We all remember the song The Itsy, Bitsy Spider. While I can’t identify the writer of this classic children’s song, Iza Trapani wrote a children’s book by the same name, all about that spider.
I cannot help but believe that if that itsy, bitsy spider had grown up, it would look much like this spider, a bronze sculpture cast in 1997 by the artist, Louise Bourgeois. It sits on the lawn of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, a short walk from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Mid-Town Kansas City.
Behind her, poised on the museum wall, is the “bitsy” version of the Kemper’s Spider.
Shifting the Balance 
It was love at first sight of this spider for me. I recently told a new Iowa friend who had visited the Nelson-Atkins to be sure to visit the Kemper Museum. I did not tell him who would greet him. I thought he might like to be surprised.
I love the Spider as well. I do not remember whether it was acquired for the museum during Dan Keegan’s tenure as museum director or whether it came later.