Young Lust

FRI 1/7
Support the arts, blah, blah, blah. The graduates who explode out of the doors of the Kansas City Art Institute to scramble like baby sea turtles toward the ocean of artistic success have chosen their perilous path. Why should we feel obligated to help them? Because Kansas City has a fucking amazing group of young artists in its lap right now, and anyone sick of this town being known only for barbecue and dead jazz musicians oughta sit up and take notice.

Y-Topia, a showcase of the city’s Generation-Y artists (born between 1976 and 1981), opens Friday with a reception from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Byron C. Cohen Gallery (2020 Baltimore, 816-421-5665). Curated by true believer James Brinsfield and featuring new work by Lynus Young, Eric Sall and Peter Demos, among others, this may be the show that, as Brinsfield suggests, makes KC the Barcelona to some rising Picasso. But paintings have gotta sell. Let’s not wuss out, Kansas City. —Jason Harper

Gone in 60 Seconds

TUE 1/11
The KC filmmakers’ group Unreel held its first 1-minute-movie festival last April. It received 30 submissions, and about 150 people showed up to watch. Those numbers were huge for a fledgling group, and the event provided further confirmation of Kansas City’s growing indie-film scene. Now, with One Minute Meltdown Volume 2: Happiness … Or Not!, Unreel is asking for another round of 60-second flicks, all of which will be shown — provided that the auteurs address the happiness-unhappiness theme and bring their creations on DVD or mini DV half an hour before the festival begins at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Westport Coffee House, 4010 Pennsylvania. “We put these events on to give ourselves an excuse to try new things,” says John Bergin, the event coordinator and inveterate pessimist who tacked “Or Not!” onto the festival’s title. Call 816-756-3221 for more information. — Harper

Mad World

1/9-1/30
The KC installment of the Human Rights Video Proj-ect, a national endeavor to increase social awareness through documentaries, kicks off at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Westport Library (118 Westport Road) with State of Denial, a chronicle of the AIDS epidemic in South Africa. Subsequent Sundays in January see screenings of Promises, which tells the stories of seven children living in Israel and Palestine; Behind the Label, a look at harsh conditions in Saipan’s garment industry; and Calling the Ghosts, an analysis of the effects on women of the war in Bosnia. Call 816-701-3484. — Annie Fischer