KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Spencer Fane LLP is pleased to announce The Arts Asylum, a nonprofit that aims to assist new and established artists in all facets of art with the creation and presentation of their art forms, as the recipient of the firm’s 2025-2028 charitable grant program in Kansas City. The announcement was made at the February 10 final showing of a new play, NOVEL, at The Arts Asylum theatre.
As part of its charitable grant program, Spencer Fane will donate $50,000, paid in installments over the next three years, to The Arts Asylum to support its mission of ensuring artists have a seat at every table and creating a safe and welcoming environment around our facilities and programming spaces. The nonprofit’s most immediate needs include completing the front entrance parking area and lobby improvements, and expanding the theatre space to accommodate an orchestra/band at its new home at The A to Z Theatrical Campus in the East Brookside/South Troost Corridor location.
“Through a number of programs and partnerships, The Arts Asylum provides public art engagement, classes, performances, studio space, and professional development with a focus on underserved communities. Hosting programs like theatre classes, artist critiques, gallery displays, and curation guidance, we believe community engagement is the backbone of our mission,” said Evelyn Craig, Executive Director of The Arts Asylum. “Knowing Spencer Fane shares the same passion for supporting the arts and believes in the important work we are doing makes us especially excited for this partnership.”
Founded in 2010 and incorporated in 2011, the mission of The Arts Asylum is to provide a safe place to create for artists, performers, educators, and creative companies in Kansas City. The nonprofit offers accessible programming and spaces for artists, performers, educators, and students from all disciplines and backgrounds with ongoing assistance from their team.
Funds from the grant will go toward increasing local student involvement in the Missouri Alliance for Arts Education’s Show-Me Arts Summit, where high school participants discuss policies regarding arts and education; completing the “Love Where You Live: Creative Connections in the Paseo Gateway” project that utilizes artists and arts/cultural organizations to lead community engagement; and continuing outreach with the local LGBTQIA+ community through Drag Queen Story Time.
“The Arts Asylum’s participation in community and neighborhood development contributes to a safer and healthier environment with more opportunities for artists to have meaningful inclusion in social and political developments so that we might be alerted to changes in those environments,” said Nate Orr, the lead attorney for the Kansas City Charitable Giving Program.
The Spencer Fane Charitable Giving Program in Kansas City provides significant support to select local nonprofit arts organizations through a $50,000 donation over three years. The program is designed as a rotation so that one new recipient enters the program each year, with another exiting upon completion of its three-year cycle. Current and past recipients include Band of Angels, Midwest Music Foundation, Charlotte Street Foundation, Crossroads Preparatory Academy, Lyric Opera Kansas City, Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey, Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, ArtsKC-Regional Arts Council, and Kansas City Art Institute.
The program’s primary goal is to encourage long-standing relationships with nonprofit organizations and provide Spencer Fane employees with additional opportunities to become involved with the firm’s charitable causes.
About Spencer Fane
Spencer Fane is a full-service business law firm focused on providing results that move clients and their businesses forward. With direct access to firm leadership and a different approach to client engagement, its attorneys instill confidence and certainty that the clients’ interests are the firm’s priority. The firm has offices in Phoenix, Arizona; San Jose (Silicon Valley) and Santa Monica (Los Angeles), California; Denver, Colorado; Tampa, Florida; Overland Park, Kansas; Detroit, Michigan; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Cape Girardeau, Jefferson City, Kansas City, St. Louis, and Springfield, Missouri; Omaha, Nebraska; Las Vegas, Nevada; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Greenville, South Carolina; Dakota Dunes, South Dakota; Hendersonville and Nashville, Tennessee; Austin, Dallas, Houston, and Plano, Texas; Salt Lake City and St. George, Utah; and Washington, D.C. For more information, visit spencerfane.com or follow @spencerfane.
