From posters, t-shirts, street murals and sculptures to yard art and stickers to, well, a ton of cool stuff, Kansas City artists are turning the world’s biggest sporting event into a citywide canvas for creative endeavors. The art celebrates the city’s artistic heritage while also promoting KC’s unique place in a worldwide sporting event.
The visual feast is already coming into full view. A poster design by local lucky artist, Jadie Arnett, has been selected as the official FIFA host city promotional poster. Her poster artwork will be used on FIFA merchandise, signage and more.
Soccer ball stickers and soccer balloons were on many floats at the recent Brookside St. Patrick’s Day parade.
Here’s a quick sampling of other World Cup 2026 local art projects going on around town.
- T-shirts: Clay County and Platte County tourism officials have organized watch parties for the tournament, where each party will have a tournament-related t-shirt created by students from one of the 12 high schools in the two counties. “Each high school that wants to participate will hold a t-shirt design contest internally, submit their top three designs, and then we’ll do a public vote,” Megan Sahlfeld, tourism and marketing manager for Clay County, told KCM. Park University has announced that the winning student, should they decide to attend Park University, will be provided a scholarship covering up to half of their tuition for four years, Sahlfeld says. “We also held a region-wide call for artists to put their own full surface design on one of our statement pieces (a 20 foot inflatable soccer ball) that’s going to be at every watch party,” she says. “It is going to be a kind of our beacon in the Northland at each of these parties.”
- Murals. Phil Shafer, owner and lead designer of mural creation company Sike Style Industries, has been working with Sporting KC, the Royals and Chiefs for years, and is now doing non-FIFA branded work for the World Cup events. Shafer did a custom design on the grass—a “ground mural”—for the FIFA fan fest reveal at the World War I Museum. “That was kind of like the kickoff,” he told KCM. “We’re into transforming spaces. We’re creating the experience of reinforcing a brand. We’re really excited to focus on some community murals that are going to be there to invite fans to engage with and to feel welcome. But they’re going to live beyond that. We need to really exemplify what makes Kansas City a great host city, and show off our own story, culture and artwork. Two of the major murals that we’re doing are like that. Those and other murals will all be in the KC area, from 20th street all the way down to the river. They’re going to be very, very visible, which is fun.”
- Sculptures. The Parade of Hearts art installation project began in 2022 with a five-feet by five-feet white fiberglass heart sculpture that artists personalize with any sort of design or message. This year’s heart sculpture will be different—a little larger, shaped like a ball, with a heart shape cut out of the center. “We wanted to do something different, and we thought why not let it be at least inspired by the event that’s happening in the summer,” Tucker Trotter, CEO of Dimensional Innovations told KCM. His company coordinates the design and fabrication of the hearts. “A lot of the artists picked up on that connection (the ball representing a soccer ball), but we made sure that the artists understood that they couldn’t use FIFA logos and things that are licensed.” According to Brandon Wood, VP and director of engineering at Dimensional Innovations, people are doing a lot of fun things in the heart shape cutout that could function as an interactive selfie zone if left open. “But there’s some people putting cool objects in that shape,” he told KCM. “There’s been some soccer related ones that are featuring the teams around town, and there’s been some that honor the international aspect of the tournament.” The 150 balls-with-heart-cutouts art pieces will be revealed at the Overland Park Convention Center on April 4 before being moved to locationsmaround the city. “Every single one is totally different, so it’s a blast to see that. To just see how people take it and just run with it,” Wood says.
Ed note: Got a WC2026 original local art project to share with us? Just let us know. And remember to visit the FIFA website to find out their strict rules for intellectual property—what’s legal to share and what is not.
