MARSHALL - In the next few years, three of the walls in the downtown Marshall area will have a splash of color.
The Marshall Mural Project, which is headed up by a special project committee of the Marshall Area Fine Arts Council, is slated to get started next summer. Three large murals will be painted at three locations downtown, representing the history and culture of Marshall, an athletic/recreation theme and one for Marshall's music theme.
The purpose of the project, according to the committee, is to enhance public art in the community by working with the city of Marshall, businesses and organizations and community residents to develop a mural program that will provide for the funding, selection, creation and maintenance of up to three public artworks.
Sue Fritz, a member of the committee, said MAFAC received a Southwest Minnesota Arts and Humanities grant for the first two murals, history and music.
"That's going to be started painting in the spring," Fritz said.
This will be a three-year project, Fritz said. MAFAC had done a call for artists earlier this year and lined up two artists with Minnesota ties to create the murals.
"We got a few interested artists," Fritz said.
Greg Wimmer, who is from Rochester, will do the music mural and Josh Sarantis will paint the history/culture mural.
Wimmer has his own freelance design business and has created various print designs around the Rochester area. Sarantis is from the Twin Cities area has done murals in San Francisco, Chicago, Berlin, Germany and Los Angeles. Fritz said he is currently working on a mural in Spain.
Fritz said the committee is working with business owners of the murals' designated locations. They are:
256 West Main (corner of 3rd and Main Street) - history/culture
128 West Main (east side of Varsity Pub) - athletics/recreation.
316 West Main (west wall of Johnson's Paint and Wallpaper) - music
The committee submitted requests for funding, reviewed and approved the design of the public art, Fritz said.
"It is a huge undertaking," Fritz said.
Fritz said there will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony when Wimmer starts his project in the summer.
"And it would go all summer," Fritz said. "We also are trying to get the community involved. Then they own it, then they have pride in it."
Fritz said the committee is now looking for an artist for the athletics/recreation mural.