North Adams Art Commission Votes Flowers for Eagle Street Pride Mural
An illustration of how the mural will look on Eagle Street using Google Maps.
Six flowers — each in a rainbow color and representing a Massachusetts wildflower — will be painted on Eagle Street by volunteers.
The Public Arts Commission on Monday approved the street mural that will be part of the next First Friday event in June to mark Pride Month.
The Rainbow Street Crossings proposal was presented by Andrew Fitch, an organizer of the monthly downtown event. He had initially approached the commission for support at its last meeting, which was given.
The mural will be painted on the street next to the mobile parklet that was put in place for the season on Monday morning.
"I put out a limited request for proposals, just people I've talked to, to kind of get it done quickly," he said. "And I reached out to about seven different key individuals, some of whom are members of the LGBTQIA-plus community."
Of the submissions, Fitch brought forward four that seemed suitable for the space and easy to implement.
In addition to the flowers, one concept was the word "love" with each letter done in a pattern of rainbow colors that one commissioner thought looked like a Sol Lewitt drawing. The other two were the rainbow colors with the silhouette of an eagle on it and colorful mountains reflecting the Berkshire hills.
Fitch leaned toward the graphic design of the "love" image as his favorite.
"Honestly, this one excited me the most but I'm certainly open to feedback," he said. "It was just so bright and interesting."
Chair Anna Farrington thought it would be easiest to replicate with paint rollers and would have the most traffic calming effect.
Speaking of the flowers, Commissioner Emily Johnson imagined they would "feel a bit more loose, where you're hand drawing the flowers whereas like, the 'love seems' a little bit more precise."
The commissioners weren't sure at first how to proceed, noting they had approved concepts but not chosen a particular artwork.
In two rounds of voting, they chose first the "love" and flowers as their top choices feeling the designs would best suit the space and be visually identifiable to drivers. Then, though love had seemed to be the favorite from the beginning, they unanimously chose the flowers — and seemed a little surprised they had.
Farrington abstained from voting as the flowers and two other submissions were her designs but Mayor Jennifer Macksey, who was in attendance, voiced her support for the flowers.
Fitch said the next steps were to get paint and volunteers. The plan is to paint the mural as soon as the street closes before the June First Friday event.
The mayor asked if chalk had been considered because the city is still having internal discussions about the use of paint on the roadways. Fitch and Harrington said the goal was to have the mural survive the summer with the potential for it to be refreshed each spring. They noted that the mural would not interfere with any traffic markings on Eagle (the City Council had passed on painted crosswalks last year over concerns they could affect state or federal funding).
The commission also agreed to the mayor's request to put out a call for submissions for a mural on the concrete retaining wall at Western Gateway Heritage State Park.
Tags: Eagle Street, murals, pride,
