Sioux Falls completed mural at Meldrum Park

The World Comes to Whittier
August 2013

 
Located in Meldrum Park at the corner of 6th & Lewis
Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Lead artist - Dave Loewenstein
Assistant -   Ashley Jane Laird
Apprentice - Nate Buchholz

This project has been supported in part by:
Sioux Falls Arts Council
Sioux Falls Parks and Recreation Department
National Endowment for the Arts
Whittier Middle School
Whittier Neighborhood Residents Association

Initiated by Whittier Middle School students in teacher Lela Himmerich’s class in 2011, this community-based project is a true collaborative effort. Over the last year, the three visiting artists, Dave Loewenstein, Ashley Laird, and Nate Buchholz, met with more than two- hundred neighborhood residents and area student groups to do research, develop the images and paint the mural. In April, the completed design was unanimously approved by the Sioux Falls City Council. The project was coordinated by the Sioux Falls Arts Council and is supported by an “OurTown” grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Thank you to the Whittier Students, Lela Himmerich, our mural design team and the many volunteers who helped paint and coordinate.

  

"Our mural welcomes people to Whittier, a working-class neighborhood that embraces its heritage, celebrates its dynamic cultural and ethnic diversity, and looks forward to addressing and overcoming challenges to a prosperous and peaceful future. Our mural recognizes this as the past and present home to Native Americans from many tribes, as well as the place where settlers have come from across the globe. Our mural sings with a chorus of many languages and radiates with the colors of many cultures.  And, our mural shows the neighborhood working together to care for its natural beauty, the education of its young people, and the welfare of its most vulnerable residents.  Our mural is beautiful, engaging, and is the product of many dedicated hands and minds." 

- Mural Design Team Vision Statement

Below are details of the mural from left to right.

Before

After

Mural Celebration!
Wednesday, July 31st

6:00pm

Join the artists, neighborhood, and distinguished speakers as we celebrate Meldrum Park’s (at the corner of 6^th & Lewis) incredible new mural. Refreshments provided by the Whittier Residents Association.

Scenes from community painting

Since painting began in mid-July, Meldrum Park has been buzzing with activity. In just a couple of weeks over two hundred people have painted on the mural. Neighbors, parents, kids, friends and soon to become friends. People who have lived in the neighborhood for generations, others who have just come to the U.S. from far away places like Sudan, Nepal, and Guatemala. Countless more have stopped by to look and visit.

 

Buzz about the Whittier Neighborhood mural

Check out these news stories about our project -

http://www.argusleader.com/article/20130713/UPDATES/130713009/Video-Public-invited-paint-Meldrum-Park-Mural

http://www.keloland.com/newsdetail.cfm/meldrum-mural-brings-community-together/?id=150642

http://www.argusleader.com/article/20130712/VOICES/307120016/Community-welcome-participate-mural-Meldrum-Park

Community Painting Weekend

Come Join Us!

Add your strokes to the new community mural in Meldrum Park 

(at the corner of 6th & Lewis)

All are invited. No art experience necessary.

Saturday, July 13  &  Sunday, July 14

10 am  -  4 pm

Back in Sioux Falls - Transferring the mural design

After a long spring break (to work on murals in Songdo, South Korea and Waco, Texas) the Sioux Falls Mural Project is back in action! In late June, our apprentice Nate Buchholz led a group of volunteers in power-washing and priming the one hundred fifty one foot long wall. The result, a beautiful blank canvas.

 
Accessing the wall is still a big issue. The first lift we tried to use, an all-terrain scissor lift, was no match for our hills of soft soil. Now we're trying to make two forty-foot boom lifts work. So far, so good. It looks like we'll be able to reach most of wall, although the lifts need to sit on level ground to operate. This is an on-going challenge.

The first test was transferring the design. On a warm Monday evening we waited and waited for the sun to go down. Finally at around 9:30 it was just dark enough to see our projected image on the wall. Ashley drove the boom lift and traced the upper sections, while Nate and I worked down below. Nicholas Ward provided expert AV assistance and commentary. Between swats at flying insects and long intervals of orienting the projected image to the exact space it needed to go, we painted. At 1:45 am we finished the last bit happy to go home and nurse our various bug bites and know that the design was finally up.

This weekend, if it doesn't rain, we'll have community painting. Judging from the the throngs of kids in the park every afternoon, we should have a big turn out.

We also want to welcome our new Project Manager, Lela Himmerich who we've known as the the Whittier Middle School teacher that began this whole mural deal in the first place. In 2011 students in one of her classes were the ones who suggested making a mural as a way of improving the neighborhood.

And... Welcome Back to the former and now current Executive Director of the Sioux Falls Arts Council, Nan Baker. We are delighted that Nan has found time to steer the ship once again.

Mural design approved

On May 2, 2013 the Sioux Falls City Council unanimously approved the design for the Whittier Neighborhood Mural in Meldrum Park. The resolution that was made to record their approval reads:

RESOLUTION NO.

32-13

A RESOLUTION APPROVING DESIGN AND PLACEMENT OF A PAINTED MURAL ON CITY-OWNED PROPERTY AT MELDRUM PARK.

WHEREAS, in April 2011, Whittier Middle School students in Mrs. Lela Himmerich’s eighth grade social studies class presented their hopes and dreams for a Neighborhood Revitalization Program that included development of an artistic neighborhood mural project;

WHEREAS, the Whittier Neighborhood Mural Project is coordinated by the Sioux Falls Arts Council and is supported by an “Our Town” grant from the National Endowment for the Arts;

WHEREAS, visiting artists Dave Loewenstein and Ashley Laird, and local apprentice artist, Nate Buchholz, collaborated with Whittier Neighborhood residents, Whittier Residents Association, students from Terry Redlin Elementary School, Whittier Middle School, Joe Foss and Washington High Schools, and the Sioux Falls Arts Council on the project’s vision statement, conducted research for the mural, and created the neighborhood design team, in which over 30 community meetings were held with over 100 participants;

WHEREAS, this project exemplifies community collaboration, creative place making, neighborhood identity and pride, and colorful community-based public art within a city park;

WHEREAS, Whittier Neighborhood residents and students will help the artists paint the mural to be located along the west face of an existing water reservoir structure at Meldrum Park during the month of July 2013;

WHEREAS, on April 8, 2013, the Sioux Falls Arts Council reviewed and unanimously approved the attached Whittier Neighborhood Mural Project design and placement at Meldrum Park;

WHEREAS, on April 9, 2013, and on April 16, 2013, both citizen boards—the Sioux Falls Visual Arts Commission and the Sioux Falls Parks and Recreation Board—reviewed and unanimously approved the attached design for the Whittier Neighborhood Mural Project and placement at Meldrum Park;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS, SD:

That it approves and authorizes the attached design and placement of a painted mural on City‑owned property at Meldrum Park.

Date adopted:

05/07/13

                                                                                                      Mike T. Huether 

                                                                                                              Mayor