Today we’d like to introduce you to Ami & Jason Harrington
Hi Ami & Jason, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
We have officially been working together full time since 2017 and have a couple different, but intertwined facets of our business. The one we’d like to share with you today is the street art gallery we operate together in the Crossroads Arts District. Upper Level Gallery, as it is now, was technically founded in early 2021 and had its ‘grand re-opening’ that April with a group exhibition titled Spring Break alongside a mural event in partnership with SpraySeeMO. I say ‘re-opening’ because the gallery has been around since before 2008, but as Plenum Space Gallery – so let’s jump back in time a little bit!
Plenum Space Gallery was founded sometime before 2008, by building owner Tom Stiller, as a means to both contribute to the monthly First Friday Art Walks that were happening in the Crossroads Arts District and to activate the awkward upstairs foyer space for the artist tenants who lived and worked in the building. Because the space is also part of the property tax abatement for the area, it has been able to stay true to its grassroots nature over the years and continues to be able to offer artists an alternative space to show their work. The entire second level is dedicated to the gallery and actual artist lofts where they can live and work.
I came on as the Assistant Director in November of 2011 after meeting Tom on a bike ride and, as mentioned, I’ve been managing this space as the Director since January 2012. That same year, I brought on Jessie Kelley to help as the assistant manager and installation director. Jessie was with the gallery until she moved to Santa Fe, NM in 2017 to help open OTA Contemporary where she worked until 2018 when she became the Creative Direction Administrative Assistant for Meow Wolf.
Jason came into the picture in 2014, when he moved into the building after coming back to KC from a decade spent living in Chicago after going to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. At the same, time I had an artist drop out last-minute for the April 2014 slot so I offered it to him and he accepted… Long story short, we really hit it off and just about a year later, in 2015, we got married and it has pretty much been a dual effort ever since! I owe a lot to his expertise in painting and the street art world, as my background is predominately in ceramics and sculpture.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Well…! On October 6th, 2018, just past 7:00am, the corner of the building where the gallery is located collapsed! It was during a heavy rain storm, and thankfully our neighbor who lived in that corner loft at the time was out of town, and no one was hurt. What was originally proposed to take 3-6 months to fix and get us back into the building and operating again, turned into 2 full years! There were legal delays, construction delays, you name it… but we waited patiently, traveling around meeting new artists across the country. Then of course the pandemic hit, so everything was put on hold even longer until – Finally!!! – we got the all-clear to move back in October 2020.
After all of that, we decided to rebrand the gallery from Plenum Space to Upper Level for two main reasons: because we’re upstairs, on the second level, and we had also shifted the type of work we wanted to show. The space officially re-opened in April of 2021 with a new focus solely on street art and featured a group exhibition in partnership with the SpraySeeMO Mural Festival.
As you know, we’re big fans of Upper Level Gallery. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
The primary artistic focus of the gallery is showing diverse and exceptional street art. We predominantly work with professional, established street artists who exhibit a strong creative voice individual to themselves with matching technical prowess. Over the last decade, Jason and I have been traveling around the country and beyond: participating in mural festivals, gallery shows, and other painting excursions/endeavors, meeting a vast array of incredibly talented world-class street artists all along the way. We curate each exhibition from this deep and ever expanding network of artists, both locally and nationally.
The gallery typically hosts one exhibition per month, coinciding with the Crossroads Arts District’s First Friday Art Walk, from February through November or December – so between 10 and 11 shows a year, and the exhibitions range from solo to group exhibitions. There are also murals lining the stairwells and hallways, plus merch tables and clothes racks that round out the whole gallery experience for visitors and patrons.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Jason and I are both Kansas City natives, born and raised here. Growing up, we both felt we had to leave in order to experience larger, more impactful art scenes. So when Jason returned to KC after living in Chicago, he wanted to make a real effort to bring art and artists to Kansas City that would otherwise only be found in large cities like New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago – or even other countries! For me, I didn’t think I’d still be here but KC has really grown into its own, embracing the arts in exciting ways, and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to be here now and add to it through the work we do with Upper Level Gallery and the SpraySeeMO Mural Festival.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://upper-level-gallery-kc.square.site/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/upperlevelgallery/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UpperLevelGallery
Image Credits
All photos taken by Ami.
Photo 1 – “Serpentine” Group Exhibition for the Lunar New Year; from left to right: Haley Lane (KC), Skela (Denver), CHNK (Ft. Lauderdale), CHUE (KC), XMASVIPER (KC).
Photo 2 – Rif Raf Giraffe, Ami Ayars, Kerry Grant (All KC-based)
Photo 3 – Penny Pinch (Chicago)
Photo 4 – Haley Lane
Photo 5 – Right to left: Haley Lane, Registered Artist (Miami), MERKAVELI (Boston), Femme9 (KC)
Photo 6 – CHUE
Photo 7 – A First Friday Opening
Photo 8 – Phybr (KC)
Photo 9 – Dirt Cobain (LA/NYC)
