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Art at the Heart of Overland Park
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Art at the Heart of Overland Park

South view
Nerman Museum Construction Views
Front view of Nerman Museum
Nerman Museum Construction Views

Whether they inspire contemplative reflection or provoke searing social comment, the arts are opportunities for growth. A painting, a dance, a musical passage reveal something about ourselves, our community and our world that we didn’t know before. Not just beautiful or provocative, the arts are, at heart, educational.

Part of the mission of Johnson County Community College, located in the heart of Overland Park, Kansas (a suburb of Kansas City), has been to develop an arts education program that fosters an understanding of the arts’ essential role in realizing core values in education and in life. Indeed, studies like Harvard University’s Project Zero show that arts education boosts academic achievement in all students.

But the arts aren’t only inspirational and educational. They are also economic engines, helping to pump dollars into the local economy through jobs, tourism and ancillary spending. Furthermore, a strong arts community attracts both the business and industry an area needs and the skilled workforce upon which those businesses depend. According to Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class, the arts create environments that attract and sustain a talented workforce.

At its heart, Johnson County Community College’s much anticipated Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art provides cultural inspiration, educational insight and economic stimulus to Overland Park. Whether a student or visitor is 18 or 80, JCCC offers him or her immediate access to important art, encouraging creativity, intellectual curiosity, diversity and support of the arts by living with art.