About the Exhibition

Elevate at 21c presents temporary exhibitions of works by artists living and working in the communities surrounding each 21c Museum Hotel property. Elevate provides hotel guests with unique access to the work of notable regional artists, while featuring their work in the context of 21c’s contemporary art space. To view these works, please stop by the front desk to arrange access to the vitrines on guest room floors.

On view from July 2019 – February 2020, Elevate at 21c Kansas City presents works by Jillian Youngbird.

Jillian Youngbird

Growing up in the Ozarks with three generations of strong, sustainable women, Jillian Youngbird’s days were spent learning traditional craft, or romping through woods and creeks. The expansive quiet of nature connected with the small and intentional surroundings of home to create a great sense of comfort within her.

​In Youngbird’s work, she focuses on these two environments and ideas surrounding sustainability through sculpture, installation, and performance. Whether that be through a quilt that contains and preserves flower petals or a large story-book animal built from scraps of cardboard and found materials. Through this process of imaginative transformation, she investigates her own personal history, while creating dialogue about our impact on the natural world.

Youngbird is a visual artist living and working in Kansas City, Missouri. She studied art at the Kansas City Art Institute and currently works as Outreach and Media Coordinator at a non-profit arts studio supporting artists with developmental disabilities. Her work has been shown nationally, with exhibitions as far away as Alaska and California. She is a former Charlotte Street Resident, as well as a Charlotte Street Visual Artist Fellow and received the Byron C. Cohen award in 2018.