Arts grant funds two community murals

DAMA and Sustain Dane host a community conversation at Lincoln Elementary School Oct. 27 to plan the transportation building mural. (Emida Roller)

Planning is underway for a new mural on the Dane County Transportation Building near Badger Road.

Last month, the city received a national grant to fund sustainability projects in local communities. Partners for Places awarded the city $25,000, which was matched by the City of Madison, sustainability nonprofit Sustain Dane and several local foundations for a total of $50,000.

The money will go toward two murals. The Zion City Community Outreach Center mural was completed this year. Painting for the new mural in South Madison will take place in the spring.

Sustain Dane and Dane Arts Mural Arts (DAMA) are working together to oversee the project through a program called smART. The name is short for “sustainability + Madison + art.”

A dozen residents attended the first planning meeting for the Transportation Building mural at Lincoln Elementary School in late October. Sharon Kilroy, the director of DAMA, spent the hour-long meeting asking attendees what was significant about their neighborhood.

“I intentionally chose a neutral word,” Kilroy said. “It was interesting because they talked about [the neighborhood having] a lot of immigrants and homelessness in a way that other people may have seen as some of the challenges. But the way they were describing them, they were some of the neighborhood’s assets.”

One resident’s story about lending an immigrant family a bike pump made her think that sharing should be depicted in the mural. Kilroy said the team of artists see themselves as a conduit that absorbs how the community feels and reflects it back through images.

Adding visual appeal to neighborhoods has more of an impact than people might realize, said Lauren Beriont, director of the Sustainable Neighborhoods Initiative at Sustain Dane. Studies have shown aesthetics not only make communities better but also make people more likely to stay in the area and take ownership of their community.

“Art allows people to get out of their comfort zone and start thinking long-term about what they want in a vibrant community,” Beriont said.

Before planning a project, Sustain Dane spends several months meeting with neighborhood organizations and community centers and gauging residents’ interest.

Over the course of several planning meetings, community members share ideas and help lead artists transform them into visual representations. DAMA also encourages residents to submit ideas online and send photos.

When it is time to start painting, the artists oversee several painting shifts. Everyone is invited. Less experienced painters might help paint the background and larger color blocks or shapes. More experienced painters apply detail later in the process. Community organizations can sign up to paint as a group. Over 100 people painted the Zion City Community Outreach Center mural.

The grants will fund Sustain Dane’s community outreach and the lead artists for the two projects. DAMA covers the cost of paint and other art supplies.

The local foundations that supported the project were CUNA Mutual Foundation, National Guardian Life Insurance, American Family Insurance, Zendesk Neighborhood Foundation, Summit Credit Union, David S. Bourne Foundation and Madison Community Foundation Donors, including the Frances Hurst Neighborhood Fund.

The first smART project was a mural painted in Darbo-Worthington in 2014. The mural looks like an enchanted forest full of people enjoying activities like bicycling and playing basketball.

Beriont said a police officer told her the mural has changed the dynamic of the neighborhood. She also said a neighborhood resident asked if they could make postcards of the mural—she  wanted to show people where she lived.

The next community conversations about the transportation building mural will be Nov. 18 at Centro Hispano and Dec. 8 at The Boys and Girls Club.