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AUGUST 2010

Art of, by and for the people

Oshkosh Community Mural

The creators of the Oshkosh Community Mural project believe all of the above are incorporated in the best possible ways in the 8' x 72' work that will depict the city's rich history.

Mural instigator Rich Norenberg also sees the project as a way to get the community to think about art, and, perhaps, incorporate more public art in Oshkosh.

"We want to turn it into an artistic process that gets people involved, so they have ownership.  In the end, it beautifies our community," he said.  "Art's beautiful in a gallery or wherever it is, but outdoors it reaches a bigger audience."

On July 14--the night of the torrential storm that kept Alice Cooper in his Oshkosh hotel room instead of on the Leach Amphitheater stage at Waterfest--members of Oshkosh Girl Scout Troop 2544 and Miss Oshkosh, Shana Pawlowicz, applied the first strokes of high-end acrylic enamel paint to the sketched-out mural as dejected Alice Cooper fans passed by the empty building at 100 S. Main St., where the mural is being created.

"It's really happening, you know," said Norenberg, almost overcome with emotion at seeing his beautiful dream take another step toward reality.

Thing is, the mural is being created without a final home.  Murals don't fit into the city's current plans.

"Oshkosh right now doesn't have a policy about murals.  It's mostly on signage," Norenberg said.  "Anything that's put up has to meet what the law on signage says.  The idea of a mural doesn't fit.  That's the issue we're confronted with."

Norenberg first learned of the city's stance on public murals in 2005 when he was involved as a parent in a school mural project.

"This goes back to a mural project I worked on at Webster Stanley Middle School, a similar kind of process where kids brainstormed on the 50th anniversary of the school," he said.  "Artists put together the mural.  Students and parents like myself painted on it.  The whole vision was that it would be on the outside of the school.  Turns out, the city wouldn't let us put it on the outside of the school.  So it's inside, and it looks beautiful where it is.  But it was meant for outside.  This really was motivated from that experience at Webster, where we came so close and the city said no."

But Norenberg has reason to believe the city will welcome this mural.

"We met with the city on (July 19)," he said.  "They were very accepting of our mural.  They are planning to write a mural policy that will allow for this to be publicly placed on either a building or installed on the riverwalk (between Leach Amphitheater and Main Street).  Ultimately, we do want it outside.  That's what we want to move on, that art in the community reaches a lot of people.  When we can fuse history and art, that's significant."

Norenberg describes himself as an art lover and novice artist who includes artists among his circle of friends.  He talked to several artists about creating a community mural.  One of those was Leif Larson.

"Leif and I love Oshkosh, but neither of us is from Oshkosh," Norenberg said.  I've lived here the better part of 30 years and Leif's been here about 10.  There are so many things we love about the city, and we think Oshkosh is ready to turn a corner, and we think this might be a part of that push to make Oshkosh move in a more culturally sensitive, intelligent way.

"Leif and I started kicking around this idea over several months.  It seemed like when we talked about it, our brains latched onto the same ideas.  Agreement on so many issues just came easy.  One day I was driving down 41 and Leif calls me and says, 'I drew Oshkosh.' I went over to his house and he had this beautiful mural done."

Larson's original drawing was a concept for telling the city's history from its mid 19th century origins through today, in one sweeping left to right story.

"It's been a challenge to try to bring all the elements together.  It was very tricky," Larson said.

You can imagine how tricky it would be to tell a 175-year story on an 8' x 72' space.  But he had the added task of incorporating community input on what should be included in the mural.  Larson had to rely on some artistic license to make everything work.

"There are things that had to be blended in order for all the ideas and themes to fit into the mural," he said.  "We had to bring points forward, bring some back.

But Larson, a 2005 UW-Oshkosh BFA grad, has certainly captured the architectural flavor of Oshkosh.

"Brad Larson and Scott Cross from the public museum contributed photos that are amazing." Larson said.  "I studied those, and I study aesthetics in this town as it is, being a painter who paints buildings and loves history.  It was fun trying to give it that charm that it needs."

"I think it is an awesome project because it combines history, art and community involvement.  Many of the scenes were based on images from our archives," said Brad Larson, director of the Oshkosh Public Museum.

While Leif Larson had free rein in design of the mural, many of its elements were suggested by community members who were asked to fill out ballots during the monthly Gallery Walk in downtown Oshkosh.

"We had over 200 ballots, with 776 ideas," Norenberg said.  "Chief Oshkosh came in No. 1.  The Paine was right up there.  Some of the old grand buildings were right there.  Main Street themes, river themes, EAA was up there.  All the things that you see in the mural were mentioned in the ballots."

Larson chalked out the design to be filled in by various community groups and individuals in a paint-by-number style.

"Until the last painting has been done, you won't see the full effect of what we have planned," he said.

Most of the painting will be done by various community groups.

"We have right now Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, veterans, high school students, college students, a group from the Evergreen Retirement Community.  We'll have open paint nights.  The Oshkosh fine Arts Council in coming for a paint night," Norenberg said.  "We are inviting other artists toward the end to really put a high-end finish on it.  It's going to help make other artists who are exceptional artists known in the community."

Of course, it takes money to make art, and since this is community art, the community has to get involved in making it happen financially.  The goal is to raise $25,000 to cover the costs and long-term maintenance of the mural in a public place.  The Oshkosh Community Foundation has promised to match the first $5,000 in donations.

To donate online, go to OshkoshAreaCF.org and select Oshkosh Community Mural Fund.  You can also send a check payable to: OACF-Community Mural, 230 Ohio Street, Suite 100 Oshkosh, WI 54902. █