Philipp Eirich was born in Wurzburg, Germany. He came to the United States in his early twenties and lived in Chicago for 20 years before moving to Kansas City. He now owns and runs Cerbera Gallery, a contemporary fine art gallery located at the heart of Kansas City’s Crossroads Art District.

 

 

Linda Lighton

Linda Lighton is an artist and activist living and working in Kansas City, Missouri. She is a passionate advocate for the arts both regionally, nationally and internationally.

Lighton has had more than 60 solo shows and has participated in more than 170 group exhibitions at museums and galleries in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Linda Lighton’s work is in national and international collections in China, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan and Turkey as well as The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO; Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS; Ariana Museum, Geneva, Switzerland; Fule International Ceramic Museum, Fuping, China, the Yingee Museum in Taiwan, and Icheon International Ceramic Museum, Icheon, Korea.

2008, she was chosen for the Missouri Arts Award, and in 2011 she received the Award for Excellence in the Visual Arts and Education from the Kansas City Art Institute, where she graduated with honors in 1989. In 2016, Lighton received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the National Council for the Education of the Ceramic Arts. She is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics.

Sonié Joi Thompson-Ruffin

Sonié Joi Thompson-Ruffin is a renowned fabric artist, fabric designer, author, lecturer and independent curator. Her artwork has shown at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, David C. Driskell Art Center, Spencer Museum, Holter Museum of Art, New England Quilt Museum, Mulvane Museum, Leedy Volkous Art Center, KCAI Crossroads Gallery. She has conducted workshops on African American quilting and color combining at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Nelson Atkins Museum and a host of museums, quilt guilds and galleries across the United States.   Sonié is a Charlotte Street Visual Arts Fellow, Art Omi Fellow, Kansas Master’s, and Alliance of Artists Community Scholarship recipient.

She served nine years as the curator for the American Jazz Museum’s Changing Gallery and currently serves on the Kansas City History Museum Foundation board and is the curatorial consultant for the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center.  Sonié is a founding member of the African American Artists Collective, her artwork is held in the collections of galleries, museums, corporate, and private collections in the United States, Africa, and Europe.