View the artwork at a ribbon cutting for Maplewoods Parkway on April 26.
Kansas City-based artist Beth Nybeck has installed Dream Swept, a new work of public art for Kansas City’s Northland, in the Shoal Creek Parkway and Maplewoods Parkway roundabout. The City of Kansas City, Missouri One Percent for Art program and the Parks and Recreation Department has been working with Nybeck throughout 2021 to realize the artwork.
Nybeck’s winning proposal was selected from 58 applicants to the project. To create Dream Swept, she imagined combining the forms of birds and the winged seed coverings of maple trees that whirl to the ground as they fall. The body of each bird-seedling is comprised of stainless steel, while the boldly colorful wings are made up of powder-coated stainless steel.
The artist was inspired by the rural past of the Staley neighborhood, as well as her own history.
“I moved to Kansas City to start my career over a decade ago. To supplement my income, I was a nanny during the day. A number of the families I cared for were in the neighborhoods surrounding
Maplewoods Parkway and Staley Farms. Those families and these neighborhoods will forever hold a special and dear spot in my heart.”
She adds, “My concept honors and recognizes the past farmland and forest heritage of the neighborhood, the present vitality, and casts dreams about the future. The form of a bird is something that we can all relate to. It is a symbol of hope and peace for the future. We all have dreams and
aspirations for our future and the future of our world. This artwork captures in a dynamic way the journey of moving from one place to the next, and bringing our dreams along with us. It would be an honor to create this artwork for a neighborhood in Kansas City that has given my wings flight.”
A selection panel made up of a Staley neighborhood resident, an artist and art educator who works in the Northland, Parks and Recreation staff, and two members of Kansas City’s Municipal Art Commission recommended Nybeck’s proposal to the Commission, which approved the proposal in 2021.
The new artwork was paid for by One Percent for Art funds set aside as part of general obligation bonds that voters passed in 2017 for building renovations and city-wide infrastructure improvements.
For more information about the City of Kansas City Missouri’s One Percent for Art program, visit www.kcmo.gov/art