New art in downtown Liberty invites you to 'Stop and Smell the Roses'

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — KSHB 41 News anchor Lindsay Shively offers coverage on a wide variety of topics, including stories of interest to consumers. Reach out to Lindsay via email.

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The Liberty Arts Commission is hoping you’ll "Stop and Smell the Roses" when you’re in downtown Liberty, Missouri. That’s the name and the idea behind a new 30-foot-long sculpture.

"The purpose of art is to have an experience. It’s not to just look at a thing on a screen or read about something. It’s to go be in a place and have a moment and have an experience," said Greg Duncan, a member of the Liberty Arts Commission. "We have art all over Liberty, all kinds of art that does those things. This is particular. This is special. This is a place to pause, stop, smell the roses, enjoy the roses, and just have a real life moment with something tangible in the same space as you."

I talked to a few folks in downtown Liberty to see what they thought of the sculpture.

Longtime resident Gwen Phillips said the work added "exactly what this area needed with more color and pizzazz."

And Stacey Schulz said the sculpture is picture-worthy.

"That rose sculpture, when it showed up a couple of weeks ago, I got out of my car, and I took a couple of pictures," she said. "And then I moved a little bit. And then I took a few more pictures. But I haven't been back to see it at night."

Lindsay Shively | KSHB

The glass in the roses is lit and glows.

"Even as the installation was happening and then the days between installation and ribbon cutting, every time I drove by, someone was here taking a picture," Duncan said. "So when people stop and take pictures of public art and pose with public art, you know you’ve got the right thing in the right place."

Duncan told me funding for the art, two years in the making, came from Liberty's transient guest tax.

The artist, Amie Jacobsen, is actually from Independence, Missouri. I was looking through her Instagram and saw she has pieces all over town. That's also how I found this.

I'm from Liberty, so I saw this piece on the Visit Liberty Instagram, along with some fascinating train history. I'll have more on that later this week.

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