{"id":36753,"date":"2024-05-27T12:26:07","date_gmt":"2024-05-27T17:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swopehealth.org\/?p=36753"},"modified":"2024-05-27T12:29:24","modified_gmt":"2024-05-27T17:29:24","slug":"one-on-one-with-swope-health-allan-gray-izzy-vivas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swopehealth.org\/one-on-one-with-swope-health-allan-gray-izzy-vivas\/","title":{"rendered":"One-on-one with Swope Health: Allan Gray & Izzy Vivas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Swope Health announces a new edition of its podcast, One on One with Swope Health, featuring Allan Gray and Izzy Vivas of the Zhou B Art Center<\/a>, opening in June in the 18th<\/sup> and Vine Jazz District in Kansas City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric Wesson, founder and publisher of The Next Page KC, a newspaper focused on the Black community, hosts the show\u2019s conversations with Kansas Citians about issues of importance to the community\u2019s health and wellbeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gray, partner, and Vivas, art director, joined Wesson at Swope Health to discuss the new art center and its role in the historic jazz district. The art center is founded by brothers Shanzuo Zhoushi and Dahuang Zhoushi, who are world renowned Chinese painters now based in Chicago. Gray, founder of Friends of Alvin Ailey, former chairman of the Missouri Arts Council and Arts KC, described inviting them to visit Kansas City, where they found the abandoned Attucks School<\/a> and \u201cimmediately fell in love with it.\u201d They envisioned it as a dynamic arts center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vivas and Gray talk about the spirit of collaboration the $27 million center embodies and plans for programming, resident artists, studio space, and connections to the community. \u201cIt is an investment in the future of Kansas City,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allan describes himself as coming from an arts family. Vivas, a native of Chicago, has lived in Kansas City for seven years. Her background is also rooted in arts \u2013 she trained as classical oboist before moving into visual arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cArt has a way of connecting with our humanity, to our spirit,\u201d Gray said. \u201cArt impacts each of us on an individual level. It\u2019s about human nature, our spirit that connects us to the art. We welcome people to come in, we want everyone to feel connected to the center and feel it\u2019s a home, a place you can come to relax or be rejuvenated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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