Kansas City Central Library

The first weekend I was in Kansas, we headed into Kansas City (Missouri side) to check out the Kansas City Central Library. The one side of their parking garage has an art installation called “The Community Bookshelf” which is basically large books.

The library itself is located in an old building that was formerly the home of the First National Bank. The building had been restored with some modern touches added. I loved looking at the old internal architectural details of the building.

University of Kansas

My bestie’s eldest son is a sophomore at the University of Kansas so we asked him to give us a tour of the campus before school reopened. We didn’t go into every building but we did walk around most of the campus which included climbing up on super steep hill (my thighs were not happy). The campus is quite large and consists of a number of different buildings built in different eras which can be seen from the different architecture. The campus itself is on the US National Register of Historic Places. There are also numerous statues of the school’s mascot – the Jayhawk. Some show how the look of the mascot has changed over the years and some are ones that have been donated by graduating classes.  

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

On another weekend, we headed into Kansas City again to pay a visit to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. I’ve been to Kansas/Kansas City quite a few times now but this is the first time I’m visiting Nelson-Atkins. Entry is free but you need to reserve your tickets before going in order to be allowed in.

The museum is divided into different sections from contemporary, European, Asian, Egyptian and more each containing paintings, photos and sculptures and the like. They even had a part of an old medieval castle set up inside. Outside there are also some large sculptures. The more famous because the shuttlecocks. Whenever we drove past the museum, we would see them.

I’m not a type of person who typically goes to a museum especially an art one but I’ve always wanted to go into this one because I like looking at 3D art and sculptures and such – not a fan at looking at paintings which is odd considering I like to draw sometimes hahaha.

We ended up spending quite a few hours checking everything out.

Country Club Plaza

After our visit to the museum, we headed over to the Country Club Plaza in downtown Kansas City. We went to a shop called “Made In KC” which sells local goods, gifts and more. I picked up a few stickers and postcards. From there, we took a short walk so that I could get photos of the JC Nichols Memorial Fountain – after all, Kansas City is known as the City of Fountains.

Lawrence Murals

On one of the afternoons where we didn’t have much going on, my bestie and I went on a hunt to find mural art installation around Lawrence. I had found a list of them on Lawrence’s tourism website. We managed to find most of them. I love street art in all it’s different forms because it’s art in a place that you least expect.