By Michael Bushnell
Northeast News

Historic Northeast is blessed to have world class artists living within the community, and on Thursday, November 16, local artist Jose Faus proved that point as he unveiled his latest public installation at Woodland Elementary School.

The inspiration for the mural came when Faus was attending a meeting on the second floor of the Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center. That meeting room overlooked the Woodland Elementary School play area. Faus was particularly drawn to a semi-circular, concrete retaining wall that was roughly 80 feet long and about eight feet high at the wall’s mid point.

“This mural is really a microcosm of our Northeast community” said Faus during the November 16 ribbon cutting ceremony. “It really represents the diversity of our community and the student population here at Woodland.”

Kansas City Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell was excited about the installation as well.

“We’re just super excited to have another world class artist working with our district and for the benefit of our students,” Bedell said.  “This is just an awesome project.”

Faus indicated the mural is about 99% done and is full of fun coded messages. For a brief guided tour of the mural by the artist himself, check out our exclusive video of Jose Faus explaining some of the hidden messages in his mural.