Recent drawing & painting

About Ruthelle's

Ruthelle Winkfield was a dancer, beautician, and wig stylist who lived and worked in the building at 1819 Vine Street from the 1940’s until her death in 2001. Adam Jones with the support of a community of artists and 18th and Vine neighbors, is restoring 1819 Vine Street as a hub of music, food, and art. This project celebrates Kansas City's rich jazz history and the pioneering musicians that made it amazing.
Our team of music historians identified eighteen foundational Kansas City Jazz musicians to be memorialized in a new Kansas City Jazz Hall of Fame at Ruthelle’s. Cliff Baldwin has painted larger than life portraits of each of these artists in enamel on aluminum. Before the portraits are permanently installed at Ruthelle’s, they were on view at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center in November and December of 2021. Recordings by the eighteen featured musicians, including Charlie Parker, Julia Lee, Mary Lou Williams, and Count Basie, among others, were on rotation during the exhibition.