Poppies, a tribute to fallen soldiers, set Liberty Memorial aglow during NFL Draft

In the midst of the spectacular celebration of picking new players for the National Football League this week in Kansas City, there will be a quiet and beautiful reminder of something many would consider more important than football.

Visitors at the NFL Draft activities are set to be bombarded with the bold, fast-paced visuals of the giant video boards already in place on the grounds of the National WWI Museum and Memorial and the enormous draft theater stage in front of Union Station.

In contrast to the blaze of imagery coming from the NFL’s stage, directly across the street to the south of the draft theater is the Liberty Memorial Tower which will be lit with projected images of bright red poppies. The tower was lit up Tuesday night and will glow with the projection after dark until Saturday, April 29, the final day of the draft.

The projected image is an art installation called “Horizons” by local artist Kathy Pittala. She is also the graphic artist for the museum.

Poppies have been a symbol of remembrance of fallen soldiers. The association with war casualties took root after the poem “In Flanders Fields” was published around the time of WWI. The poem makes mention of the red flowers blooming on battlefields and soldiers’ graves after the fighting had stopped.

Silhouettes of soldiers, more images of poppies and powerful messages are also projected on the North Terrace of the memorial as part of the installation.

If you aren’t at the draft activities where you can see the tower, a social media post put out by the museum suggests viewing it from several locations including the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, locations south of the museum grounds, the West Side neighborhood, the intersection of Pershing Road and Grand Boulevard and various rooftops downtown.