By Joe Jarosz
Northeast News
October 1, 2014

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – Art was the focus of the most recent Northeast Kansas City Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

More specifically, mural art in the Northeast.

The afternoon included updates from Hector Casanova, a visiting instructor at the Kansas City Art Institute who is currently working with his students to beautify the former Scarritt Elementary School with mural art on the panels that are boarding up the windows and doors.

John Daniels, Youth Development Coordinator at Mattie Rhodes, also provided an update on the Mural Arts Project Inspiring Transformation [MAPIT] program. The city wide project, which began in 2013, transforms neighborhoods and preserves property by implementing collaborative educational art projects to empower our youth.

Led by First District Councilman Scott Wagner and the Gateway Cries Task Force, the purpose of the project identified a need for graffiti abatement to combat the city’s graffiti problem. The task force also identified an opportunity through the creation of murals to not only abate graffiti and beautify the city, but to also engage the city’s youth in exploring an artistic outlet. Currently, Daniels said the project is working on two properties in the Northeast, the Budd Park pool building and the Ninth and Van Brunt Athletic Fields Park building.

“We’re going to install panels to the walls because of extensive water damage to the current mural,” Daniels said, adding water makes the current paint crack and peel off. “We’re going to install a bracket system that would raise panels and preserve the art for between three to seven years.”

At the Athletic field, Daniels said the group will not paint over the flags along Van Brunt. Instead, there’s a building on the fields owned by the Parks and Recreation Department that will have the backside wall with the most graffiti painted over.

“They’ve had to wash it off a few times over the past year and it’s a relatively new building that we don’t want to fall in line with other graffitied buildings,” Daniels said.

In the project’s first year, Daniels said the group completed the mural located on the side of the building along Independence and Norton Avenues. By working with area youth, Daniels said youth are becoming more engaged with the community.

“How we help is by reaching out to kids who have the potential to graffiti and give them something to do and hope, then, they won’t be interested in tagging buildings,” Daniels said.

The Chamber’s Executive Director Rebecca Koop, who’s also the president of Northeast Arts KC, said she is pleased to see that city government and public institutions are realizing the importance of art for its economic impact, pride and place making, educational opportunities for young artists and graffiti deterrent benefits of having art in our everyday lives.

“Let’s see more investment in public art in areas like Northeast,” Koop said.