Kansas City artist Chico Sierra recently added imagery that celebrates the World Cup to his mural titled Welcome at the Ramón Murguía entrance of Union Station. (from the artist)
Kansas City cultural organizations celebrate the game with global displays and soccer-themed exhibits
This summer, Kansas City’s home turf hosts the FIFA World Cup 2026™ and world-class art. When not rooting for football teams from Argentina, the Netherlands, England, Algeria and other nations, global fans and visitors have ample opportunity to experience culture connected to “the Beautiful Game,” as soccer is called.
Kansas City artist Chico Sierra added imagery that celebrates the World Cup to his mural titled Welcome at the Ramón Murguía entrance of Union Station. First created in October 2023, Sierra’s mural showcases the city’s diverse people, history and attractions. Jazz luminaries, such as legend Charlie Parker and contemporary phenom Hermon Mehari, share space with a nod to sports, “The Scout” statue, and folklore figures.
The National WWl Museum and Memorial’s exhibit “The Beautiful Game” (see story, page 62) pays homage to European clashes on and off the pitch, or soccer field, during The Great War. Soccer served as a recruitment tool for some. Soccer enabled English, Irish, German and Belgian fans to distract themselves from the hardship and brutality of war. Meanwhile, prisoners of war competed in matches at internment camps. Unusual memorabilia bring games of yesteryear to life.
Like sports, art transcends continental boundaries, languages and customs to elicit reactions from its audience. “The World in Kansas City,” on view through Aug. 9 at Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (see story, page 82), creates an opportunity for cultural exchange. The exhibit features Kansas City artists with global backgrounds, cultural ambassadors to international visitors here for the World Cup. Guatemalan-born César López fashioned Structural Form: Globe (expanded) from aluminum, chain and other metal materials, an assembled sphere with curved planes where tension exists between connected and diverging paths.
Mexican artist Betsabeé Romero created Tejiendo Redes (Weaving Nets) at the Kansas City Convention Center. The Consulate of Mexico in Kansas City and Mattie Rhodes Center organized the installation on view through July 30. Simulating the structure of a soccer goal, its metaphorical net binds together diverse voices and fosters a sense of unity among local artists and volunteers who will engage in arts activations of the space.
Two exhibits reference soccer and sports culture through Dec. 6 at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson County Community College. Soccer imagery in Betsabeé Romero’s special installation, A Field with Roots, strikes at ideas of mobility, cycles and cultures connected throughout fútbol. Work from more than a dozen artists in “Sport and Spectator” explores the intersection of the visual arts and sports culture, a meditation on how human-created forms of play and expression shape individual identity, social behavior and cultural relations.
Dubbed “A People’s History of Kansas City Soccer,” Kansas City Central Library exhibitions curator Craig Auge displays a collection of historic images that illustrate Kansas City’s long relationship with soccer.
Catch “Welcoming the World to Lawrence” by July 12, when the exhibition closes at the Spencer Museum of Art. Works from the Spencer’s collection, such as Tunisian painter Jellal Ben Abdallah’s Orchestre sous-marine (Underwater Orchestra), highlight the aforementioned countries playing matches in the Kansas City area.
