If you're going to collect some art, then you better put in the big money — $10 million oughta get you started. With cash in hand from the William T. Kemper Foundation, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art spent the past 10 years buying thought-provoking, excellent art. Relying on curator Jan Schall and consulting curator Robert Storr, the museum filled holes in its modern and contemporary collections and broadened the scope of other modernist areas. Schall and Storr also took some risks, such as purchasing one of the late artist Jess Collins' most beautiful and quirky paintings (depicting a man cradling a pumpkin like a beloved child). That is cause for cheer.
