Araminta

Araminta, Harriet Tubman's birth name, is another of the Open Spaces KC exhibits. She is gracing Union Station because of her connection to another kind of station – one for the Underground Railroad. She has a rifle over her shoulder and a walking stick, presumably on one of her missions to lead slaves from captivity in the South. She also worked as a spy for the Union Army.

This Is Not a Refuge

Another Open Spaces KC piece. This one, by Pakistan-born, Indianapolis-based artist Anila Quayyum Agha, is on the grounds of the Kansas City Art Institute. It is supposed to be soothing and challenging at the same time and reflecting on the global plight of war refugees. Not sure I see that but it's lovely.

Tree, Broken Tree

Another of the Open Spaces KC installations. This one, called Tree, Broken Tree by Dylan Mortimer, is a dead tree painted pink and covered in glitter. Mortimer, who suffered from cystic fibrosis and recently had a lung transplant, says the art is a giant bronchial tree depicting his fresh lungs from the lung transplant. (The green stripe depicts mucous.)

Meat and Music

This giant meat thermometer is one of the art installations of Open Spaces KC that runs today through October. Artist Alexandre Arrechea says "Not every product that is produced and consumed within a city qualifies as a cultural marker of that city’s identity, but for Kansas City, meat and music serve as important exceptions. Since its heyday in the 1930s and '40s, Kansas City jazz and blues transformed how the rest of the world listened to American music, and its rapid economic growth as a center for processing and packing meat gave rise to its present-day fame as a Mecca of barbecue." You can see it in Swope Park. More to come.