Arts News | Upper Level Gallery specializes in street art

Muralist Jason Harrington, also known as Rif Raf Giraffe and his wife Ami Ayars Harrington, exhibition director, inside their Upper Level Gallery at 504 East 18th St. (photo by Jim Barcus) Upper Level Gallery is a small gem with colossal ideas located in the Crossroads area of downtown Kansas City. The only KC gallery to specialize in street art, it brings a unique twist to the Crossroads arts scene. Previously known as the Plenum Space Gallery, the space originally opened in 2008 to contribute to the Crossroads Arts District’s First Fridays event and to activate the upstairs foyer space for the artist tenants who lived and worked in the building. After some dramatic history, the gallery was re-founded and re-opened in early 2021 by Ami Ayars Harrington, who has been exhibition director since 2012. On Oct. 6, 2018, the corner of the building at 18th and Locust collapsed, seemingly bringing an end to the Plenum Space Gallery. While no one was injured, it took two years to pull the building back into operation due to legal and construction delays. When Ayars and the other tenants got the all-clear to begin inhabiting the building again in late 2020, she made plans...