Public invited to help paint mural panels in Libertyville
Big art will be on display in Libertyville this weekend with the village's first community mural taking shape downtown in Cook Park.
The coloring book-style interactive attraction may also be a litmus test for how future murals, perhaps on the sides of buildings or other locations, are regarded by the public and commissioned elsewhere in town.
The Community Moveable Mural Project is three 4-foot by 8-feet panels of marine-grade plywood and metal with Highland Park artist Carmen De la Mano's coloring book-style outline to be painted by visitors to the Festival of the Arts event Saturday and Sunday.
"This is a very new thing," said Beth McKenna, exhibitions coordinator for the Adler Music and Arts Center.
It's the first time this type of project has been introduced in the Festival of the Arts' 39-year history. The event, sponsored by Adler and the Libertyville Arts Commission, has been expanded to include food, a beer garden and a bandstand.
Vernon Hills-based Rust-Oleum designed and built the panels and is supplying more than 20 cases of vibrant paint. Kids and adults will be able to paint alongside De la Mano.
After Labor Day, the panels will be joined, touched up, sealed and moved to a highly visible part of the Adler Center property along Milwaukee Avenue.
McKenna also was one of the forces behind two Yarnstorm events in which trees, benches and poles in downtown Libertyville were decorated with multicolored yarn.
"This community mural is kind of like the Yarnstorm - we're trying to engage the community, all ages," she said.
Murals have become popular in many locales, including the Mellody Farm and Hawthorn Mall retail centers in Vernon Hills, as a way to draw attention and engage the public.
That was Erin Murphy's intent when she commissioned Libertyville High School grad and artist Jeff Hendricks to create a 12-foot by 20-foot image on the exterior wall of her business, Black Cat Yoga, 117 E. Cook Ave., a block east of Cook Park.
"It's definitely an unusual piece," she said. "I didn't want a bunch of people doing yoga on the side of the building."
The eye-catching mural of two cat heads incorporating mandalas - geometric figures representing completeness and self-unity - does not include a business sign or advertising. Though the image is not quite complete, Murphy says many have stopped to take pictures in front of it.
"I wanted something people could interact with," Murphy said. "Besides just my business, it's a fun way to get people into downtown Libertyville."
Because of its location in the downtown historic district, Murphy's proposal was reviewed the village's historic preservation commission, which recommended it for approval to the village board.
Libertyville has no official public art guidelines, but McKenna and others are interested in expanding public art in town.
"Every community has some of them. They're the hot thing right now," she said.
Determining what that might involve, as well as the role of the Libertyville Arts Commission, is a work in progress.
"I'm doing a lot of homework and other members are too of what we think it should be," said Amy Williams, Adler's executive director and arts commission chair.
"Probably by September or October, we'll have a good outline of what that (public art policy) should look like."