Oct. 12—SALTILLO — The Saltillo Main Street Association has renewed its push for more public art and hopes to give residents three downtown murals as Christmas presents.
Once finished, all three murals will be located within a roughly one-block area on or just off Mobile Street. There will be two murals at the intersection of Mobile Street and Second Venue. The other public artwork will be along Front Street on the side of Saltillo City Hall.
Local artists Amanda Koonlaba, Kit Stafford and Kim Pastis Westhouse have been commissioned to design and complete the artwork.
"We really want to bring arts into Saltillo — public art and music," said MSA Vice President Deanna Knight.
MSA President Erica Morgan said they are attempting to tap into the potential of the city of 5,000. Other artistic flourishes around town include new banners, a city Christmas tree and a metal Saltillo Tiger cutout for the downtown pass through.
The first mural will be painted on the east side of Al Rice's building on the northwest corner of the Mobile Street and Second Avenue intersection. Westhouse's artwork will cover the history of the Saltillo area, including references to Lake Lamar Bruce, the Natchez Trace Parkway, the high school Tiger mascot, the old opera house and even an image of the original Euclatubba.
"There are no known images of him," Knight said. "We are working with the Chickasaw Nation to come up with an accurate and historical depiction. As we started doing research, we learned that apparently he owned nearly all of what became Saltillo — almost 2,000 acres."
Diagonally across the same intersection, Stafford will paint a historic image of a Mobile & Ohio train at the original Saltillo passenger depot on the west wall of the old Saltillo Bank building. The old depot was located where city hall is today.
The mural will feature a nod to a pair of little boys who spent one day more than 100 years ago following around a photographer.
"It was the late 1800s version of photobombing," Knight said. "The photographer went all over town documenting all of the important buildings, and the boys followed. Nearly every historical photo we have has the same two boys in them. We don't know who they were, but we wanted to include them in the mural."
The existing Yellow Submarine mural on the side and rear of the Teacher's Resource Center will be just behind the new mural. Stafford hopes to use some colors in the existing mural to tie the pieces together.
Koonlaba will work with Saltillo High School art students for the third piece — Saltillo spelled out in massive block letters. Because city hall is clad with vinyl siding, officials had to rethink the traditional mural.
The artwork will be done on eight large canvas panels. Once completed, the panels will be scanned and printed out out as vinyl wraps and adhered to PVC panels, which will be hung on the side of city hall outside of the community room.
"The actual art will be installed inside the community room where it will be safe from the weather," said MSA Vice President Deanna Knight.
The three artists will begin working on the projects as soon as possible. While there is no firm timeline for their completion, the plan is to get everything wrapped up before the cold weather and winter rains arrive.
Two grants will help pay for the project: $4,000 from the Mississippi Arts Commission and $5,000 from the Mississippi Hills National Heritage. Both require equal matches, but can be in-kind.
"Sherwin Williams is working with us on the paint, and the artists are donating some of their time," said MSA Director Stephanie Box. "We can also count the work the building owners are doing to prepare the surfaces for painting."
Officials hope the in-kind donations will account for the bulk of the matching funds.
There are already a pair of mural in downtown Saltillo. Muralist McKinnon Herring painted the Yellow Submarine in the summer of 2017. In 2016, she created a vintage-inspired Coca-Cola advertisement on the east side of Integrity Auto Body.
Mykhailo Zahorodnii, staff writer at UP.Zyttia Yurii Kerpatenko, principal conductor at the Kherson Music and Drama Theatre, has been killed by Russian occupiers in Kherson. His death was announced on 14 October, said the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy.
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