[OMS_MANAGERS] Murals and public comment/feedback

[Sheridan Revitalization]

Hi All,

We just had our first mural go up in our small town of Sheridan, which was
done in cooperation with our Main Street Group (Sheridan Revitalization),
the property owner/manager and the local artist. It's a brightly colored
mural with Oregon and local elements (trees, animals, our bridge, etc) and
in the shape of a mandala. So far most people really like it, even though
it's not totally finished as the rain started.

The issue we are having is that another local artist/muralist attended our
meeting last week and then went to other local non-profit meetings (Chamber
and Rotary) to state her strong dislike of the mural and of our process in
having the mural go up or doing them at all. She likened the mural to
looking like a seagull pooped on the wall. She was rather offensive, but it
got me thinking that maybe we do need to look at how we go about choosing
the murals and getting public feedback?

We started on this project actually before Covid, when we mentioned the
plan publically on social media, also in the local paper and continued the
discussion during almost every public meeting, which were also advertised.

We had originally looked at having the artist coordinate with the owner and
then submit three artwork ideas which we would let the public vote on, but
it got way too complicated so we decided we would let the artist and
property owner decide on the artwork, with the agreement that it wouldn't
be anything political and that it would include a bigfoot. The idea is to
have a bigfoot hidden in each mural, to tie them all together and to bring
interest in the idea of a walking mural tour of the town.

Does anyone have a workable process they have developed to get the public
agreement/feedback on murals or are you willing to share how the artwork
gets approved, or if it gets approved? I don't want to make things more
complicated, since it's really just a feat for us to get a mural up at all,
but I also don't want to create needless upset within the community. As a
note, there is no public ordinance as relates to murals or public artwork.

I have heard that this local artist who is making a fuss about the mural
does not have the best reputation, and has been known to be
confrontational, so I don't want to make major changes just because she has
a problem, but I do want to make sure we are comfortable with our process
moving forward.

Thanks!

Best,
Tkeisha Wydro
Sheridan Revitalization President
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