Glenwood Arts at Metcalf South closes Sunday, January 25

The Glenwood Arts theater, home to one of the Fine Arts Group’s arthouse cinemas as well as to the enormous marquee that once belonged to the Dickinson chain’s original Glenwood, closes for good on Sunday, January 25, Fine Arts co-owners Brian and Ben Mossman and Wade Williams announced this afternoon. The Metcalf South mall’s last non-Sears holdout is decamping east a bit: The company’s Leawood Arts theater will assume the Glenwood name. (The sign isn’t being razed but may not be displayed again right away.)

There’s a bittersweet closing event that day: a premiere of local filmmaker W. David Keith’s Metcalf South Memories, a mockumentary recalling the golden era — well, the harvest-gold era, anyway — of the suburban retail behemoth. Tickets for that 5:30 p.m. one-off ($5 each) go on sale Friday.

The Fine Arts’ press release after the jump.

Kansas City’s venerable Glenwood Arts, for decades home to Independent Film and The Kansas International Film Festival, will move from the (closing) Metcalf South Mall and merge with the Leawood Theatre to become The Glenwood Arts at 95th and Mission Road. Glenwood Arts’ last day at its current location will be Sunday, January 25, 2015. The new Glenwood Arts complex at 95th & Mission Road will remain open for filmgoers during the move. The announcement was made today by Fine Arts Group co-owners Ben and Brian Mossman and Wade Williams.

Brian Mossman added “The lease at Metcalf South began in November, 2002 and ended in 2009; Kansas City audiences patronize all three Fine Arts Group locations (Glenwood Arts/The Leawood and The Rio) so we went month-to-month after that. The new Glenwood Arts at 95th and Mission Road represents a move to a larger flagship with five screens and an even greater presence for both Independent film and next October’s 15th Annual Kansas International Film Festival (KIFF).”

The final film to be shown Sunday, January 25th will be the locally made “Metcalf South Memories.” Directed by W. David Keith. “Metcalf South Memories” will screen at 5:30 p.m.. Tickets will be $5 and will go on sale this Friday, January 16th. The following is a short synopsis of the Film by the filmmaker:”After almost 50 years, the time has come to say farewell to the greatest mall ever built. In Metcalf South’s final days, former employees, friends and customers of Metcalf South have been invited back to have one last chance to relive the greatest times of their life and say goodbye to their oldest dearest shopping mall. This is their story, but in some ways…it is the story of us all. To paraphrase Sir Winston Churchill: “Never in the field of Human Commerce have so many held so much to One Mall.”