Your virtual fun planner: How to view the Symphony showhouse, see authors and bands
Even though the Kansas City Symphony has canceled the remainder of its season because of the COVID-19 pandemic, fans can follow and support the symphony online.
The 51st Symphony Designers’ Showhouse is not open for throngs of people to come ogle the various remade rooms. But the annual fundraiser from the Kansas City Symphony Alliance is providing free video tours of this year’s showhouse, a 1909 home in Hyde Park at 500 E. 36th St. A different design space/designer will be featured each day via Facebook and YouTube. A final video showing all spaces and designers will launch Memorial Day, May 25.
Go to showhouse.org for details.
Also available for symphony fans is “Music for Our Time” at kcsymphony.org. The symphony podcast features recordings of live performances, plus commentary and interviews with music director Michael Stern, guest artists, conductors and members of the orchestra.
And something to look forward to: Filling the void left by the cancellation of the symphony’s annual Celebration at the Station, “Best of Bank of America Celebration at the Station” will air at 7 p.m. May 24 and 8:30 p.m. May 25 on KCPT. Stern will provide an introduction and commentary.
Here are 11 more online ways you and your family can spend your coronavirus-induced stay-at-home time:
▪ In celebration of National Mural Day on May 7, the Northeast Kansas City Chamber of Commerce provides an activity that crosses from the online world to the real world: a self-guided tour of murals in Northeast neighborhoods.
You can download a map at nekcchamber.com, then drive, walk or bike to visit the more than two dozen murals. Participants are encouraged to take selfies and submit them at facebook.com/nekcchamber to earn a chance at winning a commissioned pet portrait.
▪ Author Bruce Goldfarb will join Kaite Stover, the Kansas City Public Library’s director of readers’ services, to discuss Goldfarb’s new book, “18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics,” 6:30 p.m. May 7 at youtube.com/user/kclibrary. It’s the latest selection of the FYI Book Club, The Star’s partnership with the Kansas City Public Library. If you would like to be part of a future online book discussion, email Stover at kaitestover@kclibrary.org.
▪ View short films from the New York International Children’s Film Festival, with proceeds going to Lawrence’s Free State Festival, 9 a.m. May 8 through 9 p.m. May 17 at lawrenceartscenter.org.
▪ “Snowscapes,” an exhibition of paintings by Jason Needham, launches May 8 and runs through July 31 at kansascityartistscoalition.org.
▪ Knuckleheads will present a livestreaming concert by the M80s to benefit the Kansas City Children’s Assistance Network, 7 p.m. May 8 with tickets (by donation) available at knuckleheadskc.com; other Knuckleheads livestream shows will feature Katy Guillen & The Drive at 8 p.m. May 9 ($10) and Danielle Nicole at 8 p.m. May 10 ($12).
▪ Most spring running events have gone virtual, including two on May 9: the Running With the Cows (cow.run), a 5K and half-marathon annually run in Bucyrus, Kansas, and the Run for Heart Heroes (eventbrite.com), which had been scheduled for Arrowhead Stadium.
▪ Enjoy a scientific Mother’s Day (May 10) with Kansas City’s Mad Science’s online experiments using ordinary household items for kids and moms at madsciencepromo.com/athomeexperiments.
▪ The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum program “At-Home Learning: The Candy Bomber and the Berlin Airlift,” geared toward students in grades 3-8, will tell a lesson of post-World War II Germany, 2 p.m. May 12 at trumanlibrary.gov/events/72226.
▪ Author Jared Diamond will launch “Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis” in a livestream event from Rainy Day Books, the Kansas City Public Library and Linda Hall Library, 7 p.m. May 12; information at rainydaybooks.com and lindahall.org; register at kclibrary.org.
▪ Explore the fountains and sculptures of Kansas City at kcfountains.com.
▪ Dozens of wellness videos from the YMCA of Greater Kansas City are at kansascityymca.org/online-exercise.
