LS West High School teacher’s art will ‘take off’ when new airport terminal opens

Rachel Hubbard Kline has an important goal as an artist: Submit to a few exhibitions each year.

Kline’s ambition and talent has paid off. Her art has been selected for what is one of the area’s most anticipated exhibitions: the permanent art display at the new Kansas City International Airport terminal.

Kline, an art teacher at Lee’s Summit West High School, is one of 19 local professional artists selected. Kline’s ceramic tile fragments will appear in the departure area of the airport, which is scheduled to open in early 2023.

“There was clearly a lot of excitement surrounding the call for art for the new KCI airport (terminal),” said Kline, who has until next fall to complete her art.

Applying seemed like a good idea to Kline, as wall-based work was being sought and there was a family connection to aviation.

“My grandfather and uncle were TWA pilots,” Kline said. “One of my aunts used to be a TWA flight attendant and another still flies for Delta.

“I honestly never thought I would be interested in public art, but the experience of my master’s of fine arts thesis as a site-specific installation made me excited to explore possibilities of other relationships between my work and public art spaces.”

Kline’s “An Ensemble of Fragments” features various ceramic tile fragments based on quilts from her grandmothers.

“I’ve always been drawn to color and pattern, but the important connections for me about the quilts are the family history aspect and larger story of American history,” Kline said.

“The quilts in our family were made from fabric remnants of clothing. When my grandmother showed off her quilts, she would tell stories of family members based on their textile prints.”

In her KCI work, Kline will replace the oral stories with stories printed from The Kansas City Star. When she was doing her thesis research, Kline discovered the quilt patterns the Star once published weekly.

“I had previously been using paperboard advertising plates I obtained from my parents’ hometown newspaper — The Lathrop Optimist — as a method to create texture and relief imagery,” Kline said.

“The KCI proposal seemed like a natural extension of this work based on my research and interests.”

Kline is now gathering articles from the digital archives at the Mid-Continent Public Library.

“I have begun a few test tiles with various glaze treatments. I laser engrave the articles in wood in reverse, in order for the text to print forward onto clay slabs,” Kline said, adding that she’s thankful to author Barbara Brackman for compiling some of the quilt motifs she plans to use.

Brackman included those motifs in her book, ‘”The Kansas City Star Quilts Sampler: 60+ Blocks from 1928-1961.”

Kline said some of the stories will be chosen because of personal memories, such as an article about the former Metro North mall in the Northland. Other stories will represent the collective narrative of Kansas City history, she said.

“The story of Metro North’s closing and demolition is similar to many brick and mortar malls and storefronts across the country,” Kline said.

“I find some of the daily, seemingly mundane stories often more interesting than the big headlines that we all know about. I’m inviting viewers to look more closely and question why a particular story is significant enough to put into the work. Though we mostly remember monumental events, it’s the daily news that makes up the bulk of our lives.”

A total of 188 applications and proposal submissions were reviewed by panelists for the airport’s art project.

“The panel did a fantastic job with a difficult task, and I’m pleased with their selections,” James Martin, Kansas City public art administrator, said in a news release.

“There are artists who have worked in the Kansas City area for many years who will be familiar to longtime observers. There are also artists who probably are not as familiar who contributed great proposals.

“I’m also thrilled with the diversity of media that will be on display, as well as the diversity that exists within this group of 19 artists.”

This story was originally published November 9, 2021 at 5:00 AM.