Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art

Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art NMoCA has one of the top internationally acclaimed collections of emerging and established artists. Galamba, Barton P. & Mary D. Cohen, Dean E.
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The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art is an integral part of Johnson County Community College. And as such, it is a public institution governed by the college and its publicly elected Board of Trustees (see Mission). In 2003, Jerry and Margaret Nerman made a pledge (naming opportunity) of $1.5 million to assist in funding the construction of a contemporary art museum on the campus of JCCC. Jerry a

nd Margaret Nerman (along with their son Lewis) were among the area’s most prominent collectors of contemporary art. Jerry Nerman often expressed his collecting philosophy as “the three s’s” – search, secure, and share. And the Nerman family frequently hosts visitors to their homes to view their collection. Construction of the approximately $15 million Nerman Museum was realized through Johnson County Community College funding, with support from the Nerman Family, the M.R. & Evelyn Hudson Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Marti & Tony Oppenheimer, Richard I. & Jeanne S. Thompson, Irma Starr, Carl & Lee McCaffree, Jim & Mary Tearney, and Joseph & Margery Lichtor. The elegant, minimalist building was designed by architect Kyu Sung Woo and is clad in Kansas limestone. Throughout the museum’s two levels are ten expansive galleries for temporary exhibitions and the permanent collection. Additionally, the museum houses the 200 seat Hudson Auditorium, Café Tempo, two classrooms, a New Media Gallery, and art storage and preparation spaces. The museum boasts two lobbies – the impressive Cantilever Entrance (featuring a dazzling 60,000 white LED installation by artist Leo Villareal) and the glass and metal Atrium Lobby. The museum’s permanent collection is largely comprised of works gifted by Marti and Tony Oppenheimer and the Oppenheimer Brothers Foundation. Art from Johnson County Community College’s Permanent Collection (acquired largely through JCCC’s annual acquisition fund) supplement the Oppenheimer Collection on view in the permanent collection galleries.

Just a few days left to see Trespassers Beware! on the JCCC Campus, which closes on May 24.Co-directed by the Wyandot Na...
05/20/2026

Just a few days left to see Trespassers Beware! on the JCCC Campus, which closes on May 24.

Co-directed by the Wyandot Nation of Kansas and Monumenta, in collaboration with lead artists Omakyehstih Collective, Trespassers Beware! Fort Conley and Wyandot Women Warriors is a mobile monument that illuminates the story of the Wyandot Conley sisters who occupied their family's cemetery in Kansas City, Kansas to save it from urban development. While physically defending the burials, Lyda Conley took their fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and became the first Indigenous woman to argue a case before the highest court in the land. The monument reimagines Fort Conley, the small dwelling the sisters built inside the Wyandot National Burying Ground and inhabited for years to defend their family’s graves. Their decades-long activism and legal arguments protected this sacred land, impacting preservation and tribal sovereignty movements.

This multimedia installation is based on a replica of the historic fort and incorporates video, music, writing, interpretation, oral histories, an original performance, and more to share the story.

Learn more about the history behind this special installation in Lyda Conley and the Fight to Preserve Huron Indian Cemetery.

Trespassers Beware! is generously funded by the National Endowment for the Arts/ArtsHERE, in partnership with Mid-America Arts Alliance, the Mellon Foundation, Humanities Kansas, Kansas Studies Institute, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson County Community College, the Wyandot Nation of Kansas, the Kansas Arts Commission and individual donors.

📷: Trespassers Beware! Fort Conley and Wyandot Women Warriors installation view, March 24 – May 24, 2026, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, Kansas. Photo: EG Schempf

Café Tempo is closed for the summer. We will reopen the café on August 25, 2026.
05/18/2026

Café Tempo is closed for the summer. We will reopen the café on August 25, 2026.

05/11/2026

Just announced! Join us this August on the lawn of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art for Light Up the Lawn 2026.
- August 14 The Swallowtails
- August 21 Katy Guillen & The Drive
- August 28 Found A Job
Bring your blankets, lawn chairs, and picnic baskets for this free concert series! Music starts each Friday at 8 p.m. No tickets or reservations required.
Learn more at jccc.edu/MTC

Join us at The Salon on Wednesday, May 13, 6-7:30 p.m., for a Tarot Study Hall led by Laura Pensar of art studio Moth & ...
05/11/2026

Join us at The Salon on Wednesday, May 13, 6-7:30 p.m., for a Tarot Study Hall led by Laura Pensar of art studio Moth & Candle. Drop in with questions or just stop by to get some practice with the cards.

Laura is an experienced Tarot reader with over 35 years of card experience. She will be on hand to answer your questions, guide or talk to Tarot practitioners of all levels, and offer exercises and tips for expanding your own practice. Open to all experience levels.

This event is free, but space is limited, and RSVP is required. RSVP at https://www.nermanmuseum.org/calendar/events/2026-05-13-salon-tarot.html

Amy Kligman: The Salon for Possible Futures will be on view in the Nerman Museum’s Oppenheimer New Media Gallery, Second Floor, March 28, 2025 through December 22, 2026.

This is the last week to stop by the Nerman Museum to see the artworks created by the Shooting Stars 2026 finalists, inc...
05/06/2026

This is the last week to stop by the Nerman Museum to see the artworks created by the Shooting Stars 2026 finalists, including these pieces from the scholarship winners - local Johnson County high school seniors nominated by their art teachers. Works will be on view through May 10.

Created in 1997 by Chairman Emeritus Robert Endres, a then member of the Board for the Arts and Humanities Association of Johnson County, the Shooting Stars Program is a community initiative to honor high school students and their arts educators for artistic excellence in the literary, performing, and visual arts through recognition, scholarships, and awards.

Learn more about these works, the Arts Council of Johnson County and this collaboration in our digital guide on Bloomberg Connects.

Join us at the Nerman Museum on Wednesday, April 29, from 6-7 p.m. for an artist talk and opening reception celebrating ...
04/23/2026

Join us at the Nerman Museum on Wednesday, April 29, from 6-7 p.m. for an artist talk and opening reception celebrating A Field with Roots (Un campo con raíces), a special installation by Betsabeé Romero. Romero will be introduced by Consul Soileh Padilla Mayer. A reception will follow. Livestream option available.

This event is free; RSVP is encouraged: https://www.nermanmuseum.org/calendar/events/2026-04-29-betsabee-romero-talk.html

Betsabeé Romero lives and works in Mexico City. For more than 20 years, her work has focused on creating critical discourse about issues like migration and mobility through the re-contextualization of symbols and daily rituals of global consumer culture, such as cars, tattoos, and urban signage.

She has had more than 100 solo exhibitions on five continents, has participated in numerous residencies and international exhibitions, and her work is part of numerous museum collections around the world.

A Field with Roots (Un campo con raíces) will be on view in the Nerman Museum’s Richard I. and Jeanne S. Galamba Lobby, First Floor, from April 30 through December 6, 2026.

Betsabeé Romero’s works in Kansas City, spanning both sides of the state line, are part of a collaboration between the Consulate of Mexico in Kansas City, Belger Arts, the Kansas City Convention Center, Mattie Rhodes, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson County Community College.

Join artist and exhibition organizer Amy Kligman in The Salon on Saturday, April 25, 2-3 p.m., to make buttons to give t...
04/21/2026

Join artist and exhibition organizer Amy Kligman in The Salon on Saturday, April 25, 2-3 p.m., to make buttons to give to friends and family and stock the salon drawers for future visitors.

This event is free, but space is limited, and RSVP is required. Learn more at: https://www.nermanmuseum.org/calendar/events/2026-04-25-salon-button-making.html

The Salon for Possible Futures is an exhibition organized by Amy Kligman as an interactive space for community gathering and collective imagining. Themes of fostering humanity and relationships, learning from the past, and building sustainability, hope, and magic are the underpinnings of the salon’s assembled objects and imagery. Amy Kligman was the Executive Artistic Director at Charlotte Street 2015-2025. Kligman’s career and experience as an exhibiting artist and grassroots curator/arts administrator spans 20 years of studio and exhibition work, independent curating and organizing, and artist-run projects.

Amy Kligman: The Salon for Possible Futures will be on view in the Nerman Museum’s Oppenheimer New Media Gallery, Second Floor, March 28, 2025 through December 22, 2026.

04/21/2026
04/09/2026

“Visionary: The Work of Michael Brantley” at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art is the artist’s first institutional solo exhibition, and the biggest little show this critic has seen in some time…

04/09/2026

The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art presents an illuminating overview of the pioneering Kansas City artist’s dynamic evolution.

Address

12345 College Boulevard
Overland Park, KS
66210

Opening Hours

Tuesday 10am - 5pm
Wednesday 10am - 8pm
Thursday 10am - 8pm
Friday 10am - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm
Sunday 12pm - 5pm

Telephone

+19134693000

Website

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