KC Studio Featured Raechell Smith in "Women Making History"
04.07.2026
In celebration of Women’s History Month, KC Studio took a look at the many women arts leaders in Kansas City who have played a key role shaping the cultural landscape in the city for a decade or more and into the present.
The article starts by saying:
The past three decades have seen an unprecedented period of growth in Kansas City’s cultural sector, with the creation of new institutions and organizations and the expansion and professionalization of existing ones in music, theater and the visual arts.
...These women are committed to what ArtsKC leader Dana Knapp describes as “the profound and positive impact creative and artistic expression has on our human condition.” They are visionary, determined, collaborative and, among their signature achievements, they have been a great force in the diversity, equity and inclusion efforts vital to the vibrant cultural life that Kansas Citians enjoy today.
About Raechell Smith:
Brian Hearn writes:
"Raechell Smith has been the director and curator of the Emily & Todd Voth Artspace (formerly H&R Block Artspace) at the Kansas City Art Institute since 1999. After completing her graduate studies at the University of Kansas and gaining curatorial experience at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Smith was in the right place at the right time to lead a dynamic new art space in a renovated warehouse just off Main Street near the Kansas City Art Institute campus. Over her remarkable tenure, Smith’s savvy sensibilities have kept her dialed into the pulse of 21st-century contemporary art. While deeply invested in Kansas City, her network extends far into the rarer air of the global art circuit. Smith’s magic has been weaving her wide-ranging perspective into the fabric of her curatorial practice, making Kansas City’s art scene magnificently richer because of it.
Smith showed an early affinity for moving image and digital media, particularly by women artists, among whom she has championed many, many superstars from/to/in Kansas City. Her exhibitions have nurtured underappreciated talents from ceramic and fiber artists to printmakers. Further, she has exhibited artists from virtually all continents. Smith perceptively recognized the steady rise of Chinese, Middle Eastern, African and African American artists as key voices of the global contemporary. She has maintained an openness and engagement with big ideas, and risky, relevant thematic material.
This has been a great boon for the students, faculty and alumni of KCAI who regularly exhibit in the unusual two-story vertical space. Smith has sustained a low-key but top-notch stream of artists, curators, art historians and collectors, visiting and sharing their work and perspectives with whoever happens to be in the gallery. Often these events are small, informal and highly interactive, with easy accessibility for all participants. Smith has gracefully juggled the roles and responsibilities of director and curator as well as educator and mentor to a generation of students and artists.
Smith has long proven to be a major ambassador for Kansas City’s art scene. As a reliable local collaborator with Charlotte Street, the organization’s always-interesting Visual Artist Awards exhibitions continue in the gallery’s rotation. Perhaps Smith’s biggest legacy is the wildly popular biennial, the Kansas City Flatfile + Digitalfile exhibition. Case in point, Smith established a fun, interactive, accessible exhibition platform with a high-quality mix of artists at all career stages. Steady as she grows."