Public Art

Powder Coated Aluminum, Nylon Straps, UV Printed Acoustic Tiles.

Cloud Gazing is located in the New Terminal's concourse Connector, taking advantage of the long open perspective. The custom artwork includes 10 "clouds" with colorful backgrounds; frames with white nylon straps form a barrier-grid animation. This creates the appearance of movement as travelers walk or glide on the moving walkways below. The glass-sided connector offers views of the airfield and sky on both sides, complemented by the custom artwork overhead.

A series of ten cloud-like forms suspended along the concourse ceiling. Hanging nylon straps give each cloud a three dimensional and billowing quality while obscuring vibrant interlaced patterns printed on the ceiling tiles above each cloud. As visitors walk down the concourse or travel on the moving walkways, the straps and interlaced image produce unexpected animations through the pattern interference they create. 

Cloud Gazing is inspired by the dream-like quality of watching clouds over the expansive plains of the Midwest, as well as pareidolia, the tendency to see images in nebulous forms like clouds. The artwork consists of ten cloud-like forms suspended along the concourse ceiling. Hanging nylon straps of varying and precise length hang down to give each cloud a three-dimensional and billowing quality while obscuring vibrant images above each cloud. These images are made of four prismatic combinations of color that are interlaced together and archivally printed on the acoustic tiles within the frame of each cloud. Together the straps and images produce a three-dimensional barrier-grid animation. The image shifts as visitors walk down the concourse or move at a constant speed on the moving walkways. Depending on a visitor’s orientation, they will notice the animated shift between the interlaced images, or they will see a softer shift in colors through the pattern interference created between the hanging straps and the image above. This animated pattern interference is both unexpected and creates a sensation that the clouds are moving. These vibrant and animated forms take advantage of the space in the concourse as a place where people don’t often expect a magical daydream-like experience where they may or may not notice that they are seeing images in the clouds. 

Image credit:
Photo Credit: Alan Tansey, 2023.

Aluminum composite panels.

Inside a stairway, within a parking garage, surrounded by an airport, movement is everywhere. Zooming further out, the context expands and we see Kansas City, a cultural hotbed and fountain of musical innovation.   

Flights celebrates the improvisational character of Kansas City jazz and the aerodynamic forms that enable flight. Featuring a variety of widths and palettes, the project’s streamlined fins evoke the qualities of feathers and airfoils. Running parallel to the trajectory of the switchback stairways, the fins weave together into a syncopated rhythm, punctuated by unique apertures and moments of contrast that invite exploration and discovery. Beyond the nuanced moments and details that one encounters directly while passing through the stairway, the artwork’s broad and generous scale create a dramatic visual impact when observed from a distance, particularly when illuminated at night. 

Just as melodies are made of multiple notes, and communities are defined by people who live there, Flights is a collection of individual parts that gains meaning and strength when joined together to create a greater whole. 

Photos courtesy of Hou de Sousa, 2023.

Steel, LEDs, custom software and electrical hardware.

Leo Villareal’s Fountain (KCI) is a light sculpture that pays homage to Kansas City’s legacy as The City of Fountains. The artwork transforms this gateway into a welcoming and dynamic environment. 

Throughout history, fountains have played a key role in human settlements as well as in historical and mythological stories. Fountains act as beautiful sites of gathering, and as places to make wishes. They are public spaces that encourage socialization and connection. Fountain (KCI) integrates these age-old tenants of human civilization into a contemporary form that employs software and light to create an immersive experience. The artwork is composed of simple and repeating metallic forms embedded with thousands of monochromatic LEDs, through which Villareal evokes the movement of water. 

Villareal’s bespoke sequencing software allows him to arrange light patterns in random, non-repeating order creating a presentation that is constantly evolving. Fountain (KCI), is ever-changing, eliciting circulation and breath within the terminal. Like Villareal’s greater body of work, Fountain (KCI) explores not only sculptural physicality but adds the dimension of time, combining both spatial and temporal resolution. The resulting forms move, change, interact, and ultimately grow into complex compositions that are inspired by mathematician John Conway’s work with cellular automata and the Game of Life. 

The cyclic shape of the sculpture's body is informed by the toroid—a nested and balanced geometry—the repetition of which expresses a sense of harmony. Metallic extrusions containing the LEDs emerge from a mirrored sculptural pedestal, which creates a bowl of light akin to a reflecting pool. Reflective materials allow the sculpture’s structural components to recede into and embody their environment. The base reflects and amplifies the sequenced light, integrating the piece with its surroundings. 

Fountain (KCI) harnesses the power of light to elicit a universal human response as it bridges Kansas City’s past to its future.

Image by: Copyright 2023. Photo by James Ewing _JBSA.

Ceramic stoneware and glaze on wooden plinth. 2022.

Nine larger-than-life ceramic jazz musicians stand together at the new airport towards their next gig, with instrument cases in tow. Their clothing is decorated with glazed, molded ceramic patterns that subtly reference popular symbols of Kansas City culture and history. Together the group represents the diversity of Kansas City’s people, celebrates historic jazz culture and love of travel.

Photo courtesy of Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program.

Stainless steel, dichroic acrylic

This composition honors Bennie Moten (1894-1935), whose innovative “Moten Swing” helped Kansas City become the only UNESCO City of Music in the United States. Jazz makes something new of ordinary musical materials. Molten Swing uses ordinary steel frames and acrylic tiles to sculpt a malleable visual structure that changes as travelers and light flow through the space. It is a center of energy that reshapes the space around it.

Photo courtesy of Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program.

Assembled alto saxophones.

“Ornithology” is an installation by Willie Cole in the New Terminal at Kansas City International Airport. The work consists of twelve larger-than-life birds made entirely from alto saxophones. Suspended from the ceiling in City Market-themed Retail Node B, this suspended artwork is a tribute to Kansas City native son and jazz great, Charlie “Yardbird” Parker, and his 1946 tune titled "Ornithology". The birds were constructed in the historic 18th & Vine District in Kansas City and installed in the New Terminal on October 24, 2022, with support from project partners Lillian Cho, Lighting Director Hortense Duthilleux, and Mike “The Horn Doctor” Corrigan of BAC Music.

Photos by from the ground UP photography, 2022.

Steel, aluminum, programmed LEDs

Sky Prairie is an illuminated, kinetic artwork that takes inspiration from the topography, flowing grasses and warm golden hues of the rolling hills of Kansas City’s surrounding landscape. The artwork is activated by amber-hued lighting sequences, and from air currents resulting from vehicles moving through the arrivals roadway. 

Located at two crosswalks along the Arrivals Roadway,Sky Prairie creates an unexpected immersive experience for travelers as they take their first steps out of the Kansas City Airport Terminal, and into the western Missouri geography and culture. 

The work is comprised of two arrays of 1,714 painted aluminum tubes fastened to a horizontal frame that floats above pedestrians at each crosswalk location. The bottom edge of the tubes is carved into an undulating topography that rises and falls, lifts and descends throughout the ceiling like the rolling hills of the local Osage Plains. Each tube is suspended on a stainless steel aircraft cable which allows it to shift back and forth in sequence along with the other tubes that move in response to air currents flowing through the space.

The artwork is painted shades of golden orange and warm yellows, capturing the hues of the area’s natural grasses and their interaction with sunlight. Integrated LED lighting elements that complement these vibrant colors create subtle highlights that pulse throughout the piece, beckoning travelers on their journey outwards to explore the Kansas City area, and altering the artwork in appearance and sensation each time it is encountered.

Renderings courtesy Jill Anholt Studio
Photos by f-stop photography, 2023.

Nearly 3000 individual strands create an overhead spinner installation spanning almost 500 feet long. The custom wind spinners depict icons from the Kansas City region such as fountains, native animals, as well as symbols of equality and love, inspired by the magic of flight.

The Air Up There is an expansion of Cave’s installation at Mass MoCA which was envisioned as a way to put yourself in the belly of a soundsuit. All the color, memory and exuberance of the soundsuit, in this case, is exploded into a kinetic sculpture made from thousands of colorful wind spinners delivering positive tenets as

well as local icons. It is a way to convey the importance of every tiny thing to a greater whole and as a reminder of our own place in a world much larger than ourselves. By making use of a reflective ceiling surface the spinner field will reflect upon itself and create an expansive and unending, infinity-like feeling.

Additional credit: Bob Faust, designer
Commissioned in 2022. Installed 2023.
Photos by From the ground UP photography, 2023.

Ceramic stoneware with slips and glazes.

Wings consists of four large-scale ceramic sculptures which were built by hand by the artist using slab and coil techniques. They were dried for ten months, then painted with slips and glazes formulated by the artist. Each wing was fired separately in a large kiln which was fired for two hundred hours for each wing.

The two largest central wings, which are nearly ten feet tall, operate as a diptych which mirror each other and are connected by a patterned sphere that represents the human fingerprint. The smaller, eight-foot wings which flank the central wings on both sides have supportive imagery which connects all four elements visually.

The totemic orientation of the wing forms relates to totems that have been made by humans for thousands of years, except in this case they are clearly representations of modern airplane wings. The imagery is a codex of human and natural flight as well as iconography of the region.

The wavy blue line at the lower part of each wing represents how the Missouri river winds through Kansas City. The pattern below the river is that of a dragonfly, one of the earliest life forms to master flight. The light blue background color represents the sky of Kansas in the summer. The flowers floating on the light blue are from the Flowering Dogwood, the state tree of Missouri. The Honeybee on the left wing is the state insect of Kansas, the Eastern Bluebird on the far right wing is the state bird of Missouri. The airplane on the center wings is a Lockheed Vega, which is the plane that Amelia Earhart flew solo from the west coast to Hawaii. She was from the Kansas City area. The ailerons of the wings are painted in signal flag colors, spelling KCMO when read left to right. My hope is that over time travelers will unravel the meaning of the imagery and that all travelers who walk by the sculptures will have a positive experience enjoying the large wing forms and their colorful surfaces. The profile of the wings can be seen from a distance and are identifiable as wing forms as vehicles approach the terminal, especially at night.

Additional credits: A. Zahner Company for design and construction of the plinth, Belger Cartage Services for transport and installation of artwork, Shackbuilt for wood decking on the plinth.

Photo courtesy of Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program.

Archival Pigment Print, 2021. Installed 2022.

Cone Worship captures a pyramid-shaped wind direction indicator placed near runways to guide aircraft takeoffs and landings. The artist states "Through my work I highlight the beauty and complexity of subtle, sometimes completely unnoticed surroundings. I'm always scanning for unique shapes, distinct patterns or superior light. I combine the uniquely complex aspects of everyday industrial or organic landscapes with artistic components like contrast or unpredictable compositions."

I began my career as a photographer using traditional techniques and building my skills in a wet side darkroom. As I have evolved as an artist, so have my photographic processes. By integrating digital technology into my artistic process I have found that subtle modifications to an original image can produce a very unique and visually striking final product. At a glance, my work can be described as landscape photography, although my images represent a diverse array of subject matter including manufactured and natural subjects. Through my work I attempt to highlight the beauty and complexity of subtle, sometimes completely unnoticed surroundings. I am constantly on point to find my next shot, always scanning my surroundings for unique shapes, distinct patterns or superior light. I find uniquely complex aspects of everyday landscapes, industrial or organic, and combine them with artistic components like contrast or unpredictable compositions to make an image my own.

Process photo courtesy of the artist.

Photo courtesy of Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program

Mixed-media, found objects, giclée archival prints, light, sound and video on acrylic.

This art installation explores the immigrant experience, forced and voluntary human migration, BIPOC histories, and systemic generational segregation. The artist contemplates how displaced communities unite—despite hostile environments—to sustain their cultural identities. White X’ed panels represent historically excluded narratives of color. The artist says, “We don’t have to whitewash or censor stories. With understanding and solidarity, we can tell a more complete, honest people’s history.”

My imagery focuses on the immigrant experience, BIPOC histories, and the systematic segregation of other communities across generations, to engender a broad and diverse understanding of what it means to be seen.

Diáspora No.1X shows how displaced communities have come together to secure and maintain their cultural identities in hostile environments—locally, nationally, and internationally. This work conjures the essence of human migration, both forced and voluntary, and celebrates its triumphs as well as learning from this country’s past inhumanities. In this installation of a people’s history, it is critical that I don’t depict a sanitized, white-washed version of history or of community. Therefore, I use X’ed white panels to represent stories or imagery that has historically been white-washed.

Diáspora No.1X reflects the continued dedication of my contemporary art practice to honestly share diverse and connected narratives while being sensitive and respectful in my research and representation of the challenging and complex subject matter I choose.

A diaspora is a scattered population whose origin lies in a separate geographic locale. Historically, the word diaspora was used to refer to the mass dispersion of a population from its indigenous territories. While the word was originally used to describe the forced displacement of certain peoples, “diaspora” is now generally used to describe those who identify with a “homeland,” but live outside of it. In all cases, the term diaspora carries a sense of displacement.

Photo Courtesy of Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program, 2023.

Vinyl Printed Digital Images on Plexiglass.

This acrylic sculpture features digital images of "Dream Clouds" and flowers from the artist's ceramic artworks. As the daughter of a florist, Torres grew up surrounded by beautiful colors and amazing smells, forms and shapes. The artist says, "Flowers represent the fragility of the cycle of life. Their presence always brings me joy."

“Dreaming Of The Beautiful Places You Will Go allowed me to communicate my autobiographical narrative of being an artist/educator into this large plexiglass sculpture made of digitally printed images of my ceramic artworks. As a daughter of a florist, I have always been surrounded by beautiful colorful flowers, amazing smells, forms and shapes. Flowers are intrinsic to all of my sculptures. For me, flowers represent the fragility of the cycle of life. Their presence always brings me joy. The self-portrait in this artwork is in a state of wanderlust, eyes wide open, dreaming of what I lovingly refer to as “Dream Clouds” that attract enchanting butterflies, representing endless opportunities to come. The Java Sparrows in the art piece represent my cheerleaders, allowing me to manifest my intentions of making an artwork bigger, stronger and more beautiful than I have ever made. It has been an amazing journey watching my big dreams of building a permanent sculpture for many generations to enjoy. I hope by planting big, beautiful Dream Cloud-seeds of intentions into the universe they will grow into a positive, loving, beautiful world for us all.”

Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program

Sewn, hand-dyed wool depicting flora and fauna of Kansas and Missouri region.

Sometimes referred to as “fly-over” country, the Midwest is home to a variety of ecosystems. This textile work offers a view of the wildlife in the Missouri / Kansas region far below the airplane cabin window. The colorful backdrop of hand-dyed wool comes from the artist’s family farm in rural Missouri.

Process photos courtesy of the artist, 2022.
Photo courtesy of Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program, 2023.

Acrylic on birchwood panels, epoxy, and ceramic tiles.

Hello and Goodbye relates to Liao's immigrant background and captures a fluid state between experience, memory, and place. Through various versions of this work the artist revisited images, snapshots, and memories until they began to morph, overlap, and unravel. The artist says, "In the design, I think about the division of spaces and how that translates in my composition and color choices. Ceramic tiles that capture fragments of memory interrupt once-familiar patterns."

“I immigrated to the US from Taiwan as a teenager. Growing up in the suburbs of Southern California, I remembered my father visiting every three months, traveling between my Taiwan home and my America home. My family became intimately familiar with the airport – we had our established routine of finding the same spot in the parking garage, which line was the fastest to check-in, followed by the exact same food court menu as our final parting meal, before we sent my father off to the long-winding security line. 

These routines were etched in my memory like a well-worn track through repetition; these are familiar rituals performed by many immigrant families, navigating the distance and the liminal space in-between. 

During the pandemic in 2020, as travel came to a stop, my family felt out of reach and the distance felt further than ever. Our screens became a portal bridging long distances, but also ironically a dividing wall. From this side of the screen, I watch as my grandmother’s memory deteriorates through dementia. We wave hello and goodbye, and watch our loved ones mirror us back - how casual and instantly gratifying a swipe or tap is, versus the physical impression and gravity of a squeeze of the hand, or an embrace. 

“Hello and Goodbye” documents a fluid state between experience, memory, and place. In the design, I think about the division of spaces and how it translates in my composition and color choices.  Ceramic tiles that capture fragments of memory interrupted once-familiar patterns. I revisit images, snapshots, and memories through iterations, until they begin to morph, overlap, and unravel.” - Kathy Liao, artist.

Artist photo by Jim Barcus, 2022.
Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program

Archival prints of digitally composed photographs.

These compositions invite the traveler to seek and discover familiar items found in carry-on luggage that flows through x-ray machines. The project and its title were inspired by the popular I Spy books which present thematic visual riddles.

For my photography, I embraced a shadow-show approach, a playful technique children often use to invent and perform stories. To photograph the individual articles, I placed them on a light table covered by a sheet of vellum paper. Then I digitally combined the pictures to construct each collage. I also created visual connections between the three compositions to further emphasize the continuous nature of an x-ray belt. My method slightly obscures the items, to convey mystery and intrigue. The dream-like imagery provides a calming moment for the travelers, and children will delight in recognizing familiar toys like dinosaurs and dolls. The viewer might even spot a pair of ruby-red slippers, a playful nod to our local cultural history.

What images can you find?

Process photos courtesy of the artist.
Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program

“I combine my drawings of long black hair with images of tall native grasses and wheat to depict the beauty of Kansas, as well as my identity of being a Chinese immigrant in the American Midwest. Each drawing is presented with scrolls on the ends like a traditional Chinese painting to accentuate the length and the flow of long hair.”

Process photos courtesy of the artist.
Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program

Stoneware and glaze.

In this work, Rachel Hubbard Kline celebrates Kansas City's history by combining patterns from her collection of ancestral quilts with news stories and quilt patterns published in the Kansas City Star 1928-1961. Laser engravings of historical events documented in the Kansas City Star and Kansas City Times appear on clay tiles that make up quilt-like geometric patterns.

In Kansas City: A Quilted History, Rachel Hubbard Kline pieces together Kansas City’s rich history through archived newspaper stories and traditional quilt patterns. The colorful ceramic tile installation sources quilt patterns published in the Kansas City Star between 1928 to 1961 and from her collection of ancestral quilts. Hubbard Kline researched historical events through archives of the Kansas City Star and the Kansas City Times, featuring topics such as mayoral elections, sporting victories, river floods, and cultural stories. Through a process of transferring  laser engraving onto clay slabs, the stories of our great city are emblazoned in heirloom patterns and colors. The resulting relief texture, though subtle, preserves Kansas City’s history for generations. Hubbard Kline blends the artful quilt patterns with the historic events, strengthening and preserving the bond between the cultures of home and of the city. “Rain Drop” represents river floods, “Four-Leaf Clover” references riverboat gambling and The Woodlands racetrack, “Many Roads to the White House” symbolizes Harry Truman’s presidential election, “Economy” speaks to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, and “Tumbling Blocks” laments the 1981 Hyatt Regency skywalk collapse.

Process photos courtesy of the artist.

Composite resin, fiberglass, muslin, acrylic paint, and varnish on wood panel.

Kansas City Reciprocity is a socially researched artwork that depicts six local farmers through their favorite things to grow. The artist visited their farms over the 2022 growing season to learn from the farmers and to document relationships between people, plants, and communities. The final project exists as a sculptural painting and as a documentary archive on the artist’s website. 

The Buffalo Seed Company, Longfellow Community Garden, Ki Koko Farms, Maseualkualli Farms, Sankara Farm and Young Family Farm are represented by Cherokee white corn, tomatoes, long beans, jicama, hot peppers, and okra. Patty pan squash, kiwano melon, and cucumbers are also included in the colorful array of produce. The cucumber and pickles represent the artist, who is also a gardener and food fermenter; he is moving throughout the piece and changing over time. 

A kinetic illustration of local diasporic foodways, Kansas City Reciprocity asks us to consider reciprocity as a foundational principle for building diverse communities. Reciprocity is more than a transaction or exchange- the concept reminds us to tend to expansive webs of crucial interactions within environments. The fruits and vegetables repeat across the three panels and form images of a sun, a rainbow, a flower, a wave. The recognizable forms that emerge make us think of interdependence and transformations, like photosynthesis, along with the generational movements that have brought each of these foods here in the present day.

Kansas City Reciprocity celebrates the commitment of KCI area farmers to food security, land stewardship, sustainability, ecological diversity, and preservation of cultural heritage.

Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program, 2023.

Montana 94 Spray paint, latex paint and Golden acrylic paint on wood panels.

This work depicts the diverse types of people you may meet in Kansas City, as well as the changing landscape, urban, suburban, and rural areas you experience nearby.

“Driving 30-50 minutes in any direction will allow you to experience the changing landscape that’s associated with the Midwest. More than just a flyover area, KC is home to fantastic people. I wanted to focus on not only the changing landscape, but also on the varied people you’ll most likely meet while visiting here.” -JT Daniels, artist.

Process photos courtesy of the artist.

Photo courtesy of Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program, 2023.

Illuminated glass panels depict Midwestern scenes.

This 10-part installation using a sgraffito technique and annealing process transforms seemingly ordinary Midwest imagery and experiences into the extraordinary. Through the medium of glass, light, and the visual languages of color, shapes, shadows and tonalities, the artist conveys stories of human connection and emotion.

The process is sgraffito technique. Amorphous glass powders are mixed with binding agents, brush worked intricately and melted into the glass at high temperatures. Multiple calculations are made of temperature gradients, coefficient of expansion and heat index. Layers upon layers are then applied meticulously to achieve perfect chromatic intensities for appropriate refraction and diffraction of light. Finally, each plane is annealed in the kiln for weeks to achieve molecular stability for this viscous material. This installation took more than nine months to complete. 

Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program

Ceramic tile, china paint, lustres, wood, metal frame.

To create Ode to the Tallgrass Prairie, the artist investigated the flowers and fauna common in this region that are displayed in this work. The midwestern tallgrass prairie, at 11,000 acres, previously 170 million acres, is the largest area of tallgrass prairie remaining on earth. It consists of a luscious sea of green and rustling grasses, rippling under a vast blue sky.  

“In conceptualizing this piece, I researched many of the iconic plants and insects that are native to this area and some that are invasive to the prairie.  I found recipes for the original maraschino cherry that is wild in our region and how to cook cicadas. I learned that the female firefly lures the males and eats them to produce a smell that protects them from other insects, and that echinacea is a helpful cure for lung problems” - Linda Lighton, artist.

Click here to read short stories and recipes related to each illustration.

Process photos and content information courtesy of the artist.
Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program, 2023.

5 portraits, Oil on canvas.

People of KC features three women and two men of various backgrounds that represent what it means to live in greater Kansas City. Women make up the majority of these panels because the artist believes "the pendulum needs to swing in more of a feminine direction." He adds, "A city isn’t about the objects, buildings or what there is to do, but it's about the people. How we live in the community and what we care about is what defines a city."

“I chose to paint 5 people of various backgrounds that represent what it means to live in greater KC. A city isn’t about the objects, buildings or what there is to do, but it's about the people. How they live in the community and what we care about is what defines a city. When people travel through the airport I want them to see a snapshot of the people that are here.” - Kwanza Humphrey, artist.

About the portraits:

Necia - Music is a big part of Kansas City. I think it represents the soul of the city. Necia has been instrumental in KC’s hip hop scene. While she is not known as a musical artist, she has been instrumental in supporting, encouraging and providing for many of KC’s local hip hop artists. I have her here looking through records on her living room floor enjoying the albums with her home open to the sky allowing you to peer in and be a part of her world

Harold - Harold represents what it means to work. He is a prolific artist and a recently retired teacher. I have him here with his work rolled under his arm reminiscent of carrying a lunch pail to work. Like food, it nourishes your body. Art feeds your soul. His gaze off to the leaves next to him is aware of what's just out of sight because no matter how hard you work there can always be something to trip you up. It’s how you respond and navigate those challenges that make you successful.

Andrea - Andrea is a life coach and urban gardener. I chose her because of her skill in taking care of the whole person. She balances an active lifestyle and a career in business while also cultivating a garden. I have her here surrounded by greenery representing the abundance and opportunity for growth in not just food but in personal well being.

Jose - Jose is a renaissance man. Poet, muralist, activist and teacher. He’s such a gem to have in the city. He has such a great perspective and is willing to share with anyone if you take the time to listen. Jose is always on the go and I was fortunate to capture him in the middle of a project. He’s here looking off to the sky as if pondering his next project while simultaneously working and dropping knowledge. I captured him to represent the voice we have and our duty to speak our truths.

Jana - Jana visited me in the studio with her family and we captured photos inside and out. I see a lot of myself in Jana. She’s pursued a career while also creating art and raising a family. Artists often reflect and offer commentary on what's around them. I liked having Jana looking off into the sky as if to say there are no limits here. This is a place to raise a family and follow your dreams.

Photo courtesy of Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program
Group photo by JT Daniels

Seed beads, wood, beeswax, pine rosin, petroleum jelly, thread, glue.

Prairie Confluence is an organic abstraction and expression of converging regional influences. The artist says "During my time living in Kansas I've come to love the billowing clouds of incoming thunderstorms and the subtle beauty of the rolling hills and how light plays against the gentle mounds. I wanted to allude to a number of organic influences such as skyscapes, waterways, rolling hills and landscapes."

Image credit:
Photo courtesy of Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program, 2023.

Monoprints with oil-based ink on cotton paper.

Rays depicts an imagined landscape as if viewed across a vast distance. The shapes within this work refer to the connection between the rays of the sun and the growth of tall grasses unique to this region.

Artist Laura Crehuet Berman created Rays after being Inspired for many years by the landscape surrounding Kansas City, and its dynamic relationship to the sky and earth. Originally begun as a tiny doodle, the grass-like images were scanned, enlarged, and repeated throughout the piece as variously sized printing plates. Each image in the work was inked with a unique color and placed by hand in its own space within the overall composition. Overall, the triptych contains 20 different hand-mixed colors and hundreds of printing plates, printed together in five runs through a large intaglio press.

The artist created this work at Pele Prints in St. Louis, Missouri, a studio she has collaborated with since 2009. Amanda Verbeck at Pele Prints brought her printmaking know-how to help envision the scale of this work and create its precise execution with the help of her large, custom-designed intaglio presses.

It is easy to overlook a landscape that seems “empty” on first view, such as the Flint Hills region of Kansas. Taking the time to look more closely enables a deeper understanding of what the essentials actually are. A landscape which contains only the earth and sky is a place of timeless beauty and universal connection.

Additional credit for help in the creation of this artwork: Pele Prints, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

Image credits:
Photos courtesy of
Lindsay Clipner, Berman portrait.
Pele Prints, process photos.
Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program

Archival digital print on aluminum.

The artist has learned that spending time in woods and forests produces multiple positive physiological effects on us. This work is a panoramic collage of various wooded areas around Kansas City at the onset of spring. This large sign reminds us that a walk through the woods will place us firmly in the moment. Our perceptions quickly become heightened, and the experience shifts our framing of time and space beyond our own bodies. 

Photo courtesy of Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program, 2023.

Oil on stretched linen.

Each of these paintings uses a ground-level view and an aerial view to portray a scene typical of the area surrounding MCI. Color-coded lines indicate the lines of sight in each painting, while the passenger plane silhouette in the aerial view points in the direction of the airport.

“I have been painting landscapes for over fifty years and I am always looking for ways to add to the content of the traditional approach to landscape painting. My interest in maps led to the idea of including the satellite view corresponding and contrasting with the standing-on-earth view. Hopefully the viewer will be able to expand their understanding of the space being represented in the two paintings by combining the illusions. Using this contrasting view approach in the KCI Airport paintings, I hope that travelers will be inspired to observe and enjoy the richness and beauty of the region as they travel to and from the airport and as they fly overhead.” - John Louder, artist.

Process photos courtesy of the artist
Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program

Acrylic on collaged canvas.

Taking Flight is a triptych depicting the three stages of commercial air travel: liftoff, cruise control, and the final approach. In each panel, passengers engage in casual conversation, soaring through the clouds several miles above sea level. In the last phase of descent, passengers look out the window where silhouetted Monarch butterflies flutter above Kaw Point, the point where the Missouri and Kansas rivers meet, greeting you upon arrival to your destination: Kansas City.

The phenomenon of flying is often met equally with feelings of excitement and dread. Some people fly regularly as part of their occupation, while others have never or will never step foot on an airplane. It’s interesting to think about this duality in terms of human psychology, since the concept of flight is still relatively new, even though its origins can be traced back to Leonardo da Vinci, and before that to Greek mythology. Humans have been trying to fly like birds for a long time. This work marks a personal departure for me, not only stylistically but geographically as well. I made this piece shortly after moving away from Kansas City, where I lived and worked for more than a decade. I knew once I left the Midwest that my work would drastically change. Taking Flight serves as an homage to a place I once called home, embarking on new adventures, and the end of a chapter in my life as an artist. 

Rendering images courtesy of the artist, 2022.
Photo courtesy of Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program, 2023.

Hand-dyed, handwoven textile, photographed, printed on 100% Rag Matte Photographique, archivally mounted.

This work began as hand-dyed yarn woven on a 16-harness loom. Compelled by curiosity and the desire to see from multiple perspectives, the artist hand-sculpted and photographed this traditionally woven textile to produce these prints. Like a long walk or a country drive, Woven Landscape celebrates how our lives are interwoven with this rich land.

Through life’s many seasons, Debbie Barrett-Jones continues to fall in love with the wide-open prairie and rolling agricultural landscapes of the midwest.  In moments of quiet contemplation, whether on walks, bike rides, through a car window, or from above, she finds the ever-shifting seasonal landscape increasingly restorative, inspiring and an invitation to dream.

Process photos courtesy of the artist.

Reuse of 39 medallions from the demolished terminal into the new Terminal, opened in 2023, terrazzo floor near each gate gives travelers a sense of nostalgia for MCI, creates a visual marker, and invites exploration to find each design.

Courtesy of Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program

Detail of Kristin Jones’ and Andrew Ginzel’s Polarities, a terrazzo floor installation for the old Terminals A, B, and C, 2002. The inlaid embellishments, colorful lines, and circles resemble cartography and orbital patterns of planets.

Included in the 2000 KCI renovations was Kristin Jones’ and Andrew Ginzel’s, Polarities, an iconic design featuring over 200,000 square feet of terrazzo flooring inlaid with mosaic medallions, brass inclusions, glass, mother of pearl, and marble aggregates. This artwork was one of several chosen under the city’s One Percent for Art Program. Mosaic medallions such as the one shown in the foreground were placed throughout the floor. The Kansas City Aviation Department salvaged medallions from Terminal A for reuse in the floor of the new single terminal opening in 2023.

Photograph Copyright 2004 Mike Sinclair. All rights reserved.

Found objects, glass, and neon.

These installations included five “chandelabras” composed of found machinery parts and old steel cables, mixed with neon lights. Each piece was located in the previous Terminal parking garage stairwells. 

Christian Mann lives and works in Kansas City as an artist and gallery owner. As he explains in his artist statement, “Chandelier, a lighting fixture hung from the ceiling, and candelabra, a large branched candlestick, are the namesakes for the Chandelabra series.” Mann’s installation includes five chandelabras hung in three of the Kansas City International Airport Terminal parking garage stair towers. Each is composed of found machinery parts and old steel cables mixed with colored neon lights.

Photos courtesy of Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program

Steel, dichroic glass, mixed media

Three individual works for three stair towers, one in each of the parking garages at the previous MCI Terminal. Dancing Crescents is made of strands with steel crescents that cradle dichroic glass pieces and hang from the ceiling of the stair tower like a giant mobile. The installation

moves gently as travelers move inside and outside the stairways. Sunburst looks much like a three dimensional version of a child’s drawing of the sun. Here it literally bursts with lines of light, which give it a yellow aura.

Photos courtesy of Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program

Deuce consists of six rotating, propeller-like rotating fluorescent light fixtures. Two fixtures are installed in each stair tower of the three Kansas City International Airport Terminal parking garages. The three installations have two slowly rotating fixtures that are mounted in various locations in the three stair towers. Woodfill used four-foot long fluorescent lights attached on opposite sides of a rotating motor to create the eight-foot long, spinning “signals.” The artist also uses blue and green colored filters on some of the rotating fixtures to cast different lighting effects which are visible inside and outside the stair tower structures during the day and at night.

Photos courtesy of Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program

Keith Sonnier’s Double Monopole is currently undergoing needed conservation and is not on view. Once the restoration is completed, the sculpture will be located adjacent to the reservoir. It will be viewable from Cookingham Drive and Brasilia Avenue.

Previously located at Kansas City International Airport in the median of Cookingham Drive, just south of Paris Street. Double Monopole consists of two steel monopoles, each one 60 feet tall. The south monopole is 60 feet wide and the north monopole is 80 feet wide. The artwork lights up in neon blues, pinks and yellows from dusk until dawn and serves as a welcoming beacon for those entering the airport from both the air and the ground. Each monopole contains a 30 foot tall fountain/waterfall. Water is pumped from the reservoir across the street to the North. This artwork is not only ornamental but also functional as the waterfalls help aerate the water in the reservoir.

Commissioned in 2006 as part of the Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program.

Alice Aycock’s artwork is related to human flight, astrophysics and, some might say, aliens.  Shaped like two giant trumpet bells facing away from each other and attached in the middle like a double-sided cornucopia, the artwork is fabricated like an airplane – an armature wrapped in an aluminum skin.  Both bell shapes project a soft light and three neon orange “zigzags” emulate radio signals or light waves.  As the artist describes, “ The sculpture evokes the spaces created by wind tunnels, which are used to test the aerodynamics of airplane designs. It also suggests future travel through wormholes or time machines imagined in science fiction as well as the astrophysics illustrations of Stephen Hawking. From a distance, the interior space draws the spectator in and gives the long-term parking area a strong focus. The sculpture also suggests a device that could broadcast information from and out into outer space. The neon antennas are designed as a vertical counterpoint to the curvature of the tunnel. They also mark the spot and suggest that energy is radiating out into and down through the sculpture.

Photograph by Mike Sinclair.
Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program

Welcoming visitors to Kansas City International Airport, the bronze sculptures are geometric shapes from one angle, but active figures when viewed from a slightly different perspective. Heavy beams connected at angles create the reclining, bending and balancing figures that almost come alive. The figures can be viewed as geometric abstractions of the human form, kneeling, standing or dancing and waving in recognition of those arriving or departing the airport.

Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program

Oil on canvas. 2000.

Working from a photograph, Christopher Brown interprets a picture of the Lindberghs arriving at a dock in the Tingmissartoq into a grayscale, oil-based mural which adorns the lobby of the Aviation Administration offices.

Tingmissartoq which means “one who flies like a big bird”, was the Inuit name given the plane flown by Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh in their 1931 flight from Maine to Japan and China, via the great arc route. The trip was recounted in North to the Orient, Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s best seeking account of the adventure which won a National Book Award in 1935.