When Julian Foley thinks of Kenny Greene, he thinks of his wedding ring. The two designed it together when Foley was Greene’s apprentice in jewelry-making.
“He cast it in yellow gold and set a ruby in it since that was the design we came up with,” Foley recalled. “When I went to go pay for it, he just put it in my hands — kind of like Gandalf did to Frodo — and he just said, ‘It’s a gift,’ and ‘Have a good wedding.’ The guy just handed me a chunk of ruby and gold for free, and I was speechless. Furthermore, he came to the wedding.”
Foley met Greene when he took his jewelry-making class at Columbia College and served as his apprentice after graduation. He is one of many happy to talk about the artist’s steadfast generosity.
Greene was widely known and well-regarded in Columbia, notably in the arts community. He was a jeweler, an art professor, a tai chi instructor and the unofficial mayor of the North Village Arts District.
Greene died Sunday, according to a Facebook post from the North Village Arts District, where Greene served as a board member and where his business, Monarch Jewelry, was located. He was 75. In a Facebook post Monday, a family member thanked people for their outpouring of condolences and asked for privacy as they grieve and make arrangements. A memorial service will be held in the spring.
The North Village Arts District announced Wednesday that this week’s First Friday art crawl will feature businesses planning to honor Greene’s memory. They include Orr Street Studios, which will have a table with mementos, Sager Reeves Gallery, which will present a video honoring Greene, and Wishflour Bakery, which will have a memorial set up in its common room.
“He was without a doubt one of the most loved artists in our community,” the North Village post said. “ ... He touched every single life that came across his path.”
Greene arrived in Columbia from St. Louis in 1970, telling Jake McMahon in a 2019 podcast that he finally felt “free” after transferring to the University of Missouri. After leaving school, he discovered the art of making jewelry by watching others craft Navajo jewelry and because he needed a way to display his scrimshaw, an indigenous art form of ivory carving.
“Jewelry is an art form first and foremost, so any time spent doing art is rewarding in itself,” Greene told Vox Magazine in 2019. “My whole life is about the arts — I don’t punch the clock.”
Greene operated Monarch Jewelry in Artist Alley between Orr and Tenth streets. He infused the North Village Arts District with his vision for a diverse neighborhood where art thrives.
“We’re trying to get that feeling again where a lot of artistic mom-and-pop-type operations are able to survive, offer the artistic in to people and be surrounded by the counterculture,” Greene told McMahon.
In 2024, Greene called for a year-round acknowledgment of Black history. He told KOMU 8 that everyone is an artist who shares a “common gene” of a desire to create and that the common gene can bring us all together.
“This is what I want to see,” he said. “I want to see more arts, more arts opportunities, more sharing of cultural history between each group and have it become part of the fabric of where you live.”
Greene served on the board of directors for Orr Street Studios and Gallery. Artist Jane Mudd, who taught with him for about 20 years at William Woods University and also serves on the board, reflected on his legacy.
“We loved him. He got along with the art faculty really well, and he was just a really good part of the dynamic there with helping our students succeed,” Mudd said, “and he’s always been a positive presence here at Orr Street.”
She said Greene was instrumental in bringing in the diversity that Orr Street has today through his programs and was an advocate for Columbia’s Black community.
Elizabeth Jordheim, owner of Serendipity Salon and Gallery, met Greene in 1993 through her husband, who took his tai chi classes. In their long friendship, Jordheim could count on Greene’s support.
“Everyone who was starting a new business, trying to become a working artist or develop in whatever way, he was there,” Jordheim said. “He’d look you straight in the face, smile at you, and then when he got to know you more, he would hug you on both sides, maybe give you a kiss on the cheek on both sides and take time. His personal interaction with people is what set him way above just a ‘Yeah, yeah, you can do it,’ kind of person.”
Greene helped motivate her when she moved from a smaller location near Monarch to her current space on East Walnut Street, Jordheim said.
“It was terrifying because this space was huge compared to what I had — it was a really big expansion,” she said. “And his words were ‘You’re gonna be successful because I know you’re gonna be successful.’ So I just trusted in him all the time, and if Kenny said it, I believed it.”
Greene was well known for his tai chi classes, which he taught at various locations around town since the 1990s. “He’s kind of like a zen master,” Mudd said of Greene’s personality.
Musician NicDanger met Greene at tai chi 15 years ago and considers him a mentor, friend and pillar in the community.
“I would ask him questions about anything, and he said, ‘To get the answer, you must get small. When you get small, get smaller, and when you get quiet, get more quiet,’” NicDanger recalled. “'Meditate on different things, and the answers will come to you.’”
