Morgantown murals!

Earlier this year, I started volunteering at Arts Mon (Monongalia County’s art council) and attended my first Arts Collaborative meeting. I learned about a cool pop-up art event that was planned for the courthouse square and that the Arts Collaborative had worked with the City and Mainstreet Morgantown to wrap downtown trash cans in work by local artists. But the thing I heard that got me all excited was this: Morgantown has a mural initiative.

Since that meeting not six months ago, five new murals have popped up downtown. And they’re good.

A local family painted a giant rainbow on one of their downtown buildings that sends a cheerful, open message as you head into town from the Westover bridge. If you cross that bridge and continue up Pleasant Street to the local co-op, you’ll see that it now has a giant cardinal on its outside wall. (All you West Virginia history nerds will recognize this as West Virginia’s state bird.)

The next and newest contribution is hiding in an alley on Court Street, which connects High and Spruce Streets across from the courthouse. I really like how that new mural works in harmony with the existing graffiti.

Court Street leads through to Spruce. As you continue North, you’ll pass Health Right, a free clinic that treats low-income and underinsured patients. The side of the building that borders a quaint alley called Wall Street now highlights four local leaders’ contributions to the community. In very pretty colors.

Next, cross the Walnut Street bridge into South Park to find the new image gracing the parking lot of Gene’s, Morgantown’s oldest (and arguably best) local dive bar. The Gene’s mural coordinates with a recently-painted rainbow crosswalk that adds a little spice to the whole block and continues that same message of acceptance.

As you can see from this Pinterest board I started a while back, I love the idea of art on buildings and in crosswalks and on benches and on park picnic tables. It takes the ordinary and transforms it into something happy and inspiring. And sometimes, it leads to real change.

Princeton, WV transformed its downtown over the past few years, and it all started with murals. That story about Princeton got me so excited, I ended up geeking out on creative placemaking and doing a whole lot of internet reading about what art can do for a community. (I have a few ideas.)

All this happened because a really committed group of Morgantown citizens got together to push through some red tape, acquire some funding, and make space for artists to express themselves in a way that everyone can enjoy. To those people I want to say thank you. You’ve given me some new hope. And to everyone else: Let’s keep this going.

Wabi-Sabi Streetview: Westover and Granville, WV

Cross the Monongahela River from downtown Morgantown, and you'll be in Westover, sometimes derisively referred to as Leftover. I went there for the latest installment of my Wabi-Sabi Streetview project. The photos above and below are both taken from Westover, looking back towards town, but the one above was shot from a hilltop. The idea that you can cast a place in a completely different light depending on your vantage point fascinates me.

This project is in the beginning stages and may change over time. Several projects around the country provide good inspiration. One very interesting collaborative take on neighborhood photography is the Portland Grid Project, where a group of photographers individually made pictures in a particular neighborhood and grouped them together. I love the idea of showing one place from multiple perspectives. 

The Oakland Neighborhood Project features portraits of the people who make their homes in the 164 neighborhoods within Oakland, California. In another Portland-based effort, Hello Neighbor, photographer Julie Keefe works with school kids to photograph and interview their neighbors and turn the results into posters that serve as reminders to take the time to really notice people. Finally, in an ongoing and wide-sweeping project, artist Paelo Cirio pasted images taken from Google Street View onto walls or buildings in 130 sites in approximately 22 cities where the original street view photos were taken, and then made his own photos of those pasted images in context. Meta.

This church is one of the first things you see as you enter Westover; so unique and unexpected, with its well-kept gold turret.

Not sure exactly what's on offer at the Office Shoppers Paradise, but next door to it is Bubba's Garage, which is packed with interesting finds.

A new apartment building atop the hill overlooks the main drag through Granville, not far from a coal mine and an industrial loading zone.

What is it about reflections? I spent quite a while with these trucks and this huge puddle.

I love that these regal lions guard a humble metal garage.

In the short term, my goal is to wabi-sabi streetview all the Morgantown neighborhoods. We'll see where it goes from there.

The Grit

With the recent gas boom and the corresponding decline in coal production in West Virginia, there's been a resurgence of talk about the effect extractive industries have had and continue to have on the State. About how companies that are based in other states come here to do business but then take their profits elsewhere. This trend is difficult for obvious reasons--people here benefit only so long as a particular company is willing to pay them to work, and the profits that the companies earn are largely not reinvested in the West Virginia economy (aside from the occasional goodwill grant to schools or support for local events).

Most disturbing to me though is the emotional toll this type of exchange takes on people. Some develop a seemingly unwarranted sense of loyalty to the companies--or at least the industry--they work for, despite what seems to be a clear preference for profit over people. Perhaps when you can't see any other options, you have to fight for what you know. But to my mind, this leaves the state in general in a sort of weak, underdog position, loyal to the hand that feeds it.

The Coalfield Development Corporation seems to be tackling this issue head on, and I'm hopeful that their approach will give some former coal workers their power back. They employ people living in southern West Virginia as construction workers for 33 hours a week, building local housing and disassembling existing structures to salvage materials and market them to high-end markets in cities around the U.S. Employees must attend 6 hours a week of local community college classes and participate in 3 hours of life skills training. This group is set to receive $600,000 from the U.S. EDA to support their work, and it's so encouraging to see that this type of effort not only exists, but is actually doing quite well.

Here in northern West Virginia there are far fewer coal mines, but the mark of industry is still pronounced. From my house in Morgantown I could see a large gas rig located across the river until recently (they must have completed the well), and surrounding that well are various other plants. While personally I wish this city could wrap its mind around and implement some zoning laws with actual teeth, there is something appealing to me about these industrial structures--old and new--the lights, the colors, and the sheer boldness. Apparently it's not just me: photographers Alexander Gronsky, Edward Burtynsky, and Eric Tomberlin have made strikingly beautiful work out of relatively mundane, common structures.