Bob Burdette and Naomi Shapiro moved to Wichita in 2001. They planned to be in Kansas for the length of a summer, but they stayed, became active members of the arts community, and raised two kids, a bountiful garden, and a whole lot of cats here. 

Burdette is a painter and sculptor whose work includes large human-panda hybrids hewn out of wood and animals assembled from found materials. More recently, he has exhibited multi-panel paintings inspired by space adventure comics alongside complex, miniature sculptures that resemble hand-carved action figures. You may have seen his work over the last couple of years at Reuben Saunders Gallery or the E.B. White Gallery at Butler Community College. 

Shapiro trained as a graphic designer, and she brings the sensibility of a former music critic and college radio DJ to her role as a communications specialist for the City of Wichita, where her focus is on amplifying the work of the Division of Arts and Cultural Services. She’s a self-described “cheerleader” for the arts, and you may recognize her name if you’re one of the nearly 12,000 people who belong to the Wichita Art Scene Facebook group, which she helps administer. 

"All of the cool stories — comic books, film — all of that floats around in my head. I do a lot of daydreaming, and I get inspired by those things, and I try to find a way to get that out of my head and into the studio." — Bob Burdette

"In the past year or two, Wichita has become a much more welcoming place for people who just like art and who like to experience it and want to be part of it." — Naomi Shapiro

Creative Lives // Kansas is an episodic series of short-format videos about art and artists living in or visiting Kansas. Created and produced by Ellie Keppy and Ksenya Gurshtein, the series highlights the work of  people in creative professions and pursuits, making art of all types, or otherwise leading creative and unusual lives. Our goal is to inspire viewers to engage with the arts in their community and find their own paths to leading creative lives.

Ellie Keppy is a public radio nerd, an artist and a producer for Creative Lives Kansas. She is part of the KMUW team and a proud Wichitan since 1991.

Ksenya Gurshtein is a curator, arts writer, and art historian living in Wichita. As a curator, she has worked at the Ulrich Museum of Art, Skirball Cultural Center, and the National Gallery of Art, among other institutions. As a scholar and critic, she has written widely on a range of topics in modern and contemporary art. Her work strives to foreground lesser-known histories and stories, look to places and topics that have historically been peripheral to the Western canon, and support the work of arts institutions and artists as agents of social change. More of her writing can be found here.

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The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation.