Meet The Bunker Staff

Jim Adams, Owner & Founder

Jim Adams is the founder of The Bunker Center For The Arts. Jim hopes to become the creative bridge between Kansas City's West Crossroads and the 18 & Vine Jazz District.

Jim Adams took up artistry in iron and steel after 24 years in the information technologies field. Prior to his years in IT, he had worked in the welding industry, selling specialty welding items for approximately 8 years. During that time developed the skill and knowledge of working with metals. His desire to do artful things with this knowledge was something of a ‘back burner’ interest that never seemed to go away.

In mid 2007, Jim decided to pursue the creation of artful things from iron and steel. The company ADAMS-FERRO Inc was set up to create and make available to the public objects of art in iron and steel. Practically all of the works are created from ‘rescued’ objects – scrap metal destined for the melting pots. Shapes and qualities of these various pieces of scrap become the inspiration for the works. Jim’s approach is to find and create beauty or thought provoking aspects from the many times unique characteristics of the items he finds.

Tj Templeton, Gallery Director, Curator & Resident artist

Officially assuming his new role at the Bunker Center for the Arts in December of 2017, Tj Templeton brings with him a skillset that spans both sides of the art sales business. Templeton's emergence onto the Kansas city art scene started in the early 1990s as a fine artist, but was interrupted when he relocated to rural Iowa and Nebraska for a little over a decade. While residing in Nebraska, he quickly became a force in the fine art scene and eventually crossed over from a producer of fine art to a dealer and curator of art.

Tj began his career in curating and gallery management overseeing Spatium Gallery in Lincoln, Nebraska. Gallery owner, Angel Settel watched her fledgling gallery quadruple in sales as well as square footage in just two years under

Templeton's management. Spatium closed its doors in 2016 when Settel relocated to California and Templeton returned to Kansas City.

Templeton's work spans performance, digital media, printmaking, and every method of drawing and painting from watercolor to oils to encaustic. Painting is his passion and accounts for the vast majority of his work. He is typically a figurative and realist painter, inspired by social justice issues and the human condition.

Dawn Park, Gallery Assistant & Resident artist

A native of Texas who already had an impressive art experience for a student and a young artist, Dawn came to Kansas City to obtain her BFA in Illustration at Kansas City Art Institute around 2019. With her time at the Art Institute, she has gotten the chance to do a whole range experiences. She was able to be an intern for the known art non-profit, Kansas City Artists Coalition, and was chosen to be one of two volunteer leaders for the National Illustration Conference during the summer of 2022. Seeing that she's this friendly infectious ball of helpfulness and laughter, she won the Mentorship Award (Illustration) during graduation. On top of that, she comes back to guest lecture to the Illustration students twice in the fall semester due to her innovative, curious nature as a young artist.

Now as a fairly recent graduate who decided to stick around, she is navigating her artist life with her best foot forward. From becoming the gallery assistant for the Bunker Center for the Arts to being a board member to Northeast Arts KC, she is making herself known as a busy and helpful bee with loveable goofy energy in the art scene here.

With her own artwork, she is somewhat a jack of all trades. It spans from things like drawings to paintings to digital illustrations to augmented reality. She knows and understands all forms of illustration, and she knows how to depict in various styles too. Like cat who always lands of their feet, Dawn can make anything that she makes look good -- regardless of medium and style.