![]() These public art installations were designed by some of Kansas City’s most respected artists with hundreds of volunteers pitching in to help bring their visions into reality.ĭiscover murals in all shapes, sizes, and designs in Midtown, Overland Park, Westport, Crossroads, Kansas City, Kansas, North Kansas City and the Historic Northeast, as well as 18th & Vine, Troost, Downtown, Country Club Plaza, West Bottoms and River Market. In September 2020, several communities came together to create street installations for the Black Lives Mattermovement in major thoroughfares throughout the city. This mural follows the history of the region, shared by Indigenous, Black, white and Latino people. The block-long wall along Metropolitan Avenue is 660 feet long, 23 feet wide and the mural took seven artists and a cadre of high school-age volunteers to complete. Seven artists worked together to show the history and diversity of the community.Īn earlier mural in the region is the “Anthology of Argentine”mural in Kansas City, Kansas, which was painted in 1998. One of our newest murals is in Roeland Park, Kansas, which unveiled its latest installation of public art in October on an expansive, curved retaining wall along 47th Street. ![]() They can illustrate the history of an area or a particular building, to enrich an environment or exhibit a region’s values. But murals aren’t necessarily just about urban beautification. With urban expansion eroding the distinction between the metro areas, murals help define the uniqueness of a neighborhood. Libby Hanssen Artist Emily Alvarez finishing her portion of Roeland Park's 47th Street mural. UMKC also has historic murals by artists Luis Quintanilla and Joseph Fleck in Haag Hall, watching over students and faculty as they navigate their academic days. But his unique multi-paneled later works can be seen in the UMKC and Rockhurst University libraries. His first mural, “Westport Landing”(1942), was for Paseo High School, in a building no longer there. Thomas Hart Benton is probably the best known of our local historic muralists, and you can see some of his work in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and in the Thomas Hart Benton Home & Studio State Historical Site, where a smaller scale version of his Harzfeld's Department Store muralis displayed (the original is featured in the Smithsonian).Įric Bransby studied with Benton at the Kansas City Art Institute (where many of our contemporary muralists also studied) and was a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City for 20 years. Many displays from the early days are no longer visible, as the buildings they adorned were demolished and the artwork either destroyed or (in luckier circumstances) moved to a new location or into storage.īut we can still see remnants of what might have been with the shadows of faded signs from businesses long gone, and - while acknowledging their precarity - appreciate the vibrancy our current murals offer to our environment. During the 1930s and 1940s, funding from the Works Progress Administration and a penchant for American regionalism helped artists create murals that reflected our communities and everyday scenes.Īt the mercy of nature and the whims of passersby, murals are at constant risk of damage and deterioration. We’ve had murals in our public spaces for nearly 100 years in Kansas City, though walls of art (and ceilings and floors) are a millennia-old concept. Photo by Libby Hanssen "The Bitter Moral" by Luis Quintanilla is one of several murals watching over students and faculty inside the University of Missouri-Kansas City. ![]() Whatever your approach, these large-scale works of art are worth a closer look. Murals can simply serve as a backdrop to your exploration or be the entire purpose of your excursions around town. Sometimes they're a method of advertising, storytelling or just good old displays of artistry. They're a means of expressing civic pride, celebrating our histories, broadcasting our values and attracting visitors. Inside, outside and on the underside of bridges, the entirety of our built landscape is a potential canvas.Īs with any public art, murals are art for the people, accessible and free to enjoy. This public art form adorns not only walls but sidewalks and roads, alleyways, utility boxes, fences, garage doors and even streetcars. There are well over 200 murals in the Kansas City metro, so ubiquitous that we are as much The City of Murals as we are The City of Fountains. You can sign up to receive stories like this in your inbox every Tuesday. This story was first published in KCUR's Creative Adventure newsletter. ![]()
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