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St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lee Enterprises

Thursday, February 14, 2008 3:08 PM CST
Mattoon mural project has vision, ready to find artist

By NATHANIEL WEST, Staff Writer
nwest@jg-tc.com

MATTOON — The city is putting on a brave face.

And a happy demeanor.

And a contemplative visage.

And maybe even a starry-eyed gaze.

The initial painting for the Mattoon Mural Arts Project will be dominated by images of people, and feature scenes ranging from railroads to relief efforts, community members decided Tuesday.

“We don’t want anything really abstract,” said Justin Grady, chair of the project.

The ad hoc group of volunteers already has determined the theme of the first of three or four murals will be “Positive movement from the past through the present to the future,” and the project’s participants previously drafted a list of nine “clue words” and concepts to be incorporated into the painting on the wall of D to Z Sports in Midtown Mattoon.

On Tuesday, the group attached two or three specific visual representations to each of those ideas:

- “Volunteering and small town values” — The Special Olympics; tornado relief efforts; or the Mattoon Lightworks.

- “Community pride, spirit and unity” — A street scene; fans cheering for athletes; or troops being welcomed home.

-“Recreation” — Lytle pool and water slide; or the Roundhouse baseball/softball complex.

- “Faith” — People holding hands; stained glass windows; or a church steeple.

-“Work ethic” — The construction of the railroad; or agriculture.

- “Education” — Children daydreaming about what they want to be when they grow up; or a child reading a book.

- “Patriotism” — Soldiers in uniform over the last 150 years; the Fourth of July; or schoolchildren saying the Pledge of Allegiance.

- “Community visionaries” — Someone dreaming of the future; the original railroad intersection; Mattoon’s founding fathers; or Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas and Ulysses S. Grant.

- “Entrepreneurship” — Downtown shopping when all the store spaces were full with locally owned businesses; the telephone company; or newspaper carriers.

All of this information will be forwarded to the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, which is collaborating with the Mattoon Mural Arts Project and its financial backer, the Lumpkin Family Foundation. The Philadelphia program then will recommend three or four professional mural artists, Grady said.

“They’ll search their data bank for (an artist) who is interested and available, and they’ll put together a portfolio,” he said.

Grady also said community members will rely on the artist’s recommendations about incorporating all of the suggested words and images.

“If he thinks he wants to make one giant painting that flows completely across that wall, (we) are going to let him do it,” Grady said. “We’re going to let the artist do what he is trained to do; we’re going to trust his judgment.”

Contact Nathaniel West at nwest@jg-tc.com or 238-6860.

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Rotty wrote on Feb 14, 2008 4:40 PM:

" You forgot one, & it could fit into alot of these different catagories, possibly depicting the fall of modern civilazation, on its own. Yes, you guessed it, I'm speaking of the old Young's Plant. Remember, it could always be the site for the fifth or sixth mural. White washing never hurts for some. "

Early Bird wrote on Feb 16, 2008 5:44 AM:

" Good point, Rotty. That eyesore is the big white elephant in the middle of the room that no one wants to talk about, especially the politicians. Council members keep coming and going and each of them keep passing the buck onto the next council, consequently nothing happens, and we are forced to look at that eyesore. It's rather ironic that there is a group attempting to tackle the beautification of the downtown area, but that disgrace just gets ignored, even though it's adjacent to the area they are supposed to be focusing on. Putting up murals downtown is sort of like washing, waxing and putting shiny new wheels on an old car that has half the body gone from cancerous rust. The priorities of this community are all too often comical, and, once again, this project makes the community look rather foolish. Anyone remember that old slogan, Mattoon moving forward? I think the opposite is happening, Mattoon seems to be dying. The good folks at Coles together did a great job of trying to bring FutureGen to this area, and through no fault of their own it failed. But ask yourself what would a prospective business think of Mattoon after driving by the parking lots north of Broadway think about this place and it's community pride? Rotty, perhaps if you and I keep bringing this topic up, the politicians will get off their duffs and finally do something about it. "

Dohbaugh wrote on Feb 16, 2008 3:27 PM:

" Looks like a better use of Lumpkin's money might have been to clean that dump up. "

Rotty wrote on Feb 16, 2008 4:56 PM:

" Amen, Dohbaugh.
Sounds like a plan to me, EB. "

steve senteney wrote on Feb 16, 2008 11:29 PM:

" I believe all elected and appointed city officials are unhappy with the progress of cleaning up the Young Radiator site. At one public meeting,it was mentioned the main issue is who is going to pay for the envirnomental cleanup required to get good title to the property. The city certainly wants to get the property cleaned up. The Public Works Department could use part of the land for hopefully a new building to house all their equipment in. A new building has never beeen discussed to my knowledge, that is my idea.

Perhaps others may have the knowledge of how to come up with the money to remove all the toxic waste required by state and federal EPA laws. I believe the city would accept any volunteer efforts to assist on working through the ownership questions via the legal system and toxic cleanup required by the state and federal EPA.

The village of Rantoul has a similar problem at the former Chanute Air Force Base. The federal government has drug its feet on cleaning up the toxic waste on some base sites and also the largest building on the base. So Mattoon is not alone with having to try to clean up someone elses mess.

I don't believe the citizens of Matton would be happy for the city to just have accepted title to the Young Radiator property and then be required to spend millions of dollars to clean it up before they could use it or sell it. If they did that, many posters would really be calling them names for the significant increase in city taxes to cover the cost. Somehow, money for the city does not grow on trees, it comes from us as tax payers. Perhaps we could get some money from the state or federal government, but that money is still ours that we paid to them in taxes, so it is still tax payers money. It is just which city or state gets some of the money we sent to them back.

Clean up of that property would certainly do more than most anything else that would improve the appearance of the city.

Hopefully something can be done soon on that property and I believe you will hear a lot of cheers coming from city hall when it hapens. I believe the city has put in a lot of time and effort to get it cleaned up, but for many reasons, it just has not happened.

I believe if was just up to the city elected and appointed officials, it would be cleaned up tomorrow. However being responsible officials, they have not accepted something the city cannot afford to pay for. But I believe we can trust that they are working to get it cleaned up and not just putting it off for someone else to handle.

Please note that these are just my opinions and others may possess specific facts and information contrary to these comments. "