photo by: Contributed

Hang12 holds up some of the art panels with sketches of native animals and plants with City of Lawrence staff.

Art panels by local high schoolers, depicting native plants and animals – from sunflowers to the Ornate Box Turtle – will soon be on display in a downtown Lawrence parking garage.

Hang12 is a group of nine Lawrence high school students dedicated to curating and celebrating the arts within their community. The group collaborates with each other, local artists and businesses to develop exhibitions and events that highlight emerging local artists.

The art project will showcase Kansas’ native flora and fauna through 32 panels, each to be mounted on a pillar above a parking spot inside the garage. So far, the students have individually cut out the panels and sketched the animals and plants that will appear on them. Hang12 mentor Alicia Kelly said the students are preparing to begin painting this week.

“It was really fun brainstorming,” Kelly said. ” … They were looking (animals and plants) up and learning, and that’s really fun for me to see that as well as seeing them like touch power tools for the first time.”

photo by: Contributed

Hang12 staff paint the wood for their art panels that will eventually be displayed in the parking garage across from the Lawrence Arts Center.

The group recently received a Transformative Art for Public Spaces Grant from the Kansas Chamber of Commerce totaling $8,000 to install the new public work of art in the parking garage across from the Lawrence Arts Center in the 900 block of New Hampshire Street.

“This is a brand new grant from the Kansas Department of Commerce, and we’re very excited about it because it seemed a perfect entry point for a group like Hang12 to come together and put art into public spaces,” Marlo Angell, the grant writer for the Lawrence Arts Center, said. “What I’ve loved about this opportunity is it’s not a mural or something large, but it’s taking existing components that are maybe seen as more utilitarian, and then bringing art to them.”

Angell added that the parking garage already has some art on display. It’s home to a mural painted by local artist Mona Cliff, who has lots of experience with public art projects in Lawrence and the Kansas City area. The art – which was completed in January 2025 – fills the wall near the elevator and north stairway of the garage with a stylized sunrise scene.

Hang12 has also partnered with the City of Lawrence Parking Services on the project, and city staff will help install the art pieces once they are complete – which is estimated to be toward the end of January 2026.

“Bringing color and art to them is so wonderful, and the city has been so forward thinking in that way, not only with this parking garage, but doing some stuff at the library coming up,” Angell said, referring to the city seeking applications from local artists in October to add a mural to the Vermont Street parking garage.

Last week, Hang12 presented its ideas for the panels and their vision for the garage to city staff. Kelly said they talked about the importance of public art and making spaces feel more comfortable and vibrant.

“I thought they did a beautiful job putting all that context in, just the native plants and the birds and how learning this would be an educational piece, so people would learn a little bit of Kansas history while they’re in the parking garage,” Kelly said.

photo by: Contributed

Hang12 staff cut out panels that will have art highlighting native flora and fauna.

Lance McCurdy, parking field supervisor at the City of Lawrence, said if the city can help bring anything into the garage that may brighten someone’s day or even just see it himself outside his office each day, he would enjoy that.

“We’re really excited about this garage and all the other garages,” McCurdy said. “Anything that we can do to brighten it and make it for anybody that wants to come in can enjoy what we’re doing, so we’re so excited about this.”