2010 Slatterly Park Mural Painting

Early Saturday, May 22, RNeighbors prepared for the Slatterly Park neighborhood to come out and re-paint the existing street mural at 5^th Avenue and 7^th Street. 

And come out to help they did, from Slatterly and across Rochester.

Thanks to the teamwork of about 60 enthusiastic volunteers, there is now a freshly painted work of art brightening an intersection of this neighborhood. The oldest of our Rochester street murals, this “Flower Kaleidoscope” was designed by a Slatterly neighbor, Susan Waughtal and first painted by the neighborhood  in 2007.

This Saturday, families, youth groups, other local groups, and even a pet rat came out to join in the fun and make new connections with neighbors. Folks came from the Slatterly Park neighborhood and all around Rochester. Some heard of the RColorful Corners project by attendance at prior RNeighbors events. Volunteers were made up of all ages and included youth from the Youth Commission, such as Juneteenth, as well as senior citizens who walked over from their homes.

RNeighbors board and RColorful Corners committee members have been meeting since February to prepare for this season’s street murals. This grassroots project is driven from a grant we received from the Southeast Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF) and Valspar for 110 gallons of street paint. This is the same type of paint the city uses to paint the traffic lines on our streets and contains a high amount of grit to ensure the street surface does not get slippery. There are currently four street murals, and this summer all of these will be repainted and a fifth brand new mural will be created at the Multicultural Learning Center.

Each year the street murals in our neighborhoods do need to be repainted; the whole point of this public art project is to bring neighbors together. Sound like fun? Check the RColorful Corners 2010 schedule and be sure to come out and lend a hand at another one of our murals.

An effective community building event takes teamwork. Our thanks to the following who helped us in this project:

• The Hawthorne Literary Center allowed us to use their water source
• Pannera Bread donated goodies for volunteers
• Java Detour chipped in coffee to wake our sleepy spirits
• Slatterly Park Neighborhood Association for donating soda and chips for snacking on
• Valspar and SMIF for donating 110 gallons of paint that will also help in painting four other murals this summer
• Greg Wimmer, our talented and patient muralist extraordinaire helps us succeed in bringing neighbors together to create public art
• Safety Signs provide the barricades that are required by the City ordinance for blocking off the street
• The City Traffic Engineer serves on the RColorful Corners committee and gives advice on mural locations and processes
• Neighborhood Association members who serve on the RColorful Corners committee and engage their neighborhood to participate in the project

You can see colorful photos from this mural painting at RNeighbors on Facebook.

Have a comment? Join us on Facebook!