Topekans help bring history to life with community mural
10:52 p.m. Sunday, September 28, 2008
Topeka — Topekans gathered Sunday to celebrate a doubling in the size of the Great Mural Wall.
And as striking as the mural is becoming, those involved in the project say the bigger benefit is the way it's bringing the community together.
The celebration of the two newest panels on the great mural wall was, fittingly, a community event.
"The one on the very end celebrates the Free Fair, and the one just to the left of that celebrates the Central Park neighborhood and the park itself," project director Heidi Zeller said. "It's sort of like a people's history of these neighborhoods."
The mural wall started last year with the first two panels, honoring Topeka philanthropist Grant Cushinberry. It was the community's idea to keep it going.
"Central Park came to us and wanted to sponsor a panel," lead artist Dave Lowenstein said. "So we started meeting with them I think in February. And it turns out there's wonderful woman named Kay Conn who had already done a lifetime's work on the history of the neighborhood but also on the history of the park, which also turns out to be very interesting. And so we were in this great position of having this research already done. And so to honor her and thank her it just made perfect sense that she be in the mural."
The celebration was not only for the panels just completed, but for the white space that remains.
"That white space you see down at the end," Zeller said. "It's going to keep going in that direction, and then it's going to follow around the corner behind me. And on the opposite side the wall continues and we're just going to keep going."
"Because in these projects, it's not just the final product," Lowenstein said. "It's not just the mural but also the process we go through getting to know our neighbors, learning about the place that we live in that's equally important."
Brainstorming for the next panel on the wall is already underway. Students from Topeka High will collaborate on the project next spring.
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