Spiva Center for the Arts

06/18/2026

Next Friday, June 26! Join the Joplin Chamber Leads Mixer and spend the morning with us!🌟 Find the registration link in the post below🩷

Join the Joplin Chamber for the Leads Group Mixer, powered by Crowder College and hosted at Spiva Center for the Arts! We’re bringing together all five Chamber Leads Groups in one spot to create a morning of connection and to complete a fun activity.

🗓️Date | Friday, June 26
⏰ Time | 9:00 to 10:30 am
📍Location | Spiva Center for the Arts
💲Cost | $10 a person

End your week on a fun note by making new connections and networking to make a move for your business!

Learn more and register here: https://cca.joplincc.com/EvtListing.aspx?dbid2=MOJop&evtid=1092083&class=B

06/17/2026

Less than a week left to submit your work to our call for art "Press Play: Collage in Print" 🌟
Submission Deadline: June 22, 2026 | 11:59pm
Apply directly on CaFE here: https://bit.ly/spivapressplaycall

Printmakers! We've got a CALL FOR ART🎨⋆˙⟡

Spiva Center for the Arts invites artists to submit work for a juried national exhibition - Press Play: Collage in Print - which will explore the rich and evolving intersection of collage and printmaking. This exhibition highlights the tactile, layered, and process-driven nature of print-based practices, encouraging artists to push the boundaries of traditional techniques while honoring their material roots.

Artists are encouraged to consider how printmaking processes—inking, pressing, transferring, and constructing—can intersect with collage methodologies to produce innovative and compelling work🌟

Submission Deadline: June 22, 2026 | 11:59pm
Apply directly on CaFE here: https://bit.ly/spivapressplaycall

06/16/2026

The first week of Spiva's summer art camps were JAMMIN and SPROUTING with creativity!🎶🪴 Instructors Makenna Hawkins and Brooks Elizabeth-Billings made this week unforgettable for these young artists🩷 We've got 8 more weeks of camp ahead, full of different artistic mediums to explore!

Have kids and teens ages 2-18? Find the perfect camp (or a couple!) today at https://spivaarts.org/camps

Want to be kept up to date on classes and camps? Join our emailing list exclusively for Spiva Art Lab! https://mailchi.mp/spivaarts/spiva-art-lab-newsletter

06/16/2026

In case you forgot, Father's Day is THIS SUNDAY, June 21st🫢👀 Ages 10-17 can join us to transform denim scraps into keychains, painted coasters, bookmarks, and flowers as gifts for the dads, grandpas, and role models in your life just in time for Father’s Day.

Saturday, June 20 | 12:30 – 2:30 pm
Ages: 10-17, or ages 6-10 with an accompanying parent
Cost: $35
Teacher: Autumn Neuenschwander
Register at https://spivaarts.org/event/fathers-day-denim-gifts/

06/15/2026

Creators who came to Cardboard Cruiser Make Day yesterday had their engines ready and a VISION! We can't wait to see the finished products this Thursday, June 18 before Spiva Center for the Arts and Connect2Culture's Wheels & Reels: Movie on the Green!🎥

Thank you to Jennifer Lentz Reeves and Chris Terry Glass for their assistance in making this event a total cruisin' party, and Arrow Box of Joplin for satisfying our cardboard needs!

Reminder, you didn't have to attend Make Day to participate in the Cardboard Cruiser Contest. Those who have created at home can bring their works, too! Judging for the Cruiser Contest begins Thurs, June 18 at 7:45pm - gates open at 7:30pm, movie starts at 8:30pm!

RSVP online to let us know you'll be participating in the contest!
https://spivaarts.org/event/wheels-reels-cardboard-cruiser-contest/

06/14/2026

Need some relaxation after the crazy night of storms? Our Second Sunday at Spiva is still on today, 1-4pm!

Come view four great exhibits, and don’t forget that you can join the Make Day for the Cardboard Cruiser Contest, 2-4pm! (Cruiser Contest will take place Thurs June 18 alongside the Movie on the Green, judging begins around 7:45pm!)

06/13/2026

Congratulations to our determined, spunky, and enthusiastic Executive Director, Heather Lesmeister, on her 4 year anniversary at Spiva Center for the Arts!🎉🤩

If you know Heather, you know that she will persevere until our arts community is served and given the creative opportunities they need. The leads the Spiva team with grace, and we are so grateful for her!

06/13/2026

We've got four stunning and unique pieces by artist John Moore showing on the second floor of the Cornell Complex.

John Moore was born in 1941 in St. Louis, Missouri, and began exhibiting his art in 1969. You can explore more of Moore's work at https://www.locksgallery.com/artists/john-moore

These pieces are directly from the collection of Spiva Center for the Arts, but they could be yours - please call 417-621-9814 or email [email protected] for pricing information.

06/11/2026

It’s a can’t miss exhibit - Watercolor USA 2026 is up now in the Freeman Health System Main Gallery until July 25⭐

Explore the history of Watercolor USA and view this year’s award winners at https://spivaarts.org/annual-exhibits/watercolor-usa-2026/

06/11/2026

Second Sunday at Spiva is this weekend, June 14, 1-4pm🎉

The galleries will be open AND we'll be hosting Make Day from 2-4pm, a hands-on day where kids and families can design and decorate a cardboard car to enter in the Wheels & Reels Cardboard Cruiser Contest on Thursday, June 18!

Want to participate in Make Day? Limited space available - RSVP here! https://spivaarts.org/event/cardboard-cruiser-make-day/