Neon tube Bender Story – Stephanie Leedy
April 2, 2025
Erin Gould Ph.D., Bill Ost, Leslie Gilbert
Neon artist Stephanie Leedy built her glass art and neon bending career while also supporting local artists and the Kansas City art scene, furthering the metropolitan area’s legacy of support for the arts and its artists.
Born in Aberdeen, South Dakota, Stephanie grew up following her sculptor and art historian father, Jim Leedy, to Missoula, Montana, Athens, Ohio, and finally Kansas City, Missouri, where he joined the sculpture faculty at the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI). While teaching at KCAI, Jim fostered communities of artists in downtown and midtown KC, earning him the title “Grandfather of the Crossroads.”
Herself a sculpture student at KCAI, Stephanie worked closely with Dale Eldred, another prominent sculptor in the department. Her undergraduate work focused on the use of kinetics and movement in larger steel sculptures. Stephanie attended graduate school at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, where she studied glass blowing and worked with light. One weekend there, her cohort of glass blowers studied under neon artist Fred Tschida—her first introduction to working with neon.
However, when Stephanie moved back to Kansas City in 1984, she no longer had a neon bender to enable her light-focused art. So, she thought, “Maybe I could learn to do it myself.” She found a mentor in Jewel Bolan at Atlas Sign in Kansas City, Kansas. She peered through the screen door of Bolan’s shop, where he worked with Jerry Finney, and remembers “[seeing] this cute old guy….” Upon introducing herself, Bolan handed her a piece of glass and said, “Here, bend this.” On her second day, she made stacks of “Open” signs, which include every type of bend in neon. And so began Stephanie’s mentorship with Bolan, who she describes as “the grandfather [she] never had.”
After a year with Bolan, Stephanie could not find work as a neon bender, still considered to be “men’s work.” She briefly worked at a sign shop before buying equipment from a closed shop, with the help of her father and Bolan. Renting a space from Gary Crater, she opened Downtown Neon at 116 W. 18th Street in Kansas City, Missouri. Soon after, Jordana Arnold joined Stephanie, making theirs the only women-owned-and-operated neon shop. They worked together for a few years until Arnold moved with her family to Lawrence, Kansas.
After 10 years, Stephanie left Downtown Neon to help run her family’s galleries in Kansas City. There, she created a light gallery for artists to show all types of light art, including neon. Notably, Stephanie organized an exhibition called “Traveling Light” for the 1998 Glass Art Society conference, held in Seto, Japan. Her exhibition included the work of about 20 neon artists and glass blowers from across the United States.
During her career, Stephanie worked on many notable neon signs, including those for the Boulevard Café, the Uptown Theater, the Gem Theater, and the Majestic Steakhouse, in addition to numerous public and private works. Still engaged in the arts community, Stephanie continues her father’s legacy through her work at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center at 2012 Baltimore Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64108. For more information, visit: https://www.leedy-voulkos.com
