People age 10 and up will have the opportunity to make the North City business district construction visually enticing this weekend at the Shoreline Arts Festival.
Under the guidance of two artists, 10 murals will be painted on Saturday and Sunday, June 25-26. The finished murals, 4 1/2 feet by 8 feet, will be hung along the north fence of the construction area, where they will stay as construction progresses.
“Whenever there is construction, the idea is to make it more attractive to people who are walking or driving by and make them smile when they’re being disrupted by construction,” said Ros Bird, executive director of the Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Arts Council.
After speaking with residents and business owners in the North City area who are affected by construction, Tom Boydell, Shoreline economic development manager, learned that people would like to see more general promotion.
According to Boydell, adding artistic flare to construction sites is a common practice.
“The idea was let’s do something fun for North City; this is a fun thing to start with,” he said. “It’s a real simple and easy thing to come up with a project to do at the arts festival.”
Co-sponsored by the city’s Economic Development office and the Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Arts Council, the project aims to make the area more lively and decorative while enabling the neighborhood to participate in the process.
“The whole point is to get people involved and having the painting at the arts festival is a great way of doing that,” said Susan Will, board president of the Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Arts Council.
North City resident, Marsha Lippert and Roberta McDaris Long designed the murals, which encompass a variety of themes, and will supervise the painting scheduled to occur throughout both days of the festival.
“I’ve heard that they’ve come up with some really exciting themes and I’m looking forward to seeing them,” Will said.
Overall, the project has attracted $1,000 in donated materials as well as an uncalculated amount of donated time. The wooden planks used for the murals were donated by Frank Lumber Co.
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