Art exhibit to show the realities of homelessness in Kansas City
Daniel Montoute came to Kansas City for an arts-based community and found inspiration for his upcoming exhibition along the way.
“Living in Tents,” which includes paintings, found objects and mixed media work, will be shown in the Shirley Stiles Gallery starting on Aug. 18 and focuses on the prolific homelessness in the Kansas City area, Montoute said.
“The artwork itself will depict instances of homelessness in the urban setting, particularly downtown Kansas City. So I’ll be featuring like tents in downtown, shopping carts where they shouldn’t be, people sleeping in the alleyways,” said Montoute.
Montoute, who’s originally from the U.S. Virgin Islands, moved from Macon, Georgia, to Kansas City in 2023 to be a part of the arts community of Pendleton ArtsBlock, an apartment building intended for local artists. It has a gallery in-house.
His artwork was always focused on social justice issues, and moving to Kansas City gave him a vision, he said.
“I was just moved by the sheer amount and how constantly we were seeing people with backpacks or sitting or lying somewhere in an alleyway or just sitting in that sort of packed bus stop,” he said.
The Kansas City metropolitan area is No. 1 for chronic street homelessness per capita in the US, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Kansas City’s chronically homeless population living outside and not in any form of shelter is bigger than any other major city in the country per capita, the data found.
In 2023, the number of chronically homeless individuals was 283, 94.7% of whom were unsheltered, according to HUD data. In 2024, the number of chronically homeless individuals rose to 383, while the ratio of those who were unsheltered dropped slightly to 89.9%, the data found.
Art shows the reality of KC’s homelessness
Montoute intends to show the reality of homelessness in the area by capturing different images that are iconic to Kansas City, often places that are kept extra clean and free of certain things, and placing contrasting imagery depicting homelessness in the area.
“My color palette and the cityscapes that I’ll be capturing are elegant, classy, beautiful,” he said. “You know, Kansas City’s got great bones as a city, so the paintings themselves will be beautiful, but the imagery that they capture is just the reality of what’s going on,” he said.
He hopes to capture and share the experience he had when he first walked through the city.
“I hope that they see the realities of what’s going on and have tangible, real ways that they can help; time, talent, treasure, giving your time, donating time, donating money,” Montoute said.
All the exhibition pieces will be donated to reStart Inc., an emergency shelter that provides resources and wraparound services for those who are in need. The non-profit will be auctioning off the art at its annual fundraising gala on Sept. 11.
Montoute became a board member for the non-profit in 2024 after contributing to the mission since 2023, said Ellie Oliphant, Marketing and Development Specialist at reStart Inc. He began by donating portions of the proceeds from his art and giving his time through art experiences to residents, she said.
“He saw the need in the community of how many folks are experiencing homelessness right now and reached out just to kind of learn more and see how he could engage and be a part of the solution,” said Oliphant.
People are not defined by homelessness
This is Montoute’s second exhibition in Kansas City, and both have involved reStart.
Homelessness has gone up 30% consecutively over the past 3 years, Oliphant said. This is why it takes a village to find solutions, she said.
“It means a lot to our organization to have somebody that is just so passionate about what we’re doing, and include us in everything that he has done,” she said.
Different capacities are needed to end homelessness, and those can be filled one way or another, Montoute said.
“I figured I could help with getting the word out about their mission and the work that they were doing by tying my arts initiative to all of my arts initiatives that I create to their cause,” he said.
ReStart hopes people look at this exhibit and see the humanity in people experiencing homelessness, Oliphant said.
“A lot of the people that we serve have experienced some sort of traumatic experience that has put them into homelessness,” she said. “They are not defined by this experience.”
