A creative spark: K-Staters add color to their community through ongoing mural project
It all started with a simple idea about three years ago: painting one mural in Clay
Center, transforming a blank wall into a giant canvas and bringing a vibrant splash
of color to the town of around 4,000 located about 40 minutes from Manhattan.
Then donations started flooding in. And community excitement kept building. And now,
the project has expanded to include 26 different mural projects throughout Clay County.
Visitors bike from Manhattan to see the murals, or even drive to the town from other
states. Busloads of children come to view the murals as part of field trips, hopefully
inspired to return home and create art of their own.
“It's kind of been a whirlwind over the last three years,” said Brett Hubka '08, member
of A Mural Movement of Clay Center and a community bank president. “It’s brought a
lot of good publicity for Clay Center.”
“When we started just with a couple of mural projects, we didn't realize the scope
that we would end up with,” said fellow committee member Jacob Lohrmeyer '07, a hospital
materials director. “We didn't start out with the plan to add two dozen projects.
We kept going as the fundraising kept coming in. And we kept having these great partnerships
with businesses that wanted to become involved.”
Assembling a team
According to Hubka, the seed that later grew into A Mural Movement was planted about
five years ago when a K-State architecture and planning group visited Clay Center
and inspired the vision of painting a mural on one of the downtown buildings.
After the creation of the first mural — a project championed by the local Rotary Club
— a committee was formed to expand the vision and keep the various mural projects
organized. Out of the seven-person committee, five were K-State grads, and five were
also members of the local Rotary Club.
“When Brett asked me and had this idea, I was the Rotary past president,” said David
Borgerding '09, committee member and insurance agent. “And I figured I wanted to encourage him to make it happen. We can do this. There's
a lot of ability and a lot of ‘can do attitude’ in the Rotary Club.”
“I feel like starting out we were very green,” added Lohrmeyer. “There was lots to
learn — a ‘you don't know what you don't know’ type of situation. But we had a lot
of really excited folks in the community that cheered us on, helped us out, provided
resources, provided their equipment, and their expertise. People were very accommodating
and interested in helping out where they could. We've just been really blessed with
amazing donors and community support along the way to really make this the success
that it's been.”
Creation, collaboration and community
So far the community has collaborated with 17 different professional artists from
seven different states. Artists from around the world have reached out and asked about
opportunities to join the project, including an artist from Virginia who is wanting
to paint a mural in every state. The murals encompass a variety of styles, ranging
from pop art to photo realism to surrealism to Impressionism.
Over $250,000 has been raised for the project so far, and designs are a cooperative
effort between the committee, the artist and the business owner where the mural will
be painted. The Iwo Jima mural on the Edward Jones building is a good example, Hubka
said. The building owner was a Vietnam veteran and wanted the mural to represent that.
The dedication ceremony for the completed mural was featured on multiple news networks,
and a number of soldiers from Fort Riley attended.
The town also hosted a design contest for the mural that became “Sunflower State of
Mind.” The contest attracted 35 entries and was won by artists from Florida, Christian
and Jessica Stanley. Jessica was born in Kansas and has family in Manhattan.
Tracy Lebo '82, '90 is another member of the committee and is a painter of one of
the murals. She recently retired after 35 years as an art teacher in Clay Center,
and she said she was thrilled to see the excitement the project has generated, spanning
all ages and backgrounds. In fact, another mural was recently completed over spring
break at Lincoln Elementary School, where children were invited to contribute their
ideas.
When Lebo was painting her mural, she loved how people would stop by and chat, both
from in town and even out of state. “There's just a different atmosphere right now
in Clay Center,” Lebo said. “The joy it brings to the community has just been incredible.”
More than a mural
The mural project has been an economic development boom for Clay Center, bringing
more traffic into the community. It’s also proven to be a hit on social media, inspiring
travelers to come see the murals for themselves.
“The project surfaced into somewhat of a revitalization of the community,” said Maria
Pfizenmaier '09, current Rotary Club president and a community bank president. “I
don’t think the board had any idea the first postcard mural would snowball into what
it did.”
“It seems like about every Sunday after church, we’ll drive by downtown and you'll
see somebody else looking at the murals, especially now when the weather gets kind
of nice,” Hubka said. “More often than not, those people have an out of state license
plate, whether they're passing through town on [Highway] 15 or 24. That part of it's
pretty rewarding. Otherwise, most of these folks probably would just pass right through
Clay Center.
“We don't have the luxury of, say, a lot of towns that are on the interstate. We're
off the beaten path. And if this gets some people to maybe take a detour to Clay Center,
then that's a big deal.”
As for the future of A Mural Movement of Clay Center? They say they are looking into
placing at least one mural in each community in Clay Center, but also joked that they
are running out of empty walls.
Regardless of how many projects are planned for the future, the murals have already
sparked a small-town movement that will keep Clay County growing long after all the
paint has dried.
“We chose this area because we wanted to raise our family here,” Lohrmeyer said. “And
we valued the people and communities in this area. So being plugged in, being a part
of improving them and continuing to push further sustainability is really important.
And this is one way to be able to do that.”
“I love that the next time a group of people get a positive idea for our town, they'll
look at past projects and past efforts and know that it can be accomplished,” Borgerding
said.
Follow the mural project on social media:
Photos by David Mayes '96, K-State Alumni Association