What is a piece of art…specifically a public piece of art? It’s value to the cultural, aesthetic and economic energy of a community. OK, that is a bit much, isn’t it? And yet public art can be a key factor in establishing a unique and active place. When I and a small group of volunteers first began discussing murals in 2017, we went from realizing that in addition to allowing us new ways to be creative and have fun, creating murals is just as important as working on creating and maintaining welcoming storefronts, proper street lighting, fine restaurants and boutiques and seasonal decorations.
Like everything Main Street Monroe works on, our murals have been an investment in place making, and, we hope, community pride. Everyone has access to them; they’re in the public sphere whether you walk directly to them or notice them from the other side of the Square.
Our first mural was unveiled in 2018. It’s inspired by Andy Warhol’s Four Marilyns. It was chosen and placed where it was to help improve the physical appearance of a certain area and help enliven the entire downtown community. It’s also intergenerational. I hope that it, like our other projects, will ironically be both fun and conducive to a bit of a history lesson.
I often talk about Main Street wanting to celebrate what makes Monroe unique. By adding our murals, we are contributing to what makes Monroe unique even if we’ve altered an appearance a bit. It is a tangible sense of place when you see an alley cat mural representing a bit of European heritage. Earlier this summer, the Monroe Chamber of Commerce continued such efforts with its Greetings from Monroe Postcard Mural. The Monroe Arts Center is working on its own that will raise public awareness about important community issues.
With our first three projects, all of the artists have been residents of Monroe. It’s exciting to create new professional opportunities for artists and cultivate an environment in which creativity can really come alive; sometimes where you least expect it from people you may not know. Fast forward to today and we are working on our fourth mural project, which we plan to unveil next month. It will hopefully connect residents to their neighbors and our shared history that has been true for not only Green County but the state. We also hope that it will connect artists to our local community. Another mural in 2021 is another goal.
Because while no one typically actively seeks out art on the side of an office building or in the alley behind a dress shop, or in mulch surrounding trees, public art emerges as an artistic space for cultural expression in the everyday if you let it. And that’s the paradox of murals. The art can be loved by some, but not others. It’s art where you least expect it. It can be overlooked after the first view or it can be magnetizing no matter how many times you’ve seen it. It can be conducive to both learning and pop culture. It can be a result of civic engagement and the reason for civic engagement itself. It can become its own environment and still represent the environment it joined.
This weekend our public art effort is taking a unique spin with Main Street Rocks. Hundreds of actual rocks have been painted and placed throughout the downtown district. Some were painted by professional arts, some by amateurs, someone used a papier-mache technique, another used stencils. Like our mural projects and those from our community partners, I hope that the big and the small will give you a reason to slow down and admire your surroundings a bit more. Beauty comes in all different forms and sizes and can create dialogue and bring a smile to someone no matter the topic. We hope you enjoy.
To learn more about Main Street Monroe’s Murals, including information on the artists and their inspirations, visit www.mainstreetmonroe.org/murals.
— Jordan Nordby is the executive director for Main Street Monroe. He can be reached at MonroeMainStreet@tds.net.
