Bailey Walton is a multidisciplinary artist based in Kansas City. She is inspired by the psychedelia of the natural world, exploring its’ shapes, textures, and patterns. Relatedly, she is interested in the manifestations of diversity in the natural and built world, including geologies, flora and fauna, local cultures and experiences, and landscapes. She has worked in watercolor, photography, metal, wood, fibers, printmaking, and found objects, and enjoys discovering the connections between materials, mediums, and instruments.
As a musician, she considers herself an Afro-Retroist, inspired by the history, genres, and instruments developed in the Black diaspora. She enjoys re-imagining soul, reggae, and country-blues music on the banjo and guitar. She has handcrafted several gourd banjos.
Her background in applied ethics and public administration led to her primary social practice focus: achieving personal and collective autonomy through collaboration, accessibility, sustainability, and a celebration of diversity. After several years of organizing autonomously and with other organizations, she founded Kansas City Mutual Aid in March of 2020, establishing a forum for local community to request and offer aid without judgment, and additional programming: Feedin’ Folks Free Hot Meal Delivery, Avant Garden Community Garden, and the Kansas City Mutual Aid Free Skool, offering free workshops in creative and practical skills. Kansas City Mutual Aid has organized annual Mutual Aid Days – a conference for community organizations providing mutual aid to commune, collaborate, and present their work to the public, and an art market to support other local creatives.
She previously served as a cultural equity advisor to the Country Dance and Song Society, Chair of the Kansas City Folk Festival and as a member of the inaugural ArtsKC Civic Leadership cohort.
2025 Charlotte Street Foundation Cultural Producer Grant (Kansas City Folk Festival), Kansas City, MO
2024 Charlotte Street Foundation Cultural Producer Grant (KC Mutual Aid Free Skool), Kansas City, MO
2024 Yarn Social Grant (KC Mutual Aid Free Skool), Kansas City, MO
2024 JCCC Studio Arts Department Scholarship, Overland Park, KS
2023 Community Mental Health Grant, Wyandotte County, KS
2023 No Depression Magazine (banjocraft), Summer Issue
2022 Black Banjo Reclamation Project Banjo Craft Fellowship, Port Townsend, WA
2021 No. 1 Magazine, Vol 71, Happy Foods Photo Series
2021 KC Farm School Lets Grow! Panelist, Kansas City, KS
Education:
2019-present Studio Arts, University of Missouri-Kansas City / Johnson County Community College
2016-2019 Master of Public Administration, University of Missouri-Kansas City
2009-2013 Bachelor of Arts, Psychology, University of Missouri-Kansas City