Music and murals: New festival to highlight push for more public art displays in Galesburg

GALESBURG — What happens when the leaders of the local arts and tourism organizations brainstorm for new, collaborative ideas? You get murals. Lots of murals, with a little music on the side.

The heads of the Galesburg Community Arts Center and Galesburg Tourism & Visitors Bureau, with cooperation from the city of Galesburg, are looking to bring more murals to the exterior walls of Galesburg and the surrounding area.

A committee was formed this spring to explore ways to increase the number of murals in Galesburg and Knox County and to conduct an annual Music & Murals festival starting sometime in 2023.

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Tuesday Cetin, executive director of the Galesburg Community Arts Center, said the committee envisions a one- or two-day festival that would allow the community to celebrate new public murals.

"The idea of a festival has been percolating for quite some time," Cetin said. "Tourism and the arts are so closely tied together, that it made sense for us to have these conversations. It's certainly not a new idea. A lot of communities have tied murals and music together.

"For us, while it is very early in the planning, we would like to include not only Galesburg, but surrounding communities. We're envisioning a two-day festival, or a one-day sort of wrap-up unveiling festival that celebrates music and all the difference mural locations. Artists would be working on these for quite some time before the festival itself."

City considers zoning amendment to allow for more murals

In order to expand the possibilities of more murals in Galesburg, the committee would need some help from the city of Galesburg. Currently, murals are only allowed in areas zoned B3, which is central business district, and the Comprehensive Plan Development District, which includes the former Sandburg Mall and Hawthorne Centre.

The Galesburg Planning and Zoning Commission recently recommended approval of an ordinance amendment that would allow art murals on exterior building walls or permanent wall structures in all non-residential zoning districts and legal non-residential uses in residential zoning districts.

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The Galesburg City Council will hear on first-reading the proposed ordinance amendment at Monday's city council meeting. They could vote on the ordinance at the Aug. 15 meeting.

"I've attended a couple of various meetings over the past few months and the idea of murals came up," said Steve Gugliotta, the city’s Community Development director. "Our current ordinance regarding murals is a bit limited, and I thought it's probably time we started looking at this and see if can come with something that's a little more useful for the community."

Cetin said increasing the number of public murals has been on the minds of the Galesburg arts community for some time and a key step in the process is aligning the ordinances that are in place to allow for expansion.

Randy Newcomb, executive director of the Galesburg Tourism and Visitors Bureau, said murals not only benefit the beautification of a town, but can be a tourist attraction. He noted the average person that visits a community spends an average of $104 a day between shopping, entertainment, lodging and dining.

"People travel from all over to see murals, this would allow us to attract visitors who enjoy the arts," Newcomb said. "It's just another way to help Galesburg attract more visitors."

"We could eventually be part of a mural trail, which I envision going from Rockford, to the Quad Cities, to Galesburg, to Kewanee to Peoria. All of the communities would work together to entice people to go to all of the communities and look at all the murals."

Why the push for more murals? Where would they go?

Cetin said art in general, and murals specifically, is a boost to the community.

"If you have a place that celebrates the arts, whether it's through murals, sculptures, festivals or music, it makes people want to experience your community in some way," Cetin said. "That goes for residents and tourists alike.

"The benefit of arts in our community in general is to make people feel comfortable, feel safe and have something wonderful to look at."

Wanted: Artists to produce murals in Galesburg and Knox County

Cetin said the art center will eventually conduct a nationwide "call to artists" to jumpstart the mural expansion in Galesburg. The selected finalists would work with the property owners to ensure everyone is on the same page as far as what murals would be developed.

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The arts center eventually will do a survey asking for community input on where they would like to see murals.

"We really want to take advantage of some spaces that have been neglected," Cetin said. For instance, the Seminary St. Pub wall that is outdated and has needed a re-do for quite some time. We also need to address the wall on the side of the art center.

"We can dress up and add some visual interest to places that maybe is unexpected, or just need a little TLC. Sometimes that just gets people thinking about possibilities in a certain area that maybe they weren't open to before."

The east wall of the Galesburg Community Arts Center at Seminary and Main streets will get a mural to commemorate its 100th anniversary in 2023.

Newcomb and Cetin both stressed they want the mural expansion to be a county-wide project.

"We're looking to bring murals all over town — it's not just specific to downtown," Cetin said. "We'd love to even expand to communities like Knoxville, Abingdon, Avon — places that have so much pride, but need a little shove in the arts direction.

"I think the festival would allow us to have that opportunity to include them in what really is a county wide tourism plan. The smaller communities have tons to offer, so it all needs to be tied together."

Organizers said their goal is for the mural program to last beyond the initial push.

"We don't want this to be a one off, but something we can continue for quite some time," Cetin said. "We don't want to do five murals, and say we're done. This really is a plan to make sure it has some continuity in the coming years."

This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: Galesburg, IL Music and murals festival highlights push for public art