ARTHUR KRAFT’S WESTPORT BANK MURAL – KANSAS CITY MISSOURI

Arthur Kraft mural that was commissioned by Westport Bank in the 1960’s.

The mural has been preserved and is still on display at the current bank that is located at 331 Westport Rd, Kansas City, Missouri.

UPDATE: The Westport Historical Society rescued the mural from the bank before it was scheduled for demolition in 2017. It’s in storage now, while members of the organization search for a suitable home.

Arthur Kraft 1979 Newspaper Article Featuring The Court of the Penguins

Star Magazine article by Georgia Kidd – December 2, 1979

Chic – Chic Piece

Sheep Piece by Henry Moore

Sculpture in public places is a continuing pleasure to the passerby (“Sheep Piece” is a great example) and it’s one of the things that has marked the development sponsored by the JC Nichols Co. It always gives us good things to look at. It’s easy not to think of the Nichols Co. as a public service organization when it is so visibly a commercial enterprise, but it must be said that it builds what it builds with real style and an attention to quality that few other folks would even think of putting into shopping centers. That style and quality is a community service.

The Court of the Penguins is a fine example. For sheer chic, you can’t beat these shops – a little Gucci here, some Crabtree & Evelyn there. But while most of the best things in life aren’t free, as the shops show us, some of the best things in the Court of the Penguins are: the Penguins themselves and their environment, which doesn’t cost a cent to enjoy.

The Penguins are five-foot bronze reproductions of miniatures, which originally stood at three to four inches tall by the late Arthur Kraft, a local artist famous for, among other things, the mural at Westport Bank, the mosaic mural at the Children’s Library and the sculpture in the garden at Commerce Bank.

Kraft’s work had a whimsical side (he once did an elephant on its back for a shopping center), and he particularly liked penguins. Three identical sets of these penguins were made and are in private collections in this area.

For admiring the bronze birds and their surroundings, there are three mahogany benches given to the Plaza customers by the Plaza Executive Business Women’s Club. Also look closely at the tile that pictures a pyramid of penguins, with a nice touch of humor, Miller Nichols had the initials of members of the Nichols Co. board of directors put onto the penguins with the premier penguin perched on the pile marked, of course, M.N.