Monday, August 1, 2016
Youth Voices of Topeka Mural Project
Check out our new facebook page for the Youth Voices Mural Project. Find out about upcoming meetings and how to get involved! https://www.facebook.com/YouthVoicesTopekaMural/
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Voices of Topeka Youth mural coming soon!
The next panel on the Great Mural Wall will be designed and painted by Topeka youth! Working with the Chesney Park Neighborhood and the Topeka/ Shawnee County Public Library, artist Dave Loewenstein and assistant Connie Fitzpatrick will lead the youth design team. If you are a kid, a teen, a tween, a young adult or youth you can be one of the muralistas!
For more information contact Dave at dloewenstein(at)hotmail.com
For more information contact Dave at dloewenstein(at)hotmail.com
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Topeka Capital - Journal Supports the Great Mural Wall
Editorial: Mural Wall Needs a Push
In April 2006, city officials and members of the Chesney Park
neighborhood gathered at a white wall that formerly served as the shell
of a water storage reservoir to announce the commencement of fundraising
efforts to transform that wall into the Great Mural Wall of Topeka.The goal was $30,000 for the first phase of the project, which a city
spokesman said would transform “the white-washed carcass of a
now-defunct 10-million gallon water reservoir into a colorful piece of
public art.”
The first 60-foot panel was painted in 2007 at a cost of about $12,000, but transformation of the “white-washed carcass” has taken longer than expected, primarily due to the difficulty of raising money following the demise of the Kansas Art Commission. Work on the mural stalled for more than two years because of a lack of funding. Anyone who has a few dollars, or some pocket change, to spare should consider giving the Great Mural Wall of Topeka a boost. There is room on the wall for two more panels. To date, each panel has cost about $12,000.
What began as a Chesney Park project has become a community affair, although Tom Benaka, who was president of Chesney Park NIA when the mural idea was born, continues to be its most visible champion. Professional artists are selected to direct the production of each panel and community members, young and old, are invited to participate on “community paint days.”
Lawrence muralist Dave Loewenstein is lead artist for the current panel — the ninth overall and his fifth — “How Topeka Got its Name.” Subjects for the completed panels included Grant Cushinberry, Brown v. Board of Education, the arts in Topeka, and city and state history. Benaka and Loewenstein think one of the remaining panels should be dedicated to the city’s youth, with the final panel providing a look into the future.
Looking into the future was what city officials and Chesney Park residents were doing in 2006 when they decided a blank curiosity stretching along S.W. Western, S.W. 20th Street and S.W. Fillmore should become a colorful art piece of which the neighborhood and the entire community could be proud. Benaka says he is eager to see the mural finished. Others who share his anticipation can help make that happen with a timely donation to the Great Mural Wall of Topeka.
Members of The Capital-Journal Editorial Advisory Board are Gregg Ireland, Mike Hall, Fred Johnson, Ray Beers Jr., Garry Cushinberry, John Stauffer, Frank Ybarra, Sally Zellers and Laura Burton.
The first 60-foot panel was painted in 2007 at a cost of about $12,000, but transformation of the “white-washed carcass” has taken longer than expected, primarily due to the difficulty of raising money following the demise of the Kansas Art Commission. Work on the mural stalled for more than two years because of a lack of funding. Anyone who has a few dollars, or some pocket change, to spare should consider giving the Great Mural Wall of Topeka a boost. There is room on the wall for two more panels. To date, each panel has cost about $12,000.
What began as a Chesney Park project has become a community affair, although Tom Benaka, who was president of Chesney Park NIA when the mural idea was born, continues to be its most visible champion. Professional artists are selected to direct the production of each panel and community members, young and old, are invited to participate on “community paint days.”
Lawrence muralist Dave Loewenstein is lead artist for the current panel — the ninth overall and his fifth — “How Topeka Got its Name.” Subjects for the completed panels included Grant Cushinberry, Brown v. Board of Education, the arts in Topeka, and city and state history. Benaka and Loewenstein think one of the remaining panels should be dedicated to the city’s youth, with the final panel providing a look into the future.
Looking into the future was what city officials and Chesney Park residents were doing in 2006 when they decided a blank curiosity stretching along S.W. Western, S.W. 20th Street and S.W. Fillmore should become a colorful art piece of which the neighborhood and the entire community could be proud. Benaka says he is eager to see the mural finished. Others who share his anticipation can help make that happen with a timely donation to the Great Mural Wall of Topeka.
Members of The Capital-Journal Editorial Advisory Board are Gregg Ireland, Mike Hall, Fred Johnson, Ray Beers Jr., Garry Cushinberry, John Stauffer, Frank Ybarra, Sally Zellers and Laura Burton.
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
The Great Mural Wall's Final Stretch
The Great Mural Wall of Topeka nearing completion
Funding needed for last 120 feet of project
(story originally published in the Topeka Capital-Journal)
Maty 25, 2015
Funding needed for last 120 feet of project
(story originally published in the Topeka Capital-Journal)
Maty 25, 2015
Nearly a decade after Chesney Park residents started turning the drab
wall of a former water reservoir into vibrant art, The Great Mural Wall
of Topeka is nearing completion.
Once covered in graffiti, three sides of a building owned by the Topeka Water Division — the walls along S.W. Western, 20th Street and Fillmore — became an community art project when residents in the Chesney Park Neighborhood Improvement Association decided to clean up the spray paint and attract people to the neighborhood. Since about 2006 Tom Benaka, a member of the NIA, has championed the project as a way to combat vandalism and revitalize the neighborhood.
“It feels like this has been my whole life,” he said standing in the grass near where Lawrence-based artist Dave Loewenstein painted Thursday. “I’m very anxious to get it done.” The project needs funding to make that happen, he said. Early on, the Kansas Art Commission granted money to the mural, but when that was dismantled in 2011 funds were hard to come by for several years. Benaka and others involved turned to online fundraising sites, some federal grants and even a $10,000 Hamburger Helper “My Hometown Helper” grant.
Empowerment grants through the city’s community relations department paid for part of the project, including signs that will explain each panel Benaka hopes to have posted later this summer. The first 60 feet cost $12,000 back in the summer of 2007 and each panel of the nine has cost close to the same amount for special long-lasting paint and labor, he said. Last year the corner of 20th Street and Fillmore Avenue was the first painted in nearly three years.
With more than 120 feet left, Benaka isn’t sure where the project will find additional money. They need between $30,000 and $40,000, he said, but few donors have stepped forward. “We’re grasping at straws to get funding,” he said. “Artists deserve to be paid.” Recently he reached out to city council members about using part of the transient guest tax to fund the last of the mural. The city uses a tax imposed on hotel and lodging to fund projects meant to boost tourism. Because the mural is across the street from the Kansas Expocentre, both Benaka and Loewenstein believe it could draw people to the city.
“This is something for people from all over the city and visitors to Topeka to enjoy,” Loewenstein said. Loewenstein, who has done murals in Lawrence, has been the artist on many panels, but other artists including Ashley Jane Laird and KT Walsh have contributed. Panels have been painted with the help of neighborhood children, Topeka High School students and people from all around the city.
The section Loewenstein worked on Thursday depicts the history of Topeka’s name. Other panels focus on Brown v. Board of Education, city and state history and notable residents.
With such a strong focus on history, Benaka had long wanted to have a panel dedicated to Topeka’s railroad history, but now he and Loewenstein would like to do two panels, one that focuses on the city’s youth and a final panel looking at the future. “We really want to promote the future, not just of Chesney Park but the whole city,” he said. When the current panel is finished — hopefully in June depending on the weather — Benaka said they will start gathering community feedback and ideas for the last panels.
“Art is already in the neighborhood and people’s lives,” Loewenstein said. “The mural is a way to celebrate that.”
Once covered in graffiti, three sides of a building owned by the Topeka Water Division — the walls along S.W. Western, 20th Street and Fillmore — became an community art project when residents in the Chesney Park Neighborhood Improvement Association decided to clean up the spray paint and attract people to the neighborhood. Since about 2006 Tom Benaka, a member of the NIA, has championed the project as a way to combat vandalism and revitalize the neighborhood.
“It feels like this has been my whole life,” he said standing in the grass near where Lawrence-based artist Dave Loewenstein painted Thursday. “I’m very anxious to get it done.” The project needs funding to make that happen, he said. Early on, the Kansas Art Commission granted money to the mural, but when that was dismantled in 2011 funds were hard to come by for several years. Benaka and others involved turned to online fundraising sites, some federal grants and even a $10,000 Hamburger Helper “My Hometown Helper” grant.
Empowerment grants through the city’s community relations department paid for part of the project, including signs that will explain each panel Benaka hopes to have posted later this summer. The first 60 feet cost $12,000 back in the summer of 2007 and each panel of the nine has cost close to the same amount for special long-lasting paint and labor, he said. Last year the corner of 20th Street and Fillmore Avenue was the first painted in nearly three years.
With more than 120 feet left, Benaka isn’t sure where the project will find additional money. They need between $30,000 and $40,000, he said, but few donors have stepped forward. “We’re grasping at straws to get funding,” he said. “Artists deserve to be paid.” Recently he reached out to city council members about using part of the transient guest tax to fund the last of the mural. The city uses a tax imposed on hotel and lodging to fund projects meant to boost tourism. Because the mural is across the street from the Kansas Expocentre, both Benaka and Loewenstein believe it could draw people to the city.
“This is something for people from all over the city and visitors to Topeka to enjoy,” Loewenstein said. Loewenstein, who has done murals in Lawrence, has been the artist on many panels, but other artists including Ashley Jane Laird and KT Walsh have contributed. Panels have been painted with the help of neighborhood children, Topeka High School students and people from all around the city.
The section Loewenstein worked on Thursday depicts the history of Topeka’s name. Other panels focus on Brown v. Board of Education, city and state history and notable residents.
With such a strong focus on history, Benaka had long wanted to have a panel dedicated to Topeka’s railroad history, but now he and Loewenstein would like to do two panels, one that focuses on the city’s youth and a final panel looking at the future. “We really want to promote the future, not just of Chesney Park but the whole city,” he said. When the current panel is finished — hopefully in June depending on the weather — Benaka said they will start gathering community feedback and ideas for the last panels.
“Art is already in the neighborhood and people’s lives,” Loewenstein said. “The mural is a way to celebrate that.”
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