Unifying people through art: Every heart in this KC area ‘Parade’ has a story

The Parade of Hearts has left its heart in Lee’s Summit. Actually, it’s left four of them. The public art campaign has dotted 154 total sculptures throughout the metro area.

In the Lee’s Summit area, two are on either side of U.S. Route 50, just south of the Interstate Highway 470 interchange; another is just east of Metropolitan Community College’s Longview campus; and the fourth is in the middle of downtown Lee’s Summit, next to the Amtrak station.

The project has been in the works since before the pandemic, but that crisis significantly reshaped its initial purpose. It was first to be a fundraiser for the cardiac programs at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

“The health system, they were like, ‘This feels much bigger than just our cardiac program. How can we help people that are being deeply impacted (by COVID)?’ That’s where the plans shifted to looking at other beneficiaries and how this could be something bigger,” said Jenn Nussbeck co-director and board member for the Parade of Hearts.

Nussbeck says the project is accessible to anyone who wants to see it, without financial barriers. She sees it as a way to unify people through art.

With the exception of the top tier heart sponsors, no one got to choose where their sponsored heart went, as project leaders wanted to make sure the hearts drove traffic to some less-traveled parts of the metro in the hope of stimulating the economy in those areas.

Beth Martens got involved after the call for artists went out last summer. That call garnered about 700 design submissions, which was “about 600 more than we expected,” Nussbeck said.

An independent eight-member panel with experience in public art chose the 154 designs that made it onto the hearts. Each chosen artist received a $2,000 stipend to create their hearts.

Of the four in Lee’s Summit, Martens’ is the one that has the most local ties. She lives in Lee’s Summit, and her design is a print of a painting she made of the city’s downtown area.

The idea behind her clock-themed heart is that, “it’s time for us to become a community again,” Martens said.

Initially, though, she wasn’t even going to submit a design.

“At first I looked at it and I said, ‘This is not for me.’ I’m generally a watercolor artist. I’m thinking, ‘I can’t watercolor on this thing,’” Martens said.

To make it work, she made a few digital edits to an image she had already painted and then had it printed on vinyl to wrap it onto the heart. But there was a major snag.

“Before we picked up our actual heart structures, all we had was an email image, a drawing with the dimensions. I’m not the only one who thought this. We thought they were going to be flat on the front and the back, but when we got them, it’s like a puffy heart, like a balloon,” Martens said. “When I looked at that I went, ‘Oh wow. How am I going to wrap the vinyl around that curve and make it look OK?’”

Fortunately, a man involved with Parade of Hearts has a shop near Martens’ office where he deals with vinyl wraps, and he offered to help her. It was a lot of working with squeegees, a heat gun and even an ice pick, but they got it done.

Even with the challenges, Martens is glad to be part of the project and excited to have her heart in her hometown.

“I love that it’s actually in Lee’s Summit. That was kind of my hope when I did that,” Martens said. “They told us as artists we could suggest where we would like (it), but ultimately we had no decision in where it would be placed. Mine was sponsored by an anonymous donor. I’m grateful for whoever did that. I wish could thank them,” she said.

If you want to see Martens’ heart or any of the others, you’ll want to do it before they’re auctioned off in June. Proceeds will go to the University of Kansas Health system for long-haul COVID patients with heart implications, Mid-America Regional Council for early childhood education and childcare, AltCap for grants to minority-owned businesses and the Visit KC Foundation for grants to locally owned hospitality and tourism businesses.

“We would like to have them out for much longer but the funding is critical and critically needed,” Nussbeck said.

Nussbeck suggests people download the free Parade of Hearts app to see photos, watch videos of the artists, and, in some cases, receive special offers from the businesses surrounding each heart.