Monday, July 23, 2012

Municipal Pool Murals Part 1


On July First the Old Salt and I went to  a Christian Biker Rally and motorcycle show being held in the city park of our county seat.  The first thing I noticed when we got to the park was that the city pool had been given a frosting of murals since my last visit there several years ago.


I posted these closeup photos in the order they are shown in the above photo. This shot is the first and starts on the left front of the building and each following shot works it's way around to the end of the building on the right.

I spoke with the head of the parks department and learned that they were having such a problem with graffiti that he hoped painting murals on the building would deter the vandals.
With the approval of the city counsel, he consulted the art teachers at the local high school. They came up with a contest where students entered a drawing of a scene they would like to paint on the building with a aquatic or fun summer theme.
Once all the winners were chosen the project was done over the course of the summer of 2010.  Each student design had to fill a given amount of space on the building.  Each artist signed their section of the wall.

Rumor has it that these students took such pride in their part of the work that some of them started guarding the murals at night (at first) to prevent the graffiti artist from defacing their work.

These rumors also said there were some encounters and the students came away the victors. The word about the pool guards spread and there hasn't been any problems with graffiti since the students returned to school that fall.

The next summer another contest was held and the walls inside and outside the pool building were covered with murals.  I made a second trip to photograph those murals and I will be featuring them next week.  So, remember to come back for the rest of the student done artwork at the City of Union, Missouri Municipal Pool.  


Linking to Monday Murals. 

12 comments:

  1. This is all around a good news story! And a darn fine mural as well.

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  2. You have great find with these fun murals.

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  3. This is a wonderful story about what our youth are capable of doing, given the proper direction! Great find, and a very nice job done with the murals. That was a very forward-thinking director also! Can't wait to see the next installment!

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  4. Those murals are such fun. I hope they stay graffiti free.

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  5. Great murals and wonderful story!

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  6. Great story and the murals are really neat -- talented kids. I love those happy penguins!

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  7. That is fantastic!!!! A great opportunity for the students to show their skills and the community benefits from it too! A WIN WIN situation :0) Thank you so much for sharing!!!

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  8. What fun. Love your description "frosting of murals" so true. They all are so smile invoking.

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  9. these are so much fun. and a wonderful community builder project, too.

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  10. Like Principessa, I like your turn of phrase about the "frosting" of murals. The wall texture adds to the feel of these summer scenes. Community involvement is an inspiring act. Perhaps it will beget more such projects. Thank you for participating in this week's Monday Mural.

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  11. Definitely trumps graffiti. Although there were various student painters, these murals hang together really well.

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