Every year a local Kansas City non-profit, Art in the Loop, teams up with the Kansas City Streetcar Authority to wrap one of the streetcars and the streetcar stop enclosures with artworks created by local artists.
Signco has partnered with the KC Streetcar Authority since 2018, professionally printing and installing the vinyl wraps for the stops and streetcar. They also assist with bringing the selected Art in the Loop artists’ works of art to life every year. The highly durable, weather-resistant wraps are up for months, and Signco’s reliable materials and certified installers ensure that they stay fresh and vibrant the entire time.
Art in the Loop 2026 Theme: Home
The Art in the Loop Foundation selected “Home” as the theme for 2026. Artists were asked to submit works of art exploring how people, places, and dreams create a sense of home, the idea being that “home” and what it means on a personal level can be expressed in countless ways, and the winning artworks this year beautifully reflect a wide range of perspectives on the concept.
Abuelita’s Kitchen is Home by Vania Soto
River Market West (Delaware) KC Streetcar Stop
For artist Vania Soto, home is not a structure, but a presence. Her piece, Abuelita’s Kitchen Is Home, reflects her experience as an immigrant from Juárez, Mexico. Though she had to leave her birthplace behind, she kept the recipes, prayers, superstitions and traditions of her grandmother’s kitchen with her. Her work is an exploration of how families carry their culture through food and storytelling, encouraging viewers to recall how the kitchens in their lives have shaped their own perspectives of “home.”
We Are Home by DINKC
North Loop Southbound KC Streetcar Stop
Laedan Galicia, who signs his work as DINKC, created a piece that reflects his experience growing up as a Mexican American in Kansas City and Mexico. We Are Home shows a Mexican skull character, inspired by Galicia’s appreciation for Día de los Muertos, holding a heart-shaped balloon that reads, “We Are Home.”
About his inspiration, Galicia says, “Our HOME is currently being attacked and not safe for many of us. The constant ‘Go Back To Your Home’ we hear spreading hate needs to stop.”
Blossoming Origins by Michelle Briggs
Library Northbound KC Streetcar Stop
Blossoming Origins, by visual artist Michelle Briggs, depicts the journey her family took over generations from the Choctaw Indian Nation’s reservation in Oklahoma to Kansas. Briggs explores how that journey by her parents and younger brother has shaped their own impact on Kansas City, from working with homeless outreach programs to her brother receiving a full-ride basketball scholarship and her connection to KC’s creative community.
Carried By Sounds by Anjola Ayodele
River Market Northbound KC Streetcar Stop
Nigerian-born artist Anjola Ayodele explores identity, culture, and place with her artwork Carried By Sounds. The piece reflects her connection to her heritage through music, with the focal point of the artwork being a musician playing a Nigerian talking drum. The patterns and forms that spread outward from the musician are inspired by the African musical genres Highlife and Afrobeats, represented as bubbles of sound traveling beyond borders and time.
A Modern Belonging by Taylar Sanders
Kauffman Southbound KC Streetcar Stop
The artwork on the Kauffman Southbound stop is an adaptation of Taylar Sander’s original oil painting, I Come in Peace. Sanders shows her perspective of home through the image of a man in a moment of introspection, feeling the breeze and taking in the sounds and smells around him. The trees represent a sense of a place in which he feels rooted, and the flowers his nurturing presence. The intention of the piece is to bring attention to how we must care for the home we have and share it with all forms of life.
Patio Barbecues by Deanna Dikeman
Armour Southbound KC Streetcar Stop
Deanna Dikeman explores the concept of home as both a place and a state of mind. This photo set depicts a backyard scene with her father and son gathered around a small charcoal barbecue. While ostensibly a depiction of the simplicity of daily life, the photos represent something deeper, with meaning tied to rituals, memories, and relationships.
Season of Home by Kevin VanEmburgh
Southmoreland Northbound KC Streetcar Stop
Artist Keven VanEmburgh’s perspective of home is that it is not just one singular place, but an accumulation of memories, instead. From that concept he created four works, each representing a season of the year and of life, itself. Up close, each artwork consists of small marks. Stand back from the artwork, and those small marks come together as one to present clear, cohesive images.
Home Is Imagination by Kai Johnson
Riverfront KC Streetcar Stop
Kansas City illustrator and designer Kai Johnson explores their connection to the theme “Home” through their younger self and the imagination they fostered as a child in their grandmother’s home, defined by created with different materials that reflect their inner world outward.
Evening Flights by Ramona Cliff
In addition to the streetcar stop enclosures, Art in the Loop also selects one artist’s work to be featured on one of the streetcars. This year, Ramona Cliff’s piece, Evening Flights, can be seen cruising along the streetcar’s route.
Cliff conceptualized this artwork around a moment she had while painting a mural in Topeka, Kansas. It was early in the morning, and the artist watched as a graceful flight of barn swallows swooped along the nearby creek. To Cliff, the fluttering birds showcased movement that was both calming and chaotic. This feeling is expressed in Evening Flights through ribbon-like bands of color, intricate stars, and three swallows moving across the streetcar.
Art in the Loop and the participating artists trust Signco to bring their works of art to life with vivid color, precision printing, and expert installation. These KC Streetcar wraps and stop enclosures are subjected to the wild swings in KC’s weather, demanding the superior durability and longevity that the Signco team delivers each and every year.
