How Kansas City’s new airport terminal became a sprawling art gallery for 28 diverse creatives

Every major milestone in Kathy Minhsin Liao’s life has been marked by travel, she shared, making airports synonymous with transition.

“My [art]work at the new terminal is called ‘Hello and Goodbye,’ and it touches on my personal experience of the fluidity of travel. When you’re at the airport, you’re in that limbo space of thinking ahead to your destination — but you also have memories surfacing of previous times you’ve been in that space. Part of the concept of this piece is this nebulous, this organic shape of what the experience feels like,” explained Liao, one of the 28 artists commissioned to create art for Kansas City International Airport’s new terminal.

Click here to learn more about Kathy Liao and her work.

“Hello and Goodbye” by Kathy Minhsin Liao; 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; photo by Channa Steinmetz, Startland News

KCI’s new terminal and parking garage feature the largest One Percent for Art project in Kansas City’s history, said James Martin, Kansas City’s public art administrator. 

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One Percent for Art 

The City of Kansas City, Missouri’s “One Percent for Art” program stipulates that one percent of public construction costs be set aside for public art enhancements. Passed in 1986, this program provides a catalyst for artistic growth and aesthetic excellence in the community while enhancing the vitality of Kansas City, enriching the lives of its citizens and visitors. 

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The Municipal Art Commission received more than 1,900 applications from artists hoping to be a part of the $5.65 million project at the airport’s new terminal. Of the 28 artists selected, 75 percent are based in Kansas City or have significant ties to Kansas City; as well as 75 percent of selected artists are women or artists of color.

“We were in this for diversity, equity and inclusion from the very beginning,” Martin said. “It’s our belief that the main way we accomplished that was through the composition of the selection panels. There are those in the public art community who would recommend one selection panel for the entire project, which is the legacy way to do this sort of thing. But we recognized that through different selection panels for each location of the airport, we had a very good possibility of getting the diversity, equity and inclusion results we wanted.”

More than 56 panelists, representing a diverse group of arts professionals and community members, participated in the art selection process across nine various panels. Tyler Enders, a co-founder of Made in KC, was part of the selection committee for the People Connector area (the connecting hallway from Node A to Node B) of the airport. The People Connector selection committee chose the artwork “Cloud Glazing” by SOFTlab in New York City.

“Cloud Gazing” by SOFTlab; Cloud Gazing is inspired by the dream-like quality of watching clouds over the expansive planes of the Midwest and pareidolia, the tendency to see images in nebulous forms like clouds. The artwork consists of ten cloud-like forms suspended along the concourse ceiling; photo by Tommy Felts, Startland News

Tyler Enders, Made in KC

“Every selection panel was incredibly diverse,” Enders said. “You had people representing musical arts, visual arts, people who are not connected immediately to the arts, such as myself. It was a ton of work for James Martin and the executive committee, but it resulted in this incredible collection of art that’s worth way more than what we spent on it.” 

RELATED: Attention passengers: Prepare to fill your carry ons with local goods when KC’s new terminal opens

Along with thoughtfully creating various selection committees, the executive team partnered with KC BizCare to create a checklist for artists wanting to submit an application. They also provided education for artists who did not have prior experience with public art projects, said Holly Hayden, a private contractor and the consulting artist hired for KCI. 

“Ornithology” by Willie Cole; The suspended artwork is a tribute to Kansas City native son, jazz great, Charlie “Yardbird” Parker, and his 1946 tune titled, “Ornithology”. Constructed in the historic 18th & Vine District in Kansas City, Ornithology consists of twelve larger than life birds made entirely from alto saxophones; photo by Tommy Felts, Startland News

Holly Hayden onsite at the new KCI terminal

“This was right about the time the pandemic started, so we held countless Zoom calls, online meetings, to walk our arts community through registering, creating an LLC and making sure they knew the insurance boundaries,” Hayden recalled. “KC BizCare was extremely helpful in ensuring that our entire arts community could get involved.”

The executive art committee also worked alongside the airport’s architects to help the artists visualize their work in the physical space, Hayden added. 

“The architects provided us with their color palette, with their materials, so that the artists could picture the hemlock wood ceilings, the slate gray walls and the natural light that was going to be in there,” Hayden said. “I think we can be proud of how cohesive the artwork fits within the architecture. It’s more than a collection of art by itself; it’s a collection of art within a space.”

Although KCI’s new terminal is filled with work from various artists — selected by various committees — it is tied together with similar themes, told from diverse perspectives, Martin said.

“Midwestern Meanderings” by JT Daniels; Midwest Meanderings depicts the diverse types of people you may meet in Kansas City, as well as the changing landscape you experience while driving 30 minutes in any direction; photo by Tommy Felts, Startland News

James Martin, Kansas City’s public art administrator

“We didn’t specifically state themes that we were looking for, but the ones we saw repeated were references to the surrounding landscape, the hills and the grasses, the native plants, flowers and insects,” Martin noted. “Kansas City’s rich history with music, specifically jazz, is highlighted. References to flight, clouds and the sky are present. If somebody does a tour of all 28 works of art from beginning to end, I think they would have a very good impression of what this region is really like.”

As a graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute and owner of a local design studio, Hayden acknowledged the talent within Kansas City’s art community. 

“This is our community; these are our friends,” Hayden shared. “We are wanting to show the world how Kansas City has such an amazing history of different types of art. This airport is the first time so many people are setting foot in Kansas City, and we had no other options but to make it a great experience for travelers. Art is a significant part of that.”

“Hello and Goodbye” by Kathy Minhsin Liao; photo by Channa Steinmetz, Startland News

KCI’s open house was the first time Liao saw her piece “Hello and Goodbye” displayed with everyone’s artwork, she said. 

“I know some of those artists as friends and colleagues, so seeing their work in the context it is meant to be display was incredible; I think many of them also went above and beyond to go out of their comfort zone and challenge themselves,” Liao said, noting that she collaborated with the Belger Arts Center to incorporate ceramics — an medium she considers herself an amateur in.  

When travelers stop and view Liao’s artwork, she hopes they can connect and relate to the message of the piece, she said.

“The figures you see in the painting are actually my grandma; I am thinking of all of the loved ones who we’ve been apart from for a long time during this pandemic,” Liao shared. “It’s relevant to this specific time, but it’s also a very timeless and universal feeling of longing to connect. The airport is the place where we can bridge that gap.”

Click here for the full list of artists and artworks featured at KCI.

Keep reading below for a virtual tour of more pieces inside KCI’s new terminal.

“Let the Music Take You” by George Rodriguez; A larger than life ceramic full jazz band of figures and instruments cases line up to check in for a flight. Celebrating Kansas City’s historic jazz culture, ceramics, and love of travel; photo by Tommy Felts, Startland News

“Molten Swing” by Soo Sunny Park; 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 out of ordinary musical materials. Molten Swing uses ordinary steel frames and acrylic tiles to sculpt a malleable visual structure that changes as travelers flow through the space. It is a center of energy that reshapes the space around it; photo by Channa Steinmetz, Startland News

“Polarities” by Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel; 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. Reuse of 39 medallions from the demolished terminal into the new terrazzo floor of the new terminal near each gate gives travelers a sense of nostalgia for KCI, creates a visual marker, and invites exploration to find each design; photos by Tommy Felts, Startland News

“Nostalgia” by Hasna Sal; This 10-part installation is a kaleidoscope of momentous experiences that transcend the ordinary into extraordinary, presented in unitary time and space upon the viewer’s eye, through the medium of glass and light to convey stories of human connection and emotion, in the language of color, shapes, shadows and tonalities; photo by Tommy Felts, Startland News

“The Air Up There” by Nick Cave; More than 3,000 custom strands create an overhead spinner installation. Spinners depict icons from the Kansas City region such as fountains, native plants and animals, as well as symbols of equality and love; photo by Tommy Felts, Startland News

“Dreaming of The Beautiful Places You Will Go” by Bernadette Esperanza Torres; 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.” Photo by Channa Steinmetz, Startland News

“Kansas City: A Quilted History” by Rachel Hubbard Kline; In Kansas City: A Quilted History, 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; photo by Channa Steinmetz, Startland News

“Fountain (KCI)” by Leo Villareal; Fountain (KCI) is a light sculpture that pays homage to Kansas City’s legacy as The City of Fountains. The artwork is composed of simple and repeating metallic forms embedded with thousands of monochromatic LEDs, through which Villareal evokes the movement of water; photo by Channa Steinmetz, Startland News