Lawrence World Cup art project turns local icons into soccer gear

Local designers Tim Hossler and Lizzy Arnold have turned Lawrence’s civic mythology into something shoppers can wear. Their Lawrence United F.C. scarves and T-shirts are now on sale at Wonder Fair, 841 Massachusetts St., and Sunflower Outdoor & Bike Shop, 804 Massachusetts St., bringing a World Cup-themed art project from concept into downtown retail.

The merchandise is part of the city’s Unmistakable Public Art Exhibition, the renamed successor to the Outdoor Downtown Sculpture Exhibition, which has been staged annually since 1988. This year’s exhibition includes six selected artworks, with five installed around downtown Lawrence and a sixth project built around wearable public art.

The pieces do not read like generic sports souvenirs. The scarves fold Lawrence history into a soccer-club look, with names and references tied to Langston Hughes, Lynette Woodard and James Naismith, along with local symbols such as a sun or sunflower image and a phoenix motif that points to the city’s repeated destruction and rebuilding. Hossler, a University of Kansas design professor, and Arnold, the graphic designer for the KU School of Architecture and Design, framed the project as a layered interpretation of local identity, with Hossler describing the work as having “macro/micro” details.

In practice, the experiment is also a test of whether civic branding can become a downtown business model. Staff at the two shops say the scarves have been selling quickly, and customers have been coming in specifically asking about them. That gives the project an immediate commercial life beyond the city’s public art program, and it puts Lawrence’s identity to work in the same storefronts that will be trying to catch tournament traffic over the next several weeks.

The timing is deliberate. World Cup matches in Kansas City in June and July are expected to draw more than 600,000 visitors to the greater Kansas City area, and Lawrence has said the Algerian men’s national team will base at Rock Chalk Park. The city and Douglas County have also been stacking World Cup-related programming across town, from cultural exhibitions to street parties and viewing areas, as Lawrence tries to link its arts scene to one of the world’s biggest sporting events.

The city opened the exhibition with a reception and walking tour at 5:30 p.m. Friday, June 5, from Ninth and Massachusetts streets, and another guided tour is set for 5:30 p.m. Friday, June 29. Hossler said in March he hoped people would actually wear the pieces on Mass Street. For now, that appears to be happening, as Lawrence tests whether its local icons can sell both as public art and as a downtown draw.