Kansas City, Mo. ? A new exhibit at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art features more than 150 photographs from Wendy Ewald’s work with children around the world.

“Secret Games: Wendy Ewald Collaborative Works with Children, 1969-1999” runs Sept. 15-Dec. 8 at the museum, 4420 Warwick Blvd.

Ewald will be in residence at the museum during the show’s duration and will speak at 2 p.m. Sept. 15 at the exhibit’s opening reception. The reception is from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Ewald started her work with children on an Indian reservation in Canada in 1969 as a documentary investigation of places and communities. Her projects over the years have evolved to focus on questions of identity and cultural differences. She encourages her students to create portraits of self and community, to articulate their own personal fantasies, dreams and hopes, and to work with her in a visual and verbal collaboration.

She chooses rural communities, which often don’t have many resources, where it may be a child’s first experience or a new experience with photography. Ewald has worked in communities in Appalachia, Colombia, India, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and North Carolina. While general subjects of family, self and community exist in their images, her student’s images reflect the culture around them. In her work with South African children in 1992, issues of racism emerged in the images. Issues of poverty can be seen in the photographs from her projects in Kentucky and Canada.

Special events include a guided tour of the exhibit, 2 p.m. Oct. 12; a hands-on family workshop led by Kansas City artist Gabriel Rowe, 2 p.m.-4 p.m. Oct. 13; and a free screening of three short videos, “South Africa,” “Chiapas, Mexico” and “Vile Bodies: Kids,” 2 p.m. Nov. 24.

Museum hours are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.