KC Parade of Hearts

I’m finding that many cities around the United States provide a unique celebration of the arts. In Kansas City we celebrate the arts with the Parade of Hearts.

Each year artists submit design ideas, and if chosen as one of the top 150, they place their art on a “heart” sculpture. Those sculptures first go on display together in one location, so everyone can see them. Then, after a short time, the hearts make their way to new locations, allowing people to go heart hunting. A map is provided with locations, and hunters can log in and keep track of their finds. The hunt continues through August then all the hearts go up for auction.

This year the blank sculpture design changed as it is now a circular shape with a heart cut out. The best part of it all is the winning designer of the blank heart sculpture—Brandon Wood. Brandon’s parents and I worked as youth leaders many years ago! It’s crazy to think he is now vice-president and director of engineering and R&D at Dimensional Innovations. For those of you who’d love more information about the process, here’s an article.

This year I decided to walk to the sculptures near my house. One is located at the entrance to the Truman Library, and two are located on the historic Independence Square. I did drive to another heart just outside of my walking path and look forward to seeing the other two in Independence.

Interactive Map

I don’t love the interactive map as I find it provides unimportant events and activities if your goal is to find the hearts. It’s also difficult to find things easily. Let me explain…

I wanted to find hearts based on location. When I type in Independence, I receive the message “No Results Found”. Lucky for me, I am able to select by region. When I selected Independence, the first thing I see are events. That’s fine, but I want to find hearts. Scrolling to the bottom of the page gives me a list of hearts in Independence—just what I want.

I thought I could do this for every region, however, I clicked on Blue Springs and Grain Valley, and no hearts showed up. Does that mean there aren’t any there? There likely are, but the website isn’t making it easy to tell.

I’m sure creating an interactive map creates a tremendous amount of work, but the frustration I have felt trying to use it makes the hunt that much harder.

The Hearts

The hearts make the hunt worth it. Each base has a QR code to scan. It not only adds that heart to your found list, but it also provides interesting information.

Oops I Dripped It Again

This sculpture has a search and find feature. The rainbow brings fun and vibrancy, but the items drawn on the base hide within the blue parts of the sculpture. You can find a fountain or a barbecue grill as well as many more items.

The Cheering Crowd

Located outside the Independence Courthouse this heart celebrates the energetic and passionate sports fans of Kansas City. This location also happened to be used for the Hallmark movie (Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story) that was about the Chiefs.

The Heart of America

This heart certainly stands out with the vibrant colors and its patriotic message. This heart sits outside the Truman Library.

Somewhere Over Kansas City

World Cup soccer is coming to Kansas City. This heart uses El Salvadoran folk art to showcase not only the World Cup but also an Oz inspired dreamscape.

I’ve seen several pictures of hearts I want to see up close. While I won’t make it to all the hearts, I hope to keep adding to my list of hearts found.