Muralist working to improve downtown

By GINA KINSLOW
Glasgow Daily Times

GLASGOW July 06, 2009 12:18 pm

— Bowling Green mural artist David Jones spent the biggest part of last week working on a mural on the back of the Rogers and Drivers Law Firm building at the intersection of East Main and South Broadway streets.
The mural is one of four Jones was commissioned to do as part of a project to spruce up downtown Glasgow.
“I sent in proposals for these four buildings. The city building, the chamber building, the Alexander building and the Rogers building,” he said.
The murals will depict how the front of the buildings looked in the 1940s.
The idea for the project began several years ago.
“We came from two directions. The arts committee at the chamber, which I was not a member of at the time, had an idea for murals and then about three years ago, I went about getting all the OKs from the landowners to do some kind of mural project on all those buildings,” said Glasgow Councilwoman Linda Wells. “Some where along the way we got word that we were both working on mural projects.”
The first mural considered to be a part of the project was the one painted on the side of a building at the intersection of Liberty and West Main streets promoting the South Central Kentucky Cultural Center. Jones also painted that mural, as well as the ones on either side of the Weiss Jewelry building on West Main Street and the one on the Burkmann Feeds warehouse on US 31-E bypass.
The backs of city hall, Chamber of Commerce, Alexander and Rogers buildings were chosen next for the mural project, because they aren’t aesthetically pleasing, she said.
Ben Rogers, who owns the building where Jones is painting the mural, said the backs of the buildings were once shielded from view by a warehouse. An alley passed between the buildings, so the backs of the buildings were very seldom seen by the public, he said.
Rogers is glad the arts committee has decided to do the mural project, and said the murals will improve the look of the buildings which are now seen by many people as they enter Glasgow from East Main Street.
“It will definitely be a more aesthetically pleasing view of Glasgow,” he said.
There is a gas meter on the back of the Rogers building that Jones said he is trying to disguise as a mailbox. He plans to paint a mailman standing beside it.
Funding for the mural project is coming from a variety of sources.
“We had, fortunately, some assistance from Leadership Glasgow-Barren County,” Wells said.
The group chose to help secure funding for the project.
“So, that gave us our initial boost, plus a couple of other donations,” she said.
The arts committee hopes to be able to have more murals painted around town.
“We’re hoping to develop a Big Spring Bottom mural on the side of Ashley Rae’s building,” said Ann Stewart, marketing director for the Glasgow-Barren County Chamber of Commerce. The Big Spring Bottom is located behind the city’s parking structure off the public square, and was the basis for the founding of Glasgow. The arts committee has applied for a grant through the National Endowment for the Arts in hopes of securing additional funding for the mural project.

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