By Leslie Collins
Northeast News
April 4, 2012

Northeast Arts KC is building a “House of Cards” one boarded up window at a time.

It’s urban art, a window dressing and a way to beautify boarded up and abandoned buildings in Historic Northeast.

Located at 7th Street and Indiana, the two-story Jackson County land trust property is an eyesore, but Northeast Arts KC hopes that will soon change with the help of local artists. The theme for this property is a “House of Cards,” but it won’t be a full deck since there’s only 32 windows and doors.

During the annual Metropolitan Lawn and Garden Show, area artists transformed the window boards into traditional playing cards and their first hand is a royal flush. Last week, the city installed the royal flush on the second story windows and the goal is to complete the transformation in May.

It all began last September, when Northeast HELP partnered with Northeast Arts KC, the Northeast Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and the city to install artistic window boards at 3512 and 3516 Independence Ave. Local artists painted the boards on a rainy Saturday, and the two buildings now display a hodgepodge collection of art ranging from the shadow of Alfred Hitchcock to a cheerful blue monster to a sock monkey playing the guitar.

Rebecca Koop, executive director of Northeast Arts KC, said she hopes the idea will spread to other neighborhoods in Kansas City. She wants area residents to “feel good about living on their block again” and to take ownership of their neighborhood.

“We’re modern cave artists I guess you could say. We’re trying to leave our mark,” Koop said of the volunteer artists. “The ultimate goal is to improve our neighborhood, so this is an opportunity for artists to show their work in a public gallery.”