You Need a Wall Before You Can Paint a Mural

Not What, but Where

If you want to put a mural downtown, the obvious first question is probably: What should we paint?

For us, that wasn't the first question.

The first question was: Where can we put it?

Over the past year and a half, Downtown Statesville Development Corporation and City staff have been looking for a place for a large-scale mural in downtown Statesville. It sounds simple enough. Downtown has plenty of walls.

But not every wall is a mural wall.

One of the things we work to protect in downtown Statesville is the character of the historic buildings that make up our downtown. That means we have to think carefully about the materials that make those buildings distinctive. For example, painting an unpainted historic brick wall isn't a simple solution to creating a mural surface. Paint can affect the brick, and once a historic building's materials have been altered, they can be difficult—or sometimes impossible—to restore to their original condition.

So, for this project, we needed a wall that was already painted.

We also needed something else: an owner who was willing to participate.

"May I paint on you building, please?"

That turned out to be the harder part.

A property owner understandably wants to know what is going to be painted on the side of their building before agreeing to put a large mural there. But we were looking for a mural that would be shaped, at least in part, by community input. That meant we couldn't simply walk into the conversation with a finished design.

We could explain the process. We could explain that the property owner would have a say. But we couldn't yet show them exactly what would be painted.

Over time, we approached several property owners about potential locations, from Depot Hill to West Broad Street. We didn't find the right combination of wall, location, and willing partner.

Then, during a Downtown Statesville board meeting, a member asked a perfectly reasonable question: Why wasn't the mural project moving forward? What did we need to do differently?

The answer was straightforward: We needed someone willing to participate.

After hearing about some of the places we'd explored, Jim Duffey of American Renaissance School said he might have a place for it.

A few days later, we had the beginnings of a solution.

A Little Statesville within Statesville

American Renaissance School had purchased and renovated a building on Cooper Street, just across from City Hall. The south side of the building has a large painted brick wall. It is visible from the street, large enough for a substantial mural and—most importantly—it gives us a property owner willing to participate in the project.

The location is a good fit for another reason, too.

American Renaissance School is an arts-based public charter school, and the school has worked to establish a faculty and student body that reflects the broader Statesville community. 

That makes the school an especially interesting partner for a project that is supposed to draw from the community's own stories.

Students will have an opportunity to participate in the mural process through their arts classes. They'll talk with the muralist about what they see when they look at Statesville—its past, its present and its future. Their ideas will be part of a larger community conversation about what belongs on this wall.

So, after about a year and a half, we had what we needed:

A wall.

A property owner willing to participate.

And a community that could help us decide what comes next.

But finding a wall was only the first problem.

The next question was a little more obvious:

Who should paint it?

That's where Max Dowdle comes in.

Next in our mural series: meet Max Dowdle, the artist who will help bring this project—and Statesville’s story—to life.