It's a Saturday morning in Kansas City. With pencils in-hand, about twenty amateur animators sit in a room at Union Station. Guidance comes from Kansas City Art Institute instructors who offer advice while students work on their sketches.

The experience is nearly 110 years removed from when a 14-year-old Walt Disney took classes in the same city with instructors from the same school.

The connection makes the workshop a special event during Disney 100: The Exhibition which is showcasing hundreds of Disney's "Crown Jewels" including art, costumes, props, and memorabilia.

But Disney's success and fame came long after his adolescence in Kansas City. And life at that age wasn’t always easy.

The Kansas City Star recently published this timeline of Disney's youth sharing how Walt and his brother, Roy, would need to wake up before 3:30 am to complete a demanding paper route before going to school. By the time Walt Disney finally arrived at the Benton School, only a few blocks from his home, he was exhausted.

But weekends allowed Disney to explore his creative side. In 1915, KCAI (then known as the Gallery of Fine Arts Institute of Kansas City) started holding Saturday classes for talented school children on the 6th Floor of the YWCA Building at 1020 McGee Street.

"Among those attending was fourteen-year-old Walt Disney, who had talked his father into paying for weekly art lessons - his only formal training - which continued until 1917," according to The History of the Kansas City Art Institute: A Century of Excellence and Beyond by Milton S. Katz.

Mira Taliaferro, who helped run the Disney 100: The Exhibition workshop, is an instructional assistant for the animation department at the school. Reflecting on the connection, she says it's an honor that KCAI is a part of that history of animation.

"Especially when most people think of California when it comes to animation. And that's where a lot of the animation is happening but it's nice to be living somewhere and working somewhere with a connection to Walt Disney - a place that's still making animation to this day," Taliaferro said.

The Disney 100: The Exhibition workshop Hand Drawn Animation: Bringing Illustrations to Life brought together a wide range of animators, from those as young as 11-years-old to others with a little more experience. The class started with a short lecture on the history of animation and Walt Disney's connection to basic principles still used in modern animation.

During the next few hours, students sat at their light tablets with backlit paper and worked on a group project - creating a metamorphosis image.

Each person drew an image and then passed it to the next person who would draw a transition between their drawing and the drawing they received - about 36 frame's worth of animation.

John Berry, an assistant professor in KCAI's animation department, offered advice along with Taliaferro. Students spoke on how Berry and Taliaferro’s immediate and active feedback helped them better understand the "flow of animation."

In the end, the group had a seamless loop: a video clip connecting all of the frames into one sequence - circling back to where they began. (video below)

In 1963, Walt Disney would also return to where he started. The established giant of animated pictures toured the Kansas City Art Institute. Later on the same trip he would receive an honorary degree.

"He has honored and stimulated us by his presence here. He has, for us, always been a source of pride. Tonight he is a good omen in a time of great promise," KCAI President Andrew W. Morgan is quoted as saying in a Kansas City Star article on the event.

Disney toured Vanderslice Hall, visited the painting studios in Epperson House and spent time in an industrial design classroom where he talked with students and faculty.

The day of the visit, the Kansas City Star published a story which quoted Disney recalling his time at KCAI. He said that when he attended classes at the YWCA building, his locker was on a balcony overlooking the floor of the gymnasium.

"This place is filled with memories for me," he said of the Kansas City Art Institute.