If you look closely as you walk or drive by the old railroad retaining wall on the south side of Church Street east of Darrow Avenue in Evanston, you can just see the outline of a new mural planned to be painted there this summer.
Look the other direction and you can’t miss the mural the same artists — Dustin Harris and Lea Pinsky — completed last year on the north retaining wall left from the old Mayfair rail viaduct that once crossed over the street.
“Trust Your Heart” is the theme of the already completed mural, and “Live Your Dream” is the title of the one just getting started.
The mural project is funded by the city on the recommendation of the Evanston Arts Council.
The city’s cultural arts coordinator, Jennifer Lasik, says the initial hope was to complete both murals last year, but delays forced postponement of the second mural until now.
The city so far has paid $11,400 for the work.
Harris and Pinsky, of Mix Masters Murals, are Evanston residents and were profiled earlier this year in Evanston Magazine.
Can’t Believe It
Why would the city pay for this? I know this was the fault of last year’s city council and mayor. Hopefully, the current city council and mayor will act in a responsible manner.
Crazy to spend the money when they just increased our taxes!
How can they justify spending $11,400 on this mural when they just increased our property taxes by $500/year?
Why aren’t they telling us about how they are trying to be more frugal and saving taxpayers money?
All we ever hear about is how they are spending our money and increasing our taxes.
It’s worth the 50 cents we pay
I’m personally glad that the city paints these murals; they give character to areas that otherwise would be very drab (increasing surrounding property value). Beyond that, there are several studies that show that such murals help reduce graffiti (which would require money to clean up, apart from the associated decrease in property value that graffiti has). If we assume that the final cost of the project is ~30k, that means that the per-Evanston resident cost is roughly $0.50 For these reasons I support the city commissioning this mural.
See that mural a-comin’
I agree with Petras.
murals
Because Lea Pinsky is Joanna Pinsky’s daughter…both from Art Encounter, a NFP Evanston organization founded by Joanna. Seems like they are making a profit, though.
Murals
Increasing the beauty of Evanston hopefully will continue to help bring new businesses, restaurants and visitors to Etown . . .let’s also be creative on how to raise funds . . .a national survey might provide some critical and productive answers.
Thanks,
Larry