Belger Cartage Service (1919); Belger Arts Center 2000-Present

The brick structure is the national headquarters of Belger Cartage Service, Inc., a company established in Kansas City in 1919 that provides warehousing services at locations in several states along with crane,heavy hauling, and specialty transportation services nationwide. Since 2000, the building has also been home to the Belger Arts Center which has hosted over 100 contemporary art exhibitions. Exhibitions draw from the extensive Belger Collection as well as a variety of local, national, and international artists. The Belger Arts Center is open to the public and provides free guided tours along with a variety of educational experiences ranging from summer art camps for children to adult ceramics classes.

The arts center is located in the building that also serves as the headquarters of the transportation and industrial services company established by Richard Belger in 1919. At that time, Belger owned only one truck, but he grew the company by offering a variety of services from transportation and warehousing to crane services and custom installation and removal of heavy equipment. The company now has locations and offices in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas.

In addition to serving as the Belger Cartage Company headquarters for over a century, the building has hosted over a hundred art exhibitions dating back to 2010 when Evelyn Craft Belger and Dick Belger decided to dedicate two of the building's three stories to exhibition space and storage for their growing personal collection of mostly modern works. The couple also transformed part of the space in the industrial building where they have a loft on nearby Tracy Avenue into the Belger Crane Yard Studios. In a 2015 article for American Craft Magazine, the couple explained that they hoped opening their building to artists and providing studio space and other support would help Kansas City grow and sustain a vibrant arts community.

Belger Arts Center is the first of three Belger Arts locations. Belger Crane Yard Studios (2011 Tracy Avenue) is an arts complex that opened in 2013, dedicated to providing studio and exhibition space for artists, a range of programming in ceramics education, an artist in residence program, and Crane Yard Clay ceramics supply store. The Belger Glass Annex (1219 E. 19^th Street), the first public glass-blowing studio of its scale and scope, opened in 2021, providing classes, public programs, and a visiting artist program. Programming at all three locations has made Belger Arts a center for contemporary art.  

Evelyn Belger explained to American Craft Magazine that part of their decision to open their home is to provide not only support but create a safe environment. "That’s another reason for us to be sure to live here," Evelyn explained. "When we first lived here, before all this [renovation work on the building], there was quite a bit of unsavory activity going on right at that dead end. In time, that has improved."

Hanus, Julie K. The Big Picture, American Craft Magazine. April 20th, 2015. Accessed August 27th, 2022. https://www.craftcouncil.org/magazine/article/big-picture.

History, Belger Cartage Services. Accessed August 27th, 2022. https://belger.net/cartage/?page_id=388.