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Artspeak Rado with Linda Lighton and Jeff Conners
Artspeak Radio, Wednesday, February 18, 2026, 9am -10am CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org
Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd talks with artists Linda Lighton and Jeff Conners.
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, and she is committed to being creatively prolific and politically engaged on a daily basis.
Lighton has had more than 80 solo shows and has participated in more than 230 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.
Linda Lighton is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics. She is the founder and director of the Lighton International Artists Exchange Program, which has sent over 207 artists to 59 countries and the Arctic Circle.
In 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. Recently, Lighton completed two large commissions. The first, a 1% for the Arts program, involved producing a twenty-foot-long mural titled "Ode to the Tallgrass Prairie" for the new Kansas City International Airport. The second was a large chandelier titled "Luminous," installed in the Grand Salon at the Kansas City Museum.
Lighton is a fervent arts advocate and activist. She has worked on many boards in her community; helping to instigate the One Percent for Arts Program in Kansas City, and serving on numerous boards over the years: Young Audiences of Kansas City, Friends of Art, Nelson Atkins Museum, Review Magazine, Kansas City Ballet, and National Council for the Education of the Ceramic Arts, Kansas City Jewish Museum Board. She currently serves on the National Committee at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and administers the Lighton International Artists Exchange Program.
On view now, Linda Lighton: Love & War, A Fifty-Year Survey, 1975-2025
On view Dec. 13, 2025 through May 3, 2026 December 13, 2025 - May 3, 2026
Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, 12345 College Blvd Overland Park, KS
Oppenheimer Thompson and Anonymous Galleries, First Floor
Linda Lighton: Love and War: A Fifty Year Survey, 1975–2025 (Hardcover) available now
www.lindalighton.com
JEFF CONNERS is a California / San Francisco Bay Area native who has spend his life immersed in the arts. His creative journey spans painting, piano, music composition, stand up comedy and theatre. As a member of the comedy group “Bartalk” in the 80’s and 90’s he had to opportunity to work with such people as Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Dana Carvey, Bobcat Goldthwaite, Kevin Pollak, Mark Pitta and many others. Bartalk performed in famous comedy clubs such as The Punchline, The Boarding House, The Holy City Zoo, Cobbs Comedy Pub and Tommy T’s. In theatre, Jeff has acted in and directed well over a 100 plays and musicals and in the 90’s was artistic director and founder of the New Earth Theatre, the San Leandro Community Theatre (now San Leandro Players) and the San Leandro Shakespeare Festival in the San Francisco Bay Area. These theatre groups were used as a vehicle to raise money for the San Leandro Public Library foundation and through the years raised well off 100K dollars. Jeff’s original show “The Angel of the Gutter” was performed off-Broadway in New York in 2000 at the Creative Place Theatre. He recently directed “Bullshot Crummond” at The Roaring 20 Gallery and Event space in Westport. Jeff is also an avid pianist and composer and has written the score to George Bernard Shaw’s “Androcles and the Lion”.
Now based in Kansas City, painting remains his deepest passion and has been a constant in his life since his youth. He is the Artist in Residence at the newly opened “Elevator” in North Kansas City. He is currently showing at 80 Santa Fe Gallery in Overland Park as part of their “Color” exhibit. “Color” runs through March 15, 2026. He will be featured at Mod Gallery in Kansas City in September and has a solo exhibition at Elevator, currently in the works slated for a May/June showing (dates haven’t been finalized as of this writing). He works in oil, acrylic and watercolor and features slices of city and urban life, cityscapes, landscapes and people.
jeffconners.art (website currently under construction)
https://artskcgo.com/artist/jeff-conners/
Instagram - @jeffconnersartstudio
Facebook – Jeff Conners Art
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By KKFI 90.1 FM Kansas City Community Radio
5
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Artspeak Radio, Wednesday, February 18, 2026, 9am -10am CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org
Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd talks with artists Linda Lighton and Jeff Conners.
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, and she is committed to being creatively prolific and politically engaged on a daily basis.
Lighton has had more than 80 solo shows and has participated in more than 230 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.
Linda Lighton is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics. She is the founder and director of the Lighton International Artists Exchange Program, which has sent over 207 artists to 59 countries and the Arctic Circle.
In 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. Recently, Lighton completed two large commissions. The first, a 1% for the Arts program, involved producing a twenty-foot-long mural titled "Ode to the Tallgrass Prairie" for the new Kansas City International Airport. The second was a large chandelier titled "Luminous," installed in the Grand Salon at the Kansas City Museum.
Lighton is a fervent arts advocate and activist. She has worked on many boards in her community; helping to instigate the One Percent for Arts Program in Kansas City, and serving on numerous boards over the years: Young Audiences of Kansas City, Friends of Art, Nelson Atkins Museum, Review Magazine, Kansas City Ballet, and National Council for the Education of the Ceramic Arts, Kansas City Jewish Museum Board. She currently serves on the National Committee at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and administers the Lighton International Artists Exchange Program.
On view now, Linda Lighton: Love & War, A Fifty-Year Survey, 1975-2025
On view Dec. 13, 2025 through May 3, 2026 December 13, 2025 - May 3, 2026
Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, 12345 College Blvd Overland Park, KS
Oppenheimer Thompson and Anonymous Galleries, First Floor
Linda Lighton: Love and War: A Fifty Year Survey, 1975–2025 (Hardcover) available now
www.lindalighton.com
JEFF CONNERS is a California / San Francisco Bay Area native who has spend his life immersed in the arts. His creative journey spans painting, piano, music composition, stand up comedy and theatre. As a member of the comedy group “Bartalk” in the 80’s and 90’s he had to opportunity to work with such people as Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Dana Carvey, Bobcat Goldthwaite, Kevin Pollak, Mark Pitta and many others. Bartalk performed in famous comedy clubs such as The Punchline, The Boarding House, The Holy City Zoo, Cobbs Comedy Pub and Tommy T’s. In theatre, Jeff has acted in and directed well over a 100 plays and musicals and in the 90’s was artistic director and founder of the New Earth Theatre, the San Leandro Community Theatre (now San Leandro Players) and the San Leandro Shakespeare Festival in the San Francisco Bay Area. These theatre groups were used as a vehicle to raise money for the San Leandro Public Library foundation and through the years raised well off 100K dollars. Jeff’s original show “The Angel of the Gutter” was performed off-Broadway in New York in 2000 at the Creative Place Theatre. He recently directed “Bullshot Crummond” at The Roaring 20 Gallery and Event space in Westport. Jeff is also an avid pianist and composer and has written the score to George Bernard Shaw’s “Androcles and the Lion”.
Now based in Kansas City, painting remains his deepest passion and has been a constant in his life since his youth. He is the Artist in Residence at the newly opened “Elevator” in North Kansas City. He is currently showing at 80 Santa Fe Gallery in Overland Park as part of their “Color” exhibit. “Color” runs through March 15, 2026. He will be featured at Mod Gallery in Kansas City in September and has a solo exhibition at Elevator, currently in the works slated for a May/June showing (dates haven’t been finalized as of this writing). He works in oil, acrylic and watercolor and features slices of city and urban life, cityscapes, landscapes and people.
jeffconners.art (website currently under construction)
https://artskcgo.com/artist/jeff-conners/
Instagram - @jeffconnersartstudio
Facebook – Jeff Conners Art