Once again this summer, RNeighbors, the Rochester Neighborhood Resource Center is helping to brighten up Rochester neighborhoods!
Thursday, August 14, neighbors in the Historic Southwest Neighborhood [1] pitched in to paint a mural on the street near the Edison Building (Rochester Public School's Administration Building), at 7th Street SW and 7th Avenue SW. Despite the torrential downpour of rain and hail immediately following when the mural was completed, the funky flowerpot mural remains intact, adding color to this core downtown Rochester neighborhood.
Over 150 painters came out to join in the community building event. One neighbor was overheard saying of the finished project, ""Boy this is beautiful. Thank you." For more on the neighbors reactions check our website [2].
Led by local artist, Greg Wimmer , groups including HSW neighbors of all ages, community corrections [3] representatives, Summer of Service (SOS) volunteers, Edison building staff, and even some school district teachers who were at Edison for a workshop, came out and painted a few strokes in the bright street art.
Click here for the story from KTTC [4] and here for the video [5]
Street murals do not happen in just one day. RNeighbors and the RColorful Corners [6] committee has been working with the Historic Southwest neighborhood association since January of 2008 to plan this successful improvement project. The RColorful Corners committee members include: Jill Walters (Steps to a Healthier Rochester [7]), Gary Shannon (City Traffic Enginneer), Jeff Ellerbush, Melissa Morva (Project Hope & PACE), Keturah Hall (PACE), and Janet Szanjner (SOS Coordinator).
The subject of this mural was chosen by the neighborhood association, working in collaboration with artist Greg. The design began as a brainstorm to do a bouncing red ball theme and grew into an abstract funky flower pot, complete with a large round red flower. You can check out the groovy artwork on our website [8].
Previous projects completed by the RColorful Corners program include a kaladoscope flower design in the Slatterly Park neighborhood that was recently touched up [9] and a fanciful goose in an egg [10], positioned on the street between the Northrop Community Education building and Goose Egg Park.
The mural would not have been possible without the amazing help of our gracious community partners and sponsors [11] for the RColorful Corners summer series in 2008. RColorful Corners strives to provide a splash of color to the city, one neighborhood at a time.
The paint for this mural was donated by Valspar [12] through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Initiative Foundation [13] that RNeighbors received for the entire summer. This is the second year that RNeighbors has received this grant.
