A recent art project in Lee’s Summit puts ‘face’ on the community

The latest piece of public art in Lee’s Summit works perfectly with social distancing guidelines, but its origins go back much earlier than the start of the pandemic. The “We Are Lee’s Summit” photo compilation made its debut in downtown Lee’s Summit last month.

The black and white photos feature images of Lee’s Summit residents holding up signs that read, “I am” and a descriptive word or two of the subject’s choice. Some photos have more than one person together.

Some of the descriptors include “magical”, “family” and “figuring it out.” Each panel has 16 different pictures, and overall, 251 faces appear to represent the city. Christopher Hosmann Photography shot all the photos last fall on days like Oktoberfest or a fourth Friday art walk when lots of people were out and walking about the area.

Anyone can visit the display, located on the outside wall of Downtown Lee’s Summit Main Street’s building at 13 SE Third St.

A trip to Joplin is what sparked the idea for organizers Hilary Graves and John Beaudoin. The city installed a similar project after its devastating tornado in 2011. The number of group photos in the Lee’s Summit project makes it stand apart from the Joplin display.

Paul Whitehill, who designed the Joplin display, also worked on this project.

Graves was pleased with the diversity of faces in the finished product.

“I was born and raised in Lee’s Summit and grew up three blocks from downtown. I can look at some panels and not know anyone and look at another and see the woman who gave me my first job teaching preschool,” she said.

“The words they chose were really interesting and funny. … Some took it very serious and would have these profound words, and then we have some on there with their kiddo saying, ‘We’re Spiderman friends’.”

The creativity behind the words came completely from each person pictured.

“We left it totally up to them, and we left the lettering up to them and the spelling up to them, just because when a kid spells a word wrong… I think it’s more authentic,” Graves said.

Former city councilman and Lee’s Summit resident Rob Binney participated.

“It was relatively painless, and I’m not into having my picture taken. People were coming by, no pressure. It was just, come up with your word,” he said.

Binney likes the message the project sends.

“It was kind of neat statement. It was truly people from all over Lee’s Summit, all walks of life: young and old and different ethnicities,” Binney said. “It’s kind of a microcosm of the city.”

The display has been built to withstand the weather, and Graves said she hopes it will last seven or eight years before the elements wear it down.

The project cost about $7,600 to put together. Most of its funding came from grants via the Lee’s Summit Arts Council, the Downtown Lee’s Summit Community Improvement District, the HMF Beaudoin Family Foundation, and Ashley and Zach Lund.

Local businesses such as Fossil Forge Design, Downtown Lee’s Summit Main Street, Whitehill Enterprises and Christopher Hosmann Photography offered in-kind donations.

This story was originally published July 21, 2020 at 7:00 AM.