Mural Project Transforms Downtown Glasgow
arts, downtown, glasgow-barren county chamber of commerce’s arts committee, linda wells, mural, south central kentucky cultural center,
Blank walls will soon be a thing of the past in downtown Glasgow, at least if Linda Wells has her way.
The Glasgow City Council member has long been a fan of outdoor murals, and has wanted to see more go up downtown. Now, through the efforts of Wells, the Glasgow-Barren County Chamber of Commerce’s Arts Committee and the South Central Kentucky Cultural Center, bricks and mortar are becoming blank canvases.
“I’ve always looked at the backs of those buildings across from the Plaza Theatre and thought that we needed something there to attract attention,” says Wells, who also serves on the SCKCC’s board of directors. “So after I was reelected in 2006 I went to the property owners and asked them if they’d be interested, and the majority said they were.”
At the same time, the SCKCC itself had a mural project in the works, thanks to an out-of-town visitor with Glasgow roots.
Jane Westmoreland traveled from her home in Lubbock, Texas, a few years ago to see where her grandfather, Henry Raubold, lived and worked. Raubold, whose business interests included the Raubold Restaurant and Glasgow Ice Plant, was a well-known local figure and SCKCC officials had plenty of information to share. So much so, in fact, that Westmoreland donated $5,000 to the center in appreciation for all the hospitality she and her family were shown.
Those funds are being used for what everyone involved hopes is the first of many murals showcasing the community. The 25-by-40-foot mural is going up on the Leech building, and will depict a newspaper’s front page, and incorporate both directions to the center and an advertisement for Raubold’s confectionery. Local artist David Jones has been tapped to create the work, which he says should be completed in late spring or early summer.
“[SCKCC officials] wanted something that pointed out where to turn to get to the center, so we looked at several ideas that could do that,” Jones says. “The article and pictures in the mural are images from the cultural center, and ‘open year round’ is the headline.”
Jones’ artwork is already on public display. He has painted murals on the exterior of Weis Jewelry and other buildings, but this is the first public initiative to plan murals in the downtown area. Jones says he is excited to be adding something to the downtown visual landscape.
“I’ve been doing sketches for the buildings across from the Plaza,” he says. “I’m playing with the architectural element for those – dressing it up, adding more ornamentation to the windows and cornices. I want to add accents, make it look like the front rather than the back of a building, paint over the bricked-up windows so they look like actual windows again.”
Over at the chamber, the mural conversation initially centered on locations near South Green Street and West Main Street, the two primary arteries for traffic coming into town. With the advent of the SCKCC mural, those conversations quickly turned into planning sessions.
“We’re so excited, and to have a local artist doing the work means so much to us,” says Betty Brogan, arts committee chair. “We want to showcase what we have downtown, and the first mural is going to give a vivid impression of what lies ahead at the cultural center. We have a lot of buildings that are in need of facelifts, and this will liven them up a little and add some pizzazz.”
Story by Joe Morris
Photo by Staff
