Laura Spencer
Laura Spencer caught the radio bug more than a decade ago when she was asked to read a newscast on the air on her first day volunteering for KOOP, the community radio station in Austin, Texas.
After moving home to Kansas City, she learned the fine art of editing reel-to-reel tape as an intern and graduate assistant with the nationally syndicated literary program New Letters on the Air. Since 2001, she's focused her efforts on writing and producing feature stories as KCUR's Arts Reporter.
In 2011, Laura was one of 21 journalists selected for USC Annenberg’s seventh National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Arts Journalism Institute in Theater and Musical Theater. She's received awards from the Associated Press, Kansas City Art Institute (Excellence in Visual Art and Education), Kansas City Association of Black Journalists, Missouri Broadcasters Association, Radio-Television News Directors Association (regional Edward R. Murrow Award) and Society for Professional Journalists.
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A $3 million gift to KU's Spencer Museum aims to help artists and researchers answer 'big questions'The endowment will support arts research integration at the University of Kansas. The interdisciplinary approach brings together artists, researchers, students and the public to tackle pressing issues. -
A Haskell Indian Nations University student journalist gained national recognition during the pandemic advocating for free speech. Now he’s turning his attention to bringing back traditional textile weaving. -
Many of us have been spending more time outside during the pandemic, taking photos, gardening, or birdwatching. A new chapbook features 10 poems inspired by Kansas birds, from the barn owl to the house finch. -
A tiny dollhouse dubbed the Mini Modern House includes mid-century interior design details — in miniature. -
Thousands of Kansas Citians gathered near the Plaza Sunday afternoon to decry racism and police violence after recent deaths of black men and women at the hands of law enforcement. The city's entertainment districts and parks will be under curfew starting at 8 p.m. -
After a rocky decade, state funding for the arts in Kansas has begun to improve. As of July 1, the start of a new fiscal year, state funding for the... -
The Symphony in the Flint Hills on Saturday canceled its signature event — an outdoor performance by the Kansas City Symphony — for the first time in... -
In 1917, the Hall brothers sold tissue paper during the holiday season for gift wrap in a shop in downtown Kansas City, Mo — until they ran out. They quickly turned to something they had on hand, envelope liners; they sold out again, and a few years later, they were printing their own decorative gift wrap. It was the first product Hallmark made other than gift cards.
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Drive along U.S. Route 400 in western Kansas, and you’ll see hundreds of metal sculptures on tall poles, some as high as 20 feet. It’s the work of self... -
Shakespeare in the Park — Southmoreland Park in Kansas City. As part of our summer series "The World's a Stage," we visit a rollicking performance of "Twelfth Night".
