Passing the gavel Page 2
MLK celebration Page 2
Sweet blueberries Page 7
Free complimentary copy January 17, 2014 • Volume 1, No. 16
www.raytowneagle.com • 75¢
Community Art Initiative Brings Together Area Art Students to Create Pakistani-Inspired Art Project By Diane Krizek Editor Art students at all three Raytown Middle Schools partnered with local artist, Carla Steck, and other area schools to create a replica of Asheer Akram’s concept of the Pakistani Cargo Truck. Akram, a Pakistani-American, is a metal artist educated at the Kansas City Art Institute and is known for sculptures that incorporate bold patterns and designs. Inspired by the boldly painted trucks he saw on a trip to Pakistan, Akram’s vision was to contrast historical objects with contemporary art and culture. He did so by revitalizing a 1952 Chevy farm truck rusting in a field in Salina, Kansas. The truck was transformed into a Pakistani-American painted truck with the help of mechanics, a
Metal artist, Asheer Akram, left, and local artist, Carla Steck of Atelier CMS, Inc., right, standing in front of the student’s replica of Akram’s Pakistani Cargo Truck
team of artists from Kansas City and Pakistan, and funds raised on Kickstarter.com, a
funding platform for creative projects. They reconstructed the body of the truck by add-
ing enough height to stand as tall as two men and followed up with the art phase of hy-
brid imagery and decoration. A video of his story and work can be seen on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=FbVoh6BmXGM. Local artists, Carla Steck and Thomas Cobian of Atelier CMS, Inc., a non-profit community art initiative known for its annual outdoor exhibition festival, ART INSIDE THE PARK, coordinated the collaboration of art work created by art students from area schools to create the cardboard replica of the Pakistani truck and the Nelson Atkins Museum where it was displayed. Raytown Middle School students, under the direction of Kris Dillon, contributed prints and Molas. Raytown South Middle School students, under the direction of Kim Snyder, contributed Continued on page 5
Retired Teachers Playing Bluegrass Gigs For Decades By Diane Krizek Editor Unless you happen to be a retired teacher in Raytown, you may not be aware that two musicians in the Bluegrass Missourians band are former Raytown South Middle (RSM) schoolteachers, Ed Sellers and Randy Denney. That’s why they happened to be performing at the monthly Retired Teachers Association meeting this week. Back in the fall of 1976, Sellers, an RSM counselor, happened to be at Spring Valley Elementary school helping seventh-grade students enroll where he met Denney’s wife, Caroll, who was a teacher there. When they discovered their bluegrass connection, Caroll informed Sellers that Randy’s father had died a year prior and the band was looking for a fiddler. “My husband plays bluegrass, I’ll have him give you a call,” recalls Sellers, “and we’ve been playing bluegrass together ever since.” Formerly the Missouri Plowboys, the Bluegrass Missourians started out as a family band. Denney’s father, Bill, was a formerly trained violinist who also played
fiddle and guitar. Randy got hooked on five-string banjo. Sellers also had a fiddling father but started out playing guitar when he was 16 years old. When he heard about a fiddling contest in Kearney, Missouri, in 1974, he decided then and there to switch instruments. The band has changed over the years. Bob White joined as guitar player in 1980, switched to mandolin, and is back on guitar. Dave Batson, Denney’s former banjo teacher, joined and plays upright bass and Brian McCarty and his mandolin hooked up in 2005 when he was just 16 years old. He was not able to make this week’s performance so is not pictured. The Bluegrass Musicians played for thirty years at Silver Dollar City and Shepherd of the Hills in Branson and have opened for such
The Bluegrass Missourians performing for the Retired Teachers Association meeting at REAP. From left to right: Ed Sellers on fiddle, Bob White on guitar, Randy Denney on banjo and Dave Batson on upright bass.
bluegrass greats, as Bill Monroe, the Osborne Brothers (Sonny and Bobby), Jim & Jesse McReynolds, J.D. Crowe, Doyle Lawson and Ricky Skaggs. And Rhonda Vincent and Valerie Smith have performed with them on stage. The band has produced 15 commercial albums Continued on page 5