Giant downtown mural to celebrate bluegrass
Owensboro will soon have a giant — 73-foot-wide by 16-foot-high — six-panel mural downtown that “honors the profound traditions and contemporary diversity of bluegrass music.”
It’s sponsored by Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce’s Chamber Young Professionals, the Bluegrass Music (Capital) Initiative, the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum, the city and OWB Downtown LLC.
The idea is to celebrate Owensboro’s claim as the “Bluegrass Music Capital of the World.”
Plans call for it to be on the wall of the building at 214 Frederica St., which faces the Hall of Fame.
There’s already a mural there — “Celebrate Kentucky Here” — that was painted by Rex Robinson and others in 1994.
But Ashtin Warren, director of talent programs for the chamber of commerce, said, “The current mural is faded and hard to distinguish.”
She said that mural will be covered and the bluegrass panels will be attached to the building.
If the building should ever be razed, Warren said, the panels can be moved.
Warren said Steve Johnson, director of the Bluegrass Music Initiative, contacted the chamber about partnering with the BMI and the Hall of Fame on the mural project.
Other partners were added and a worldwide call was made for artists to submit plans for one or more of the panels.
Several bluegrass publications have written about it.
“We want to have at least two panels for local artists,” Warren said.
The deadline for submissions is March 14.
Warren said several have come in already, including a few from outside the region.
Each of the six panels will be six-feet wide and 10-feet tall.
Artists whose work are chosen will receive $1,000.
Warren said that each piece submitted will be reviewed by a selection committee.
She said winners will be announced at the chamber’s Rooster Booster Breakfast on March 27.
And the installation will begin in May.
All submissions and questions can be sent to cyp@owensboro.com or by calling Warren at 270-926-1860.
The art will be upsized and professionally reproduced before going on the wall.
Artists are allowed to send in multiple sketches of their concept for a panel and the committee will consider up to three concepts for each artist.
By Keith Lawrence Messenger-Inquirer