“Meet Me in Lenexa” mural brings color, history and pride to Old Town
Published on June 09, 2025
A vibrant new mural is adding a splash of color — and a whole lot of community pride — to Old Town Lenexa. The “Meet Me in Lenexa” mural is now complete on the Lenexa Old Town Activity Center, wrapping 900 square feet of wall space with a colorful celebration of the City’s past, present and future.
Created by Kansas City artist Evan Brown, also known as Doodle Dood, the mural was selected through a public voting process that drew nearly 2,000 responses and was approved by the Lenexa City Council. It now serves as a dynamic piece of public art, aimed at bringing beauty to the area and drawing people to Lenexa’s historic original townsite.
“Based on several community studies, the Lenexa Arts Council identified a mural back in 2022 as a way to bring color and vibrancy to the Old Town landscape while drawing more people to this part of the City,” said Logan Wagler, director of Lenexa Parks & Recreation. “The goal was to energize the space visually, reflect the spirit of the community and inspire civic pride.”
The mural follows a single winding road that takes viewers through a visual timeline of Lenexa — from untouched prairie land to the City’s early railroad days, all the way to its modern downtown area. The southwest corner, where the design erupts in an abstract burst of color, represents the meeting point of past, present and future. Look closely, and you'll see that the road on the west wall spells out “Lenexa” in flowing cursive that is woven into the artwork.
“In the early stages of the design, I was sketching loopy roads, and one of the loops unexpectedly resembled an ‘L,’” said artist Evan Brown. “That spark turned into an idea — I could tell Lenexa’s history in its name.”
Brown spent approximately 200 hours hand drawing and painting the mural, often attracting the attention of curious onlookers. “One retired person stopped and said, ‘You know, there are old seniors, and then there are those of us who want to stay young. Your art makes us feel young again,’” Brown recalled.
That kind of reaction is exactly what Brown hopes to inspire. “My art is for the child in everyone,” he said. “There’s something powerful about helping adults reconnect with being a child — and giving kids a way to understand the world through color and imagination. This mural tells the story of Lenexa in a way it has never been told before. It bridges old and new, young and old.”
The project was supported in part by a $9,500 grant from the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. It’s a key feature of the larger $12 million investment in revitalizing the Old Town Lenexa campus.
Residents and visitors are encouraged to stop by, take in the mural’s vibrant details, and snap a photo with this bold new addition to the neighborhood.