individuality in all their work.

INSTAGRAM : https://www.instagram.com/fiasco___studio/

Vanessa Lacy

Painter

Studio Above Artist - Open Most First Fridays

ARTIST STATEMENT
I paint Kansas City with globs of thick oil paint in its loneliest hours, when things are still and light creates prisms of color on wet and reflective surfaces. The combination of old and new architecture promises change, growth, and unimagined possibilities. I have loved exploring downtown since I moved here in 2007. Living downtown allowed me to have the city to myself at night when all the worker bees went home to the suburbs. Even though my apartment and painting studio are small, I never feel confined; the whole city is my backyard. As time marched on, gentrification of the Arts District and condo buildings took over, and downtown is not so lonely at night anymore. My paintings, beginning to fill with people, reflect this change.

I think of my painting practice as a meditation because it helps me to feel more present and more grateful to be living and working where I am and when I am. My work is about celebrating and sharing my love for the now, even as the city changes with new buildings in the skyline. I love that people can “feel” the time and place of my paintings. Everyone who collects my work has a reason and a story, usually a landmark or a certain time and place that has personal meaning to them.

ARTIST BIO
Vanessa Lacy is a painter and writer based in Kansas City’s Crossroads Art District with a studio at 2016 Baltimore Avenue KCMO on the 2nd floor above the Leedy Voulkos Art Center. Her art studio is open monthly for First Fridays. She exhibits her colorful cityscape paintings locally, is represented by the Leopold Gallery, and participates annually in the Westport Art Fair, Plaza Art Fair, and the Brush Creek Art Walk plein air painting competition.

Her collectors include KU Medical Hospital, Cerner, Heartland, Dempsey & Kingsland Law, CrossFirst Bank, KC City Hall, Bardavon Health Innovations, and scores of private collectors across the Midwest.

Instagram: @Vanessa_Lacy_.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vlacy/

Were you part of the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center community—either as a studio artist or by exhibiting your work here? The Leedy Foundation wants to celebrate your time as part of LeedyVille!

We’re collecting information from past artists to preserve the history and legacy of this vibrant arts community. Please share your details, photos, exhibitions, and memories so the Leedy Foundation can honor your contributions and include your work in our archives, website, and social media.

This is your chance to ensure that the creativity and stories of all LeedyVille artists are remembered and celebrated for generations to come.

Submit Today