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Typically creating works in large-scale, Hong Chun Zhang uses a variety of mediums to evoke different feelings, emotions, and experiences, as well as address broader themes of gender, environment, and social justice. Zhang was taught the Chinese Fine-Style ink painting technique with this technique growing up, spent four years studying it in graduate school, and describes the process as very precise and time consuming. Traditionally, the design is first sketched out on paper before being transferred to rice paper, then the image is outlined by applying mineral and herbal ink with a fine brush, in layers, from lightest to darkest. She utilized this Fine Style technique with Kansas Braids and Grass Style, also using scrolls at the ends of each stroke, creating a dynamic depth.Before moving to the United States in 1996, Hong Chun Zhang was raised among artists in China and received her Bachelor of Fine Art from Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Years later, she earned a Masters in Art and a Masters in Fine Art in California, and currently lives in Lawrence, Kansas. Zhang’s work has been exhibited internationally and can be seen in both private and public collections.

Kansas Braids and Grass Style by Hong Chun Zhang, Gate B57 at Kansas City International Airport

Artist Hong Chun Zhang in her studio with Kansas Braids and Grass Style

Plaque accompanying Kansas Braids and Grass Style by Hong Chun Zhang, MCI

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Embracing her Chinese identity, world-renowned local artist Hong Chun Zhang uses her long, black hair as inspiration for drawings that depict her cross-cultural experiences. After moving to Lawrence, Kansas in 2004, Zhang fell in love with the topography. Using a Chinese technique of fine-style painting with charcoal on paper, Zhang illustrates the native regional landscape of wheat with braids in Kansas Braids and tall-grass with wispy strands of hair in Grass Style.

Kansas Braids and Grass Style by Hong Chun Zhang

These entries and tours connect the public to art and the context that provides meaning

Art and History

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Kansas City's first public airport was dedicated in 1927 and operated as Municipal Airport at the present location of Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport. The dedication included a speech by famed aviator Charles Lindbergh and was followed by the creation and expansion of nearby Fairfax Airport. Both airports were located near downtown Kansas City and were home to passenger service and military operations along with manufacturing and maintenance facilities.A 1951 flood damaged Fairfax Airport, while the location of Municipal Airport on a peninsula along the Missouri River limited the airport's potential to serve the larger aircraft of the coming jet age by the 1960s. By this time, Kansas City had become a base of operations for Trans World Airlines, which operated maintenance facilities at Platte County's Mid-Continent Airport. Braniff Airlines also used Mid-Continent as a hub while most other passenger flights flew from downtown's Municipal Airport. Following numerous concerns about the short runways at Municipal Airport, Kansas City voters approved a 1966 bond measure to vastly expand Mid-Continent Airport, which reopened as Kansas City International Airport in 1972.Promising the opportunity to "drive to your gate," many expected the novel design of the 1972 terminals at Kansas City International to become the standard. However, that same year, a series of hijackings led to the creation of security checkpoints at airports nationwide. Following additional security measures after the September 11th terror attacks, the circular design of the airport's three terminals required multiple security checkpoints throughout the three circular terminals. This also limited passengers to a narrow corridor after passing through security. Kansas City officials began to explore the possibility of a new terminal with a central security checkpoint that would allow passengers to move throughout the airport after passing through security instead of being confined to a waiting area near their gate.After several years of planning, a $1.5 billion single terminal plan was approved. During construction, MCI operated out of Terminals B and C while Terminal A was demolished to provide space for the new single terminal. Kansas City residents celebrated the completion of the largest construction project in the city's history in February 2023, with thousands touring the new terminal before its grand opening.

When Kansas City International Airport opened in 1972 at the former location of Mid-Continent Airport, it featured three curved terminals with gates that were only 75 feet from the roadway. With three runways and dozens of gates, along with the growth of Kansas City-based airlines like Braniff and TWA, residents were optimistic that their city would become one of the nation's largest airline hubs. Instead, the jet age made midwestern stopovers a thing of the past, and the airport's three terminals never reached their designed passenger capacity. With increased security measures, the once-convenient and car-centric three-terminal design proved untenable as it required multiple security checkpoints and passenger waiting areas. A new single terminal design was constructed between 2019 and 2023. The single terminal design eliminated the ability to "drive to your gate," a central selling point of the 1972 design. However, the new terminal makes it possible for travelers to move throughout the entire airport after passing through a central security checkpoint. The new terminal is also filled with work from local artists under the city's One Percent for Art program.

Gate B57 Dreaming of The Beautiful Places You Will Go by Bernadette Esperanza Torres

Flowers are central to Bernadette Esperanza Torres’s work as a ceramic artist. Torres grew up as the daughter of a florist, so she has always been surrounded by flowers and inspired by their fragility, beauty, and life cycles. Torres’s piece “Dreaming of the Beautiful Places You Will Go” is a large plexiglass sculpture formed of digital images of her ceramic works. It includes a self-portrait, which is dreaming while awake of bigger artistic horizons, and a universe as positive, loving, and beautiful as the flowers that inspired it.

Dreaming of The Beautiful Places You Will Go by Bernadette Esperanza Torres

Stephen Proski’s triptych artwork “Taking Flight” represents the three stages of air travel: liftoff, cruising altitude, and final approach. Proski, a blind/disabled artist, was interested in the opposite reactions passengers often have to an impending flight: excitement and fear, and wanted to depict them during air travel, both conversing and observing. The last panel shows Kaw Point, the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers not far from the Kansas City International Airport.

Taking Flight by Stephen Proski

Debbie Barrett-Jones is an artist who takes inspiration from the seasonal rhythms and changes of the prairies and landscapes of the Midwest. Her work, “Woven Landscape,” is created from photographs of hand-woven yarn on a 16-harness loom. Her curiosity about multiple perspectives caused Barrett-Jones to sculpt her weavings and then capture them as photographs, creating a rich representation of quiet moments like a long walk or a drive through the country.

Woven Landscape 

Local artist Kathy Minhsin Liao is a Taiwan native who immigrated to southern California as a teenager and has lived in the Kansas City area since 2014. She creates her pieces using mixed media with inspiration derived from her diverse cultural background, including concepts of relationships, rituals, and the struggle of distance that separates loved ones. Liao captures the space between memories and physical place, which translates through her work in different layers by manipulating the mediums used to give weight, depth, and texture. For Hello and Goodbye, Liao recalled the memories and rituals of spending time in the Los Angeles airport seeing off and welcoming her father who traveled frequently between Taiwan and the U.S.. She uses depictions of her grandmother to portray those rituals of “coming and going” in relation to the longing of connection, as distance has separated her family most of her life. Liao received her MFA in Painting from Boston University and BFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Washington-Seattle. She has been the recipient of multiple awards, grants, and fellowships, and her work has been shown internationally.

Hello and Goodbye was created using a 16-foot by 4-foot birch wood panel and is adorned with ceramic insets and gold leaf. Featuring painted figures depicting artist Kathy Liao’s grandmother, the piece reflects layers of memories from Liao’s personal experiences with family and travel, and symbolizes the rituals of arrival, departure, and connections.

Hello and Goodbye by Kathy Liao

Glass artist Hasna Sal’s ten-panel artwork “Nostalgia” transforms her memories of Kansas City environments into impressive lighted murals made with the sgraffito technique. This process involves multiple layers of pigment, which are scraped away to create the pictures: horseback riding, a father and son playing soccer, and snow skiing in Weston, MO. Sal travels frequently and is always excited to share memories of her hometown with those she meets. She says the inspiration for her pieces sometimes takes time, but this artwork “just came from the heart, pure and simple.”

Nostalgia

Artist John Louder’s fascination with maps led him to a unique approach: depicting a traditional ground-level landscape, along with an overhead map view of the same area. Color-coded lines on the satellite perspective denote the field of view, and an airplane’s shadow points in the direction of the KCI airport. Louder hopes this double view will inspire visitors with the richness of the Kansas City landscape, and that the two perspectives enlarge travelers’ understanding of representational space.

Sight Lines, Flight Lines

As a child, Kansas City native and artist Kwanza Humphrey found that drawing was a natural form of expression where he could explore his imagination. He pursued a Bachelors in Commercial Art from Missouri Western State University and has been painting for more than 20 years. In each of the five portraits of People of KC, Kwanza Humphrey evokes his artist mission: Under the Same Sky in Truth and Love. With a “hope for a better future, connection, and intention,” Humphrey illustrates the sky to represent that hope, while evoking the essence of human connection.Necia is an instrumental supporter and advocate for Kansas City’s hip hop community. She is seen here relishing record albums on the floor of her living room, where the walls are created by the sky, expressing an openness to others outside of her world.Harold is an artist and retired teacher. He represents hard work and as he holds rolled up paint canvases while gazing into the abundant tree leaves, signifying the contemplation of challenges that may be out of sight and the path to success.Andrea is an urban gardener and life coach. As her eyes connect with yours, Andrea is surrounded by lush flora while embracing a dog, representing her sense of caring and passion for cultivating opportunity and growth.Jose is a poet, muralist, teacher, and activist. He stands atop scaffolding as he pauses from his work to take a moment to ponder, expressing his real-life willingness to stop and share his perspective which portrays our duty as humans to speak our truths.Jana is a career-oriented family woman, and an artist. With a humble smile, Jana looks intently into the distant sky, signaling there are no limits to follow your dreams.

Five individual oil paintings of three women and two men comprise the People of KC by local artist Kwanza Humphrey, who believes that, “A city isn’t about the objects, buildings or what there is to do, but it’s about the people.” In his vivid paintings, Humphrey strives to make the invisible, visible; convert the ordinary into extraordinary; and seeks to reveal a greater truth in our existence by uncovering the true nature of others through the power of observation beyond the surface. Each portrait depicts a real Kansas Citian - Necia, Harold, Andrea, Jose, and Jana - and represents the essence of humanity and our shared longing of truth and love.

People of KC by Kwanza Humphrey

The Midwest is commonly referred to as “fly-over country,” alluding to the vast, rural expanse of land that is passed over between the populous, urban coasts during air travel. Although, while mostly flat, this land consists of prairie, plains, rolling hills, and valleys, containing a wide variety of wildlife and ecosystems. With childhood roots tied to rural Missouri, the heart of “fly-over country,” Rachelle Gardner-Roe uses textiles and techniques that foster love and a sense of caring for the natural world. She employs a color- and texture-rich, multimedia approach to bring life and energy to her work. Her simplistic figures created with alternative methods, such as a 3D printing pen, often depict a drawing, which is a rudimentary art technique typically learned as children that allows for a connection with her audience on a basic level. With a lifelong interest in fine arts, Rachelle Gardner-Roe received her Bachelors in Interior Architecture with an emphasis in furniture design, from Kansas State University in 2004. She has been creating art in the Kansas City area since and her work has been shown regionally and nationally.

Using hand-dyed wool from Shetland sheep and alpaca raised on her family farm, Meadowtree Farm, local artist Rachelle Gardner-Roe brings a variety of fauna and flora of the Midwest to life in Fly-over Country: The Wild Side. Composed of three, 40-inch by 60-inch textile panels, this framed textile piece was crafted by sewing the design over colorful layers of wool. The immense detail created by “drawing” with the thread creates a three dimensional effect and is a technique Gardner-Roe commonly applies to her fiber work.

Fly-Over Country: The Wild Side by Rachelle Gardner-Roe

The rapid growth of the Kansas City Stockyards occurred after the construction of the Hannibal Bridge over the Missouri River, but the history of this area and the cattle trade date back prior to the establishment of the city. In the 1840s, Native Americans, squatters, and farmers converged in the West Bottoms to trade livestock, flour, furs, and more. Anticipating a further increase in trading, local businessmen constructed 11 pens, 15 unloading chutes, and a pair of Fairbanks scales in 1870. That same year, over 100,000 cattle were moved with those limited facilities. By 1871, the “Kansas Stock Yards Company” came into being. From there, the stockyards grew immensely over the years, acquiring more land and trading hundreds of thousands of livestock.Kansas City grew around the stockyards, and towards the end of the 19th century, about 90 percent of the value in Kansas City lay in the West Bottoms. The stockyards continued to flourish, surviving floods and fires and building the nine-story Livestock Exchange (at the time of its building in 1911, it was the tallest building in the world). In 1929, for example, around 2,179,000 head of cattle and 4,151,000 hogs were sold through the stockyard. Activity peaked in the 1940s with over $350 million in exchange every year. The great flood of 1951 had a devastating effect on the stockyard and many packing plants closed. The largest reason for the decline of the stockyards was the capacity for farmers and ranchers to negotiate directly with packers or through small regional auction barns. The stockyards continued for another 40 years after the flood, closing in 1991.

This airport restaurant operated by the iconic West Bottoms establishment Stockyards Brewing pays tribute to Kansas City's history as the central hub of beef production in the Great Plains and includes several works by area artists. Kansas City's West Bottoms was home to the second-largest stockyard in the United States, trailing only behind the Union Stock Yards in Chicago. Founded in 1870 and operating until it closed in 1991, the Kansas City stockyards included all aspects of the business, including finance, at the historic Live Stock Exchange Building, which is home to the Golden Ox Restaurant- a Kansas City landmark that continues to attract visitors to the West Bottoms. Beginning in 1899, the stockyards began what is known today as the American Royal Livestock and Horse Show. At the height of its operations, between 1911 and the devastating flood of 1951, the stockyards sold millions of cattle, including cows, hogs, sheep, horses, and many other animals.

Kansas City Stockyards; Stockyards Brewing 

Taking inspiration from the visual riddles from the popular I Spy book series, local artist Kati Toivanen composed I Spy Carry-On which is located by Gate B52 by using items that could be found in a family’s carry-on luggage. Implementing a shadow-show approach, she placed the individual objects on vellum paper. She photographed them from underneath a light table before digitally arranging them into three collages. The intriguing visual compilations showcase everyday items, children's toys, and more, with additional objects paying homage to local culture. By creating three separate pieces, Toivanen alludes to the universal process by travelers and the continuous nature of carry-on luggage being X-rayed at an airport's security checkpoint.After coming to the United States from Finland, Kati Toivanen earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, and a Master of Fine Arts from the School of Art Institute of Chicago. As an active artist and educator, Toivanen has been the recipient of multiple grants, awards, and fellowships, has been featured in solo and group exhibits internationally, is the author of multiple publications, and is currently a Professor of Studio Art at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

I Spy Carry-On by Kati Toivanen

Sean Nash’s art is vitally connected to food processes, fermentation, and microbial life. He holds an MFA in Painting from Yale University and has had solo exhibitions nationwide. When Nash was asked to design a piece for Kansas City’s airport terminal, he wanted to spotlight a different view of Kansas City than cultural attractions or tourist sites. Instead, Nash chose to create a networked model of Kansas City’s foodscape in his art piece, “Kansas City Reciprocity.” Nash believes the farmers and workers of the city’s many farms and food organizations are unsung heroes, preserving ancient and non-industrial methods of food production, and he wanted to commemorate the intricate network they form. He believes some of the most extraordinary and overlooked things about Kansas City are the farmers who do such important agricultural work.Nash sees gardening’s affinity to art. Not only can gardens be represented as art (as in his piece), but gardening itself is an art form, especially as practiced by the six local organizations Nash depicts in his artwork: the Buffalo Seed Company is represented by Cherokee White corn and Kiwano melon; Ki Koko Farms is represented by long beans; Longfellow Farm is represented by tomatoes; Maseualkualli Farms is represented by jicama and patty pan squash; Sankara Farm is represented by hot peppers and okra; and The Young Family Farm is represented by okra and cherry tomatoes. Detailed entries on each organization can be found at the link to “’Kansas City Reciprocity’ – Meet the Farmers and Growers” on Sean Nash’s artist website below.“Regenerative agriculture and farming practices are exciting,” Nash says. “People are working hard in that space to do sustainable growing, to bring cultural and diasporic food ways into the mainstream. Having a relationship with those growers was important to me, especially centering on BIPOC and LGBTQ+ growers. I’m a grower, I’m always interested in lifting up unheard voices, promoting interdependence, and acknowledging farmers. I want to make sure these regenerative ideas about foodways are lifted up.” Nash hopes viewers of his piece come away from it with a feeling of joy, freshness, and vitality, because he believes those things represent Kansas City and its possibilities.

Artist Sean Nash’s connection to Kansas City's food network informs his piece, “Kansas City Reciprocity.” Drawing on his ties to underrecognized agricultural workers and regenerative agriculture practices, Nash created a landscape of vibrant foods to symbolize colorful forms like a rainbow, waves, and a sun, but also the ingenuity of local farms who are reclaiming agricultural knowledge.

Kansas City Reciprocity by Sean Nash

When Kansas City decided to upgrade its airport, the plan included the largest public art project in the city's history. Missouri's "One Percent for Art" program asks that one percent of public construction costs be earmarked for public art. This provides a means for aesthetic enhancements in community spaces while enabling artists to flourish.The criteria for art in the arrival and departure gate area at KCI included the requirement that artists live in the greater Kansas City metro area or have significant ties to Kansas City. Rachel Hubbard Kline is both a Kansas City resident and closely allied with the city's storied aviation history: her grandfather and uncle were TWA pilots; a third uncle was a Delta pilot; and three of her aunts were or are flight attendants (two flew for TWA, and one is still flying with Delta, where she has been a flight attendant for over 50 years) "I am proud that my artwork is in the Delta section of the airport," Kline says."Kansas City: A Quilted History" includes twenty separate combinations of news topics and heirloom quilt patterns, which were then arranged in 3 larger panels to disrupt the design. The fragmented quilt pieces are reminders of how separate parts connect to the whole, symbolizing unity. Kline paired each pattern to a unique Kansas City institution or event, such as "Four-Leaf Clover" for gambling, "Charm" for cultural institutions, "Raindrop" for river floods, "Four Crowns" for the Chiefs Super Bowl and Royals World Series, "Flying Colors” for the American Royal, "Many Roads to the White House" for President Truman's election, "Tumbling Blocks" for the Hyatt hotel skywalk disaster, and "Friendship Name Chain" for mayoral elections.Look closely at each panel to see the laser-engraved news articles embedded in each design, or see the pictures in this Clio entry below for detailed images.

Located near gate B46, this ceramic tile installation features quilt patterns featured in the Kansas City Star between 1928 and 1961. The artist transferred laser engravings of historic news stories from the Kansas City Star and Kansas City Times onto the clay tiles that are home to the colorful patterns, creating a layered work where patterns of quilts live alongside events (and perhaps patterns) from history. For example, looking closely at the red and blue blazing star quilt pattern, one can see news clippings that pay tribute to Kansas City sports teams and stadiums. "Archeologists dig up pottery shards from ancient civilizations, which offer insight into the culture," says Rachel Hubbard Kline, whose work is based on historical connections to place, ancestry, and women’s work." I hope Kansas City residents see something in my piece that reminds them of their relationship with the city and that visitors are inspired to learn more about Kansas City’s rich history."

Kansas City: A Quilted History by Rachel Hubbard Kline

Santiago Cucullu is a William T. Kemper Visiting Artist Professor at the Kansas City Art Institute. His large-scale, dynamic exhibits typically showcase printed, flat surfaces that immerse the viewer, while other three-dimensional and multimodal elements accompany and compliment the print. Separate and Complex Bodies, Sophisticated Interactions, and Unfathomable Lives exhibits this print element on a small-scale.Cucullu has a long resume of both solo and group exhibitions internationally.

Argentina native, Milwaukee resident, and visiting professor at the Kansas City Art Institute Santiago Cucullu created this panoramic piece using the flora in surrounding wooded areas as inspiration. He photographed flora in areas like Swope Park and Kaw Point at the emergence of spring, then composed and recolored the images in a way that provokes the audience to view these familiar forms in a new light; a common theme through Cucullu’s work. Separate and Complex Bodies, Sophisticated Interactions, and Unfathomable Lives is an archival print on aluminum.

Separate and Complex Bodies, Sophisticated Interactions, and Unfathomable Lives by Santiago Cucullu

Artist JT Daniels grew up in Wyandotte County in Kansas City, Kansas. His father’s family was from the city, and his mother’s family was from the country, so Daniels got to know all sorts of landscapes and people on his trips to visit his relatives. His work painting public murals also requires him to travel often, and the shared experiences he witnesses are important to Daniels’ art practice now, where he integrates stylized colors and characters into designs which are both inclusive and representational.Daniels sees the message of “Midwestern Meanderings,” his piece for the KCI Airport, as portraying the individuals and landscapes that make up Kansas City. His years of painting public murals has led him to believe that every place has industrial, suburban, and urban areas like this piece. He spent many years dreaming about ways to help his hometown in Wyandotte County flourish, and Daniels’ idea that “we deserve beautiful things, too” has inspired him to beautify not only his own neighborhood, but other communities in KC.“Whenever I see a blank wall…I see an opportunity to communicate,” is the driving force and motto behind Daniels’ work. He believes his large-scale public murals allow him to create unifying narratives that reflect the individuality and brilliance of each community he represents.

Kansas City muralist J.T. Daniels weaves characters and phrases together in his work. His piece “Midwestern Meanderings” reflects this commitment to combination: driving thirty minutes in any direction from Kansas City allows you to experience vastly different environments and people. Urban, rural, and suburban areas mix seamlessly in Daniels’s work, along with vibrant people who reflect the diversity of the Kansas City metro.

Midwestern Meanderings by JT Daniels

Mona Cliff embraces her Native American identity and culture using indigenous crafting methods of seed bead embroidery and fabric applique with contemporary subject matters. She is an enrolled member of the Gros Ventre Tribe (A'aninin/Nakota Nations), is Frozen Clan (Aaniiih), and of the Medicine Bear Clan (Nakota) of Fort Belknap, Montana. With influence from her grandmother, Cliff says that her art “focuses on how traditional arts are passed down between generations of women,” and “pursues the concepts of generational knowledge while exploring other topics such as native futurism and identity.” Commonly used to craft gifts, beads are a traditional Native symbol of honor and respect. Dating back more than 10,000 years, the greater Kansas City area also has a rich Native American history. The Wichita, Kansa, Osage, and Pawnee Tribes are the most well known. Into the early 1800's, Lewis and Clark traveled the Missouri river and developed relationships with the Natives. One of their staple trade currencies were beads to show good faith, and in fact, one of their most popular, a white-dotted blue bead, was named after them.Cliff is formally trained in Printmaking from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington and currently lives in Lawrence, Kansas.

Composed of three geometric cross-sectional slices of cherry wood, Prairie Confluence spans 17 feet. Each plank features exposed knots and rings and appears to be encased by raw bark, however, a closer look exposes a rich texture of intricately and beautifully arranged beadwork. The texture is created from beeswax, copal resin, and pine rosin and adorned with colorful seed beads, inspired by local artist Mona Cliff’s Native American heritage and organic influences of the region’s landscape, including skyscapes, waterways, and rolling hills.

Prairie Confluence by Mona Cliff

Known for using singular, ordinary objects to create sculptural installations, Willie Cole assembled the twelve birds of Ornithology exclusively from Alto Saxophones. Cole says, “it’s about layering and synchronizing symbols, about being both conceptual and contextual.” Kansas City has a rich history of Jazz, in which Charlie Parker was a highly influential figure. The choice to create birds came from a variety of inspiration beyond the obvious connection to flight at the airport, including Charlie Parker's nicknames “Bird” and “Yardbird” and the definition of Parker’s 1946 song “Ornithology,” meaning bird science. New Jersey native and acclaimed sculptural artist Willie Cole graduated from the Arts High School in Newark, earned his Bachelor of Fine Art from the School of Visual Arts in New York, studied further at the Art Students League of NY, and was an Artist-in-Residence at the Studio Museum of Harlem. His metaphoric, larger-than-life work has been exhibited in solo-collections as well as in some of the nation’s most prominent museums.

In tribute to Kansas City Jazz legend Charlie “Bird” Parker and his 1946 tune titled “Ornithology,” New Jersey artist Willie Cole assembled a flock of twelve saxophone birds that fly over retail atrium B. The birds of Ornithology, defined as the science of birds, were assembled using hundreds of Alto Saxophones, Parker’s instrument of choice, and re-contextualizes the iconic bebop sound. The saxophones were manufactured by Mike Corrigan of the local business BAC Music and constructed by Cole inside the Boone Theatre in the Historic 18th &amp; Vine Jazz District.

Ornithology by Willie Cole

This airport market pays homage to Kansas City's original center of commerce along the Missouri River, which dates back to 1857. Visitors to the airport who are familiar with downtown Kansas City's City Market will recognize the simple roof design, which mirrors the open spaces and vendor stalls of the venerable Kansas City institution that continues to offer farmer's markets and a variety of year-round vendors and restaurants.

City Market

Kansas City’s history with powered flight dates back to the early 20th century, when aviator Charles K. Hamilton demonstrated his aircraft in Overland Park on December 26, 1909. Kansas City enthusiastically embraced aviation. In 1910, J.C. McCallum designed and manufactured the first aircraft in the city, which diverged from other airplane designs of the time by having a propeller which pulled the aircraft forward instead of pushing it from behind. And local developer William B. Strang built an aviation park around 1911 which included hangars, a grandstand, and an aviation school.Following World War I, aviation schools flourished in the Kansas City area: by 1930, eight separate schools were in operation, including the Curtiss-Wright Flying Service, Art Goebel School of Flying, and the Porterfield Flying School. Porterfield Flying School was based out of Richards Field, the area’s first commercial airport, which opened in 1922 and was named after Air Force Lt. John F. Richards, the first pilot from Kansas City to die in combat during World War I.Richards Field is where air mail service began in Kansas City in 1926. Chamber of Commerce President Lou Holland convinced Post Office officials to include Kansas City as a stop between Chicago and Dallas. A new air mail plane, Miss Kansas City, was christened at the launch ceremony on May 12, 1926, where thousands watched as the first mail deliveries arrived from Chicago. However, Richards Field soon became inadequate for Kansas City’s burgeoning air traffic, and in 1927 the downtown Kansas City Municipal Airport was dedicated. Legendary flyer Charles Lindbergh attended the dedication at Municipal Airport and praised the location, helping put Kansas City on the map as an important air hub.Lindbergh remained a part of aviation in Kansas City, helping chart the “Lindbergh Line” for airline Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) in 1929, a coast-to-coast, 48-hour route which was a combination of air and rail travel. TAT merged with Western Air Express the next year, in 1930, and the combined companies formed a new airline which would become world famous: Transcontinental and Western Air, better known as TWA.TWA chose Kansas City for its new headquarters in 1931, thanks to the efforts of Lindbergh, Lou Holland, and other city leaders, and a Kansas City icon was born: TWA employed nearly 13,000 people within the state of Missouri at one time. TWA was known for aviation innovation, first-class flight experiences, and its red-carpet treatment. The airline was known as “The Airline of the Stars” because of the glamorous celebrities that frequented its flights. T&amp;WA (Transcontinental and Western Air) officially changed its name to Trans World Airlines in 1950, keeping the three-letter designation: TWA.The 50s, 60s, and 70s also saw the current Kansas City International Airport location come into being, thanks in part to TWA’s influence. As early as the 1940s city leaders recognized the need for a larger airport. TWA’s maintenance overhaul base was located at Fairfax Airport in the early 1950s, across the Missouri River from Municipal Airport. But a flood in 1951 destroyed that maintenance site and disrupted operations at Municipal Airport, accelerating the search for a new site. TWA moved its overhaul operations to the current site of Kansas City International Airport in 1957, then named Mid-Continent Airport, and asked city officials to expand Mid-Continent since Municipal Airport was becoming too small for commercial jet traffic. The city agreed: in 1966, a $150 million bond passed and allowed construction to begin, and Kansas City International Airport opened on the Mid-Continent site in 1972. The original three-terminal design was innovative for its time and allowed passengers to drive almost to their gate, but following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, new security procedures made the airport much harder to navigate. The current terminal was opened in 2023, to update Kansas City’s airport again for modern air travel. Even though aviation giants like TWA are no longer operational in the area (TWA filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and was absorbed into American Airlines), Kansas City’s aviation history has positioned it to embrace the future of flight.The current KCI site has not been without controversy: in 2007, descendants of enslaved people who lived on a plantation that became part of the airport’s land were notified that a racetrack would be built there. Oralee McKinzey and her father Warren R. Watkins Jr. fought this expansion and were able to halt the racetrack project in 2008. Their foundation went on to advocate for the recognition of the lives of those who lived and were buried on this land. Listen to the audio clip by Oralee McKinzey to learn more about their efforts.

These four panels in the center of the concourse connecter share both the history of aviation in Kansas City and the history of the city itself. Each of the four panels incorporated historic photographs and media with text that offers a detailed introduction to each topic while being mindful of the traveler's time. Highlights of the exhibit on aviation include information about the indigenous and enslaved peoples who first inhabited this land, and the various airports and terminals that have served the city, along with historic airlines such as the iconic Trans World Airlines that was once headquartered in Kansas City.

History of Aviation in Kansas City

The airport's two concourses are connected through an elevated walkway that includes ten colorful "clouds" created using aluminum, printed acoustic tiles, and nylon straps. Travelers are surrounded by natural light on both sides thanks to floor-to-ceiling windows while the artwork on the ceiling creates an appearance of moving through the sky as they walk along the open concourse or utilize the moving walkways on both sides. In the middle of the connector, visitors are invited to explore the history of Kansas City and the history of aviation with four sets of panels that include media, historic photographs, and text. While most of the artwork in the airport was created by local artists, the commission for this piece went to SOFTlab of New York City.

Cloud Gazing: Concourse Connector Ceiling

The history of American music would be very different without the creative nexus of 18th and Vine, Kansas City’s famous jazz district. The current-day Soiree restaurant sits on the former site of the jazz district’s famed Street Hotel, which included the Blue Room Cocktail Lounge and Restaurant. Since the Street Hotel hosted visiting musicians, the Blue Room Lounge became a natural spot for nightlife, including music and dancing.Artists Rodrigo Alvarez and Isaac Tapia wanted to capture this creative fusion in their three-part mural for the Kansas City Airport’s version of Soiree Restaurant. The excitement of visiting a jazz club like The Blue Room is represented by the panel on the left, as revelers gather in the street. The center panel is a close-up view of a performer like Billie Holiday on stage, and the third panel captures the passion, exertion, and excitement of dancing to Kansas City’s unique music, being created in real-time.Many exceptional jazz musicians got their start in Kansas City. Famed saxophonist Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Ben Webster, and Lester Young all played The Blue Room at Street Hotel, and baseball player Jackie Robinson stayed at the hotel during the 1940s while playing for the Kansas City Monarchs. The Street Hotel hosted many important civic and cultural functions. Tapia and Alvarez’s expressive work honors the monumental creativity of the 18th and Vine Jazz District, tying their unique Central and South American roots and their lives as Kansas City artists to a seminal time in American music.

Area residents and frequent travelers to Kansas City will notice that many of the restaurants in the new terminal are smaller versions of neighborhood establishments. Soiree, for example, is an anchor of the 18th and Vine Neighborhood and is located at the site of the historic Street Hotel, an establishment that served Black travelers in the early 20th century. The original restaurant is located near the American Jazz Museum and Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and the art and photographs located within the airport version of the restaurant reflect life and history in the 18th and Vine District.Kansas City muralists Isaac Tapia and Rodrigo Alvarez were chosen to bring this unique location to life in their 3-panel series, “Soiree.” Tapia and Alvarez have been collaborating as the artist team IT-RA Icons since 2017, and have painted over forty murals in the Kansas City area, plus other pieces nationwide. Both artists moved to Kansas City at a young age from outside the U.S.—Rodrigo from Uruguay and Isaac from Mexico City—and honor local communities as well as their unique identities in their art.

Soiree: Food, Music, and Culture from 18th and Vine

Located next to gate A16, this multimedia collage by Israel Garvia centers on the diverse experiences of people who have become immigrants, whether forced, voluntary, or somewhere in between. In this work, the artist brings in a diverse assortment of photographs and items of cultural heritage. Panels with white Xs represent the missing narratives of people of color that have been excluded or erased from history.

Diaspora by Israel Garcia

Berman's initial inspiration for the print was the tall grass prairie of the Flint Hills, around a two-hour drive southwest of the airport. In a recent interview with the Shawnee Mission Post, Berman indicated that she was happy if flyers saw rising and setting suns in her work.

This three-paneled work by Laura Berman depicts tufts of prairie grass on the landscape, or from the perspective of some travelers, the colorful designs mirror the sun's rays over the midwestern prairies. The artist, who teaches printmaking at Kansas City Art Institute, explains that she is a nervous traveler and so she hoped to create something that presented a sense of calm. Whatever passengers see in her design, Berman explained that she hopes that it will help to calm them as they wait for their flights.

Rays by Laura Crehuet Berman

Local artist Linda Lighton used a combination of paint, ceramic tile, wood, and metal to create this work, which pays homage to the largest remaining tallgrass prairie on the planet. Located in the Flint Hills of Kansas, Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is the only national park unit dedicated to the tallgrass prairie and is just a two-hour drive from the airport. The artist explains that she was inspired both by the beauty of the prairie and its flora and fauna, which once covered 170 million acres of North America, as well as its loss as less than 4% of that prairie remains intact owing to farming and ranching. Most of the remaining tallgrass prairies are in two reserves, one in Oklahoma and the other in the Flint Hills of Kansas.

Ode to the Tallgrass Prairie by Linda Lighton

One of the recurring themes within the concourse artwork at Kansas City International is the connection between art and aviation design. This work by photographer John Hans depicts a field of yellow cones with a pyramid-shaped indicator similar to a wind cone that provides information to pilots to help them know wind direction and speed during takeoffs and landings.

Cone Worship by John W. Hans

Kansas City is known as the City of Fountains, so including these famous water features was a must when local artists Isaac Tapia and Rodrigo Alvarez were asked to create an entrance mural for the Made of KC Food Hall. Along with the fountains, IT-RA Icons, Tapia and Alvarez’s mural team, included Kansas City’s monumental Union Station, the artistic pylons of the Kansas City Convention Center, topped with the logos of Kansas City’s four famous sports teams, and a jazz trumpeter playing in front of Union Station. The artists chose opposing forces of fire and water to represent the cool tones of fountains and jazz, in contrast to the spark and spice of barbecue and sports.Inside the Food Hall is another expansive mural, showcasing even more of Kansas City’s neighborhoods and sites of interest: on the far left is the famous Scout statue near the World War I Memorial, and the distinctive curves of Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts with the artistic pylons of the city’s Convention Center behind. The Kansas City Power &amp; Light Building’s unique Art Deco silhouette, a plane representing Kansas City’s aviation history, and the Christopher S. Bond Bridge over the Missouri River frame a personal touch by Alvarez and Tapia: a father and son planting a tree, which represents the possibilities for growth in Kansas City. The tree’s blossoms morph into poppies, another nod to the World War I Museum, and connect to KC’s iconic circular Western Auto sign, which leads to the famous shuttlecock sculptures of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the neon sign welcoming visitors to Kansas City’s 18th and Vine Jazz District. Kansas City’s sports teams are recognized: a player from the KC Current Women’s Soccer team, a baseball player from the Negro American Leages, and a player from Sporting KC, the men’s soccer team, are represented. A dancer appears behind the fountains of the Country Club Plaza shopping district, followed by the silo of the Kansas City’s Boulevard Brewing Company. On the far right, a Kansas Citian and a saxophonist appear with the Colonnade, from the Concourse in Kansas City’s northeast section, where Tapia and Alvarez originally lived after coming to the U.S. from Uruguay and Mexico City as children.Rodrigo and Isaac strive to represent the character of the communities they depict, while honoring their unique creative origins and influences. In this way they mirror Kansas City’s eclectic mix of styles, art forms, and diversity, a mix which is reflected in the venues in the airport. The shop across from Jay “Hootie” McShann’s Blues Bar recognizes the 18th and Vine neighborhood. Artwork in the shop reflects iconic residents like Charlie "Bird" Parker and landmarks like the Gem Theatre and the American Jazz Museum that preserve and celebrate the city's contribution to the most uniquely American art form that can still be heard at places like the Blue Room or Mutual Musicians Foundation where musicians perform nightly. The neighborhood also includes the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and Black Archives of Mid-America.

One of several murals by Isaac Tapia and Rodrigo Alvarez, this work at the entrance to Made of KC Food Hall includes many of the symbols of Kansas City, from the fountain in the center to the jazz musician in front of Union Station. Four of the city's professional sports teams, the Royals, Chiefs, Sporting KC, and the KC Current, have their logos on the four pylons of the city's downtown convention center.Alvarez and Tapia work together as muralists under the name IT-RA Icons, and were asked to represent iconic Kansas City landmarks for this piece. The duo’s creativity also extends inside the Made of KC Food Hall, where a second large mural, “KC Icons,” encompasses an even greater variety of important local sites.Walking through the two concourses of Kansas City International Airport, one notices that many restaurants, lounges, and shops are named after famed Kansas City neighborhoods and musicians. Across from the Made of KC Food Hall is Jay "Hootie" McShann's Blues Bar, named in honor of one of the icons of Kansas City jazz and blues.

Made of KC by Isaac Tapia and Rodrigo Alvarez

Leo Villareal’s monumental sculpture measures about 24 feet tall and is almost 19 feet wide. Villareal wrote his own program to control the 37,824 LED nodes and evoke the impression of flowing water. Villareal’s website explains that his “... work is focused on stripping systems down to their essence to better understand the underlying structures and rules that govern how they work. He is interested in lowest common denominators such as pixels or the zeros and ones in binary code. Starting at the beginning, using the simplest forms, Villareal begins to build elements within a framework. The work explores not only the physical but adds the dimension of time combining both spatial and temporal resolution.”The first fountains in Kansas City were purely functional and date back to the late 1800s. These supplied water for work and riding horses as the animals moved through town. Later, the city began building drinking fountains for Downtown citizens. Not long after, the integration of sculpture and monument elevated the pedestrian fountains to art.George Kessler sparked the push to design fountains in Kansas City with his first fountain at 15th Street and The Paseo in 1898. Kessler was a landscape architect and urban planner during the “City Beautiful” movement. Sadly, this first fountain was destroyed in 1941 but his second fountain, completed in 1899 remains. Located at Ninth Street &amp; The Paseo, The Women’s Leadership Fountain is Kansas City’s oldest working fountain. It bears the names of 13 women who made notable contributions to the community.In 1973, the City of Fountains Foundation was established by a Hallmark executive and his spouse after the two took a trip to Italy and found many fountains in disrepair. Wanting to restore Kansas City's own collection of fountains, the Foundation was created to build new fountains and manage and maintain existing structures.

Leo Villareal’s sculpture pays homage to Kansas City’s legacy as The City of Fountains with the programmed illumination of thousands of LEDs. Today, visitors will find more than 200 fountains scattered throughout the metro area. From small and simple to sprawling and majestic, these features can be found in parks, courtyards, and tree-lined boulevards. Forty of these fountains are operated and maintained by the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Department. See below for a guided tour of Kansas City fountains.

Kansas City International Airport

Kansas Braids and Grass Style by Hong Chun Zhang

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information