The city has approved a fresh approach to its ongoing mural program for 2012. City Council has agreed to work with the Cortez Cultural Center to offer a series of four- to eight-week classes in 2012 about how to paint a mural.
We are in negotiations with Kathleen King to teach a class to help area youth understand the process of creating a mural and to, ultimately, contribute to the themes of what will become a professional mural, Cortez Cultural Center Executive Director Shawn Collins said.
The idea behind the classes is to try to keep the citys mural money local and to broaden Cortezs repertoire of artists who can paint murals at an affordable rate, Cortezs Grants and Special Projects Manager A. Chris Burkett said.
Weve had the same two or three individuals giving us bids or quotes on the murals the last three times weve gone out, Burkett said. The concern was that wed keep getting the same two or three people and the same repetition of style of art.
Although artists from around the country submitted bids to paint murals, they didnt offer affordable fees, according to Burkett.
We have received interest from outside our area until they find that we only have $5,000 to spend on each mural, then they quickly withdraw as they expect to receive anywhere from $300 to $500 per square foot of mural, Burkett wrote in a memo to the city dated Dec. 6.
Burkett calculated the mural at Blondies would have cost the city about $32,000 and the large mural at Rent-A-Center would have been $277,200 at the kind of rates that muralists from outside the area were requesting.
So we are receiving excellent workmanship from locals at a decidedly exceptional price, Burkett wrote.
The class will likely begin in January, February or March 2012, he said.
The classes will most likely be directed at local high school youths and be open to interested adults, Burkett said.
We do have some excellent, excellent artists in the community, he said. And there has also been some discussion to talk to the Ute Mountain Utes and the Southern Utes, so we can build a larger repertoire of possible artists to paint murals.
The class will take part in completing a mural on the wall that faces west at Slavens True Value Hardware, 237 W. Main St., Cortez.
So we get a mural out of it and a class to try to broaden the opportunity for artists in the area, Burkett said.
The city budgeted $5,000 for each of the murals painted at Blondies Pub and Grub, 45 E. Main St., Rent-A-Center, 209 W. Main St., and at 125 E. Main St., where Franciscas Mexican Restaurant used to be.
King, the artist the Cortez Cultural Center hopes to have teaching the classes, painted the mural at Franciscas and painted one at Kokopellis Bike and Board, 130 W. Main St., Cortez.
I think city council and the public like it because its taken some of these dreary, old, ugly walls that you see every time you stop at a stop light, and its brightened up the town and helped the businesses
without having to spend a lot of money, said local businessman and Montezuma Community Economic Development Association Chairman Mitchell Toms, who is also one of the citys Mural Committee members.
Reach Nathalie Winch at nathaliew@cortezjournal.com.
