Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Start with the grass. Underfoot, the lawn runs wide and green toward a long pale building of limestone columns. And there, scattered across the slope as if dropped from the sky, sit giant white badminton shuttlecocks. Each one is taller than a person. On a quiet morning you can hear sprinklers ticking, a few birds, the low traffic of the city beyond the trees. Welcome to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, in the heart of Kansas City.

The museum carries two names, and they belong to two very different people. The first is William Rockhill Nelson, the founder of the Kansas City Star newspaper. He was a forceful, opinionated man who wanted his growing city to have parks, boulevards, and culture. In his will, he left his fortune to buy art for the public. The museum stands on the grounds of his former estate, which he called Oak Hall.

The second name belongs to Mary Atkins. She was a former schoolteacher and a widow, and she was far less famous than Nelson. Yet she also left money in her will for an art museum in Kansas City. The two bequests were eventually combined into one project. So the next time you hear the name, remember that it joins a powerful newspaper publisher and a quiet teacher. Both of them imagined the same thing for their city.

The museum opened its doors in 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression. That timing turned out to be useful. Across the world, collectors and families were selling art they could no longer afford to keep. The trustees had money to spend, and they bought widely and carefully. Many of the works you see today came into the collection during those difficult years, when prices were low and important pieces were suddenly available.

Look at the original building in front of you. It is a classical design, with tall columns, broad steps, and clean stone walls. The architects were the Kansas City firm Wight and Wight. Inside, the grand central space is Kirkwood Hall, a tall room lined with dark columns of polished stone. Stand there for a moment and notice how sound behaves. Footsteps and voices rise and soften in the high space above you.

Now turn your eyes to the east side of the lawn. A very different building runs down the slope. This is the Bloch Building, designed by the American architect Steven Holl and opened in 2007. Instead of one heavy block, it is a series of glass boxes that Holl called lenses. They step down the hill alongside the old stone museum. Many visitors walk right past the connection between the two buildings without noticing how carefully it was planned.

Here is the first surprise. Much of the Bloch Building is actually underground. The glass lenses you see above the lawn are only the tops of galleries below. During the day, they pull soft, milky daylight down into the rooms. At night, the effect reverses. Light from inside the galleries glows outward, and the lenses shine across the dark grass like lanterns. If you can, come back after sunset to see it.

Now, back to those shuttlecocks. They are a sculpture called Shuttlecocks, created by the artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen and installed in the 1990s. Oldenburg was known for turning ordinary objects into enormous public sculptures. Here is the playful idea behind this one. The artists imagined the museum building itself as a badminton net. The shuttlecocks lie on both sides, as if a giant game has just been played across the roof.

The lawn around you is part of the Donald J. Hall Sculpture Park. Walk its paths and you will find works by many modern artists. The museum holds one of the largest collections of sculptures by Henry Moore, the British artist famous for rounded, reclining figures in bronze. Several of his pieces sit outdoors among the trees. Notice how the weather has changed their surfaces, with greens and browns forming on the metal over the years.

Inside, the collection covers thousands of years and many cultures. One of its great strengths is Chinese art. In the 1930s, a young scholar named Laurence Sickman helped the museum buy works in China, and he later became its director. The result is a collection of paintings, ceramics, furniture, and Buddhist sculpture that specialists travel to see. Take your time in these galleries. The rooms are calm, and the objects reward slow looking.

Here is the second surprise. In the European galleries hangs a painting by Caravaggio, the Italian master of the early seventeenth century who was known for dramatic contrasts of light and shadow. It shows Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness, a young man sitting in darkness with light falling across his body. Nearby you can find French Impressionist paintings, including a large panel of water lilies by Claude Monet. Stand back from the Monet, and then step close. The image changes.

If you need a pause, look for the Isamu Noguchi Sculpture Court. Noguchi was a Japanese American artist who worked with stone in very simple, quiet forms. The room collects many of his pieces together. It is a good place to sit and rest your eyes. The museum also has a café and a gift shop. Throughout the building, you will see families, students with sketchbooks, and local people who come back again and again.

The museum sits close to some of Kansas City's best walking areas. To the south, the Country Club Plaza offers shops and Spanish-style towers. Nearby, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art shows more recent work. The streets around the Nelson-Atkins are leafy and residential, with large old houses and wide boulevards. Kansas City is known for its many fountains, and you will likely pass several as you explore the neighbourhood.

Before you leave, stand on the lawn once more. On one side rises the old limestone temple of 1933. On the other side, the glass lenses step quietly down the hill. Between them, the giant shuttlecocks wait for the next serve. Two generous wills, a newspaper man and a schoolteacher, made all of this possible. As you walk away, look back once. Notice the light on the stone, and the grass where everyone is welcome to walk.