Keep an eye out for hearts around KC again. Parade of Hearts is back for 2023 & 2024
Remember the big heart statues scattered around Kansas City last spring? Get used to seeing them more often.
The Parade of Hearts will return for 2023 and 2024 after a successful run in 2022.
While organizers originally intended for the hearts to take a break and come back in 2024, executive director Jenn Nussbeck told The Star that public demand was so high they felt compelled to bring a version of the project back for 2023 too.
The 2023 Parade of Hearts will be a scaled back version of what we saw this year, with about a quarter of the hearts, and then the community art installation will return in full force with more than 100 heart sculptures in 2024.
“We have some really big events coming here in the spring (like the NFL Draft in April) and what a great way to showcase to the rest of the country that we are the heartland,” Nussbeck said.
This past spring’s Parade of Hearts featured 156 unique sculptures stationed throughout the metro created by Kansas City artists that celebrated what Nussbeck called “a diverse cross-section of greater Kansas City.”
She said the project’s mission is to unite communities and invite people to visit places in the region that they may not be as familiar with. For example, Nussbeck heard feedback from someone in south Overland Park who traveled to the east side of Kansas City to see the hearts and told her that he’d never been to that part of town before.
She also heard from the owner of Ruby Jean’s Juicery at 3000 Troost Ave., which had a heart placed in front of the restaurant, that the sculpture brought many new visitors in.
“It just delivered a unification of both sides of the state line like we’ve never seen before,” Nussbeck said.
Artists who participate in the Parade of Hearts in 2023 and 2024 will receive a stipend and marketing support, and money from auctioning off the hearts will go to The University of Kansas Health System, Children’s Miracle Network and one unannounced charity in the Kansas City region.
Nonprofits in the Kansas City area are encouraged to apply to be that third beneficiary. Applications will go live in November, and a selection panel will announce its choice in early 2023.
The Parade of Hearts is starting to accept applications from artists who would like to create a sculpture for next year. Local artists can apply to create a heart here. Nussbeck said that artists have the freedom to create anything they want. The only requirement is that the design has a deep connection to Kansas City.
Parade of Hearts received 700 design submissions for 2022, and an independent selection panel cut down the list to 156. The hearts raised over $2.56 million for the 2022 beneficiaries.
Some of 2022’s hearts are still out around town in their new homes after auction.
