Lawrence residents invited to help create giant Algerian flag artwork

Stan Herd’s Algerian flag earthwork is becoming a crowd-built public artwork, with Lawrence residents invited Friday to help turn a quarter-acre slope behind the Lied Center of Kansas into a living flag for a drone photo.

The gathering runs from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, June 26, 2026, at 1600 Stewart Drive near Iowa Street and Bob Billings Parkway. A drone photo is planned for about 5:45 p.m., and participants are being asked to wear green, white or red as they assemble into the design. Food, drinks, pastries and music are part of the event.

Green shirts will line one side, white the other, and red will fill the center to form the crescent and star. Residents are being asked to physically complete the finished image.

The piece sits on a slope of grassland behind the Lied Center and uses native materials, including grass, limestone, coco shell, wood mulch and bricks. Herd designed it with the landscape in mind, and the project brings together the Lied Center, Score Lawrence, Unified Command and the city’s role as a base camp for Team Algeria. Lawrence resident and former mayor John Nalbandian provided the lead financial contribution.

Lawrence and the University of Kansas were announced on February 19, 2026, as Algeria’s base camp at Rock Chalk Park on KU’s campus, putting the city on a global stage as the team prepared for group-stage matches against Argentina on June 16, Jordan on June 22 and Austria on June 27. At the time of that announcement, Algeria was ranked No. 28 in the FIFA Men’s World Rankings.

Herd unveiled the earthwork at an evening event on June 13. The earthwork is one of the world’s largest Algerian flags, built with sand, grass, mulch and paving stones. Herd said Lawrence had taken on the identity of the team in the process, saying, “the whole town has become Algeria.”

Herd accepted a signed, framed photograph from the Algerian community in thanks for the work.