Play Dominoes at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art  

An installation by artist Edra Soto at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri.
A close-up of one of Edra Soto’s installations at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: Kansas City Public Library 

Dominoes is a classic game that’s also high-energy. Think loud clacking of tiles and light-hearted trash-talking. It’s also a tool for community building. 

Maxi Moody has worked part-time at the Library for 25 years, including 17 years at the Bluford Branch. When she started at the Southeast Branch, she pitched a few programs, including playing dominoes.  

“People catch on fairly quickly, I think, because it’s an easy game,” says Moody, an evening and weekend supervisor who learned to play this tile-based game with numbered spots as a child.  

“And I just remember,” she says, “that it was a lot of laughter and a lot of fun.” 

Maxi Moody, an evening and weekend supervisor at the Southeast Branch, who heads up a dominoes group called Madd about Dominoes.

Moody now heads up a monthly dominoes club, Madd about Dominoes, at the Southeast Branch at 1 p.m. on the fourth Saturday of the month. On Thursday, October 22, she’s also partnering with the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art for a second free dominoes pop-up from 6 – 7:15 p.m. Registration is encouraged.   

The Kemper Museum’s installation “Edra Soto: the place of dwelling” inspired the collaboration. Soto, who lives in Chicago, Illinois, grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where playing dominoes is a tradition. The game remains an ongoing theme in her artistic practice. 

“Dominoes is such a critical part of her (Soto’s) upbringing,” Chief Curator Jessica S. Hong told FOX4’s Matt Stewart before the museum’s August 1 dominoes pop-up. “She’s really thinking about the intimate spaces that are meaningful to us, such as the home, being outside, (and) playing dominoes with each other.”  

In August, seasoned players and beginners were placed in groups of two or three at the museum. Moody says she noticed the same exuberant level of energy during those games as she sees at the Library. 

“They made us feel very welcome, and they had the tables all set up in the atrium,” she says. “I went from table to table and played with them, a game or two. And then I moved on to the next one.”  

Just like the Library sessions, visitors can stay the entire time or stop by to play a game or two. Moody says it provides a friendly environment to just slow down. 

“It’s relaxing and a lot of fun,” she says, “and it gets you out and gets your brain working.”