Volunteers restore iconic mural in Easthampton’s Cottage Street district; celebration set for Saturday

Pasqualina Azzarello, the arts and culture program director for the city of Easthampton, works on repainting a faded mural done 14 years ago by Peggy Grose on Pine and Cottage streets in Easthampton. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS
Published: 11-13-2024 1:33 PM
Modified: 11-13-2024 1:48 PM |
EASTHAMPTON — One of the Cottage Street Cultural District’s iconic works of public art has been brought back to its former vitality, and Easthampton City Arts invites community members to celebrate its importance to the city this weekend.
The mural, originally painted by local artist Peggy Grose in 2010, has been fully restored and will be celebrated with a Mural Celebration & Story Share on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Everyone is welcome to come view the revitalized mural on the corner of Cottage and Pine streets, and share their stories of how its colorful presence has played a role in the community.
“Choosing to protect this mural, to restore its vitality, to me is a real testament to the spirit of Easthampton City Arts and to the city of Easthampton,” said City Arts Coordinator Pasqualina Azzarello.
Grose’s mural has always been a welcome sight for those strolling through the Cottage Street Cultural District. But over the years, its playful palette of flora and fauna has faded. Grose approached the Easthampton City Arts Public Art Committee, proposing that they offer up the prominent wall to a new artist, offering the chance to breathe new life into the space.
According to Azzarello, the committee considered three options: bringing a new mural to the wall as Grose suggested, letting the mural fade as a visual representation of public art’s history in the city or restoring the original mural to its original glory. One longtime member of the ECA Public Art Committee, Marcia Morrison, had become very attached to the mural, walking past it almost every day, and advocated strongly for its restoration.
Bringing in a third party to restore the mural could be costly, but the idea of seeing Grose’s beloved mural shining brightly once more was one the committee and community weren’t ready to abandon. So, Azzarello said, the committee decided to “roll up our sleeves and do it ourselves,” in what she referred to as a “labor of love” that sent herself and other community members up and down a 20-foot ladder day after day with paintbrushes and photos of how the mural used to look.
When Grose first painted the mural, she too stood 20 feet in the air, priming and painting the wall as she worked to scale a small painting to its current enormous size.
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“You can’t really do it unless you know how,” she said. “I was up on a ladder, so I couldn’t really step back and look at it.”
Luckily, Grose’s background as a sign painter had taught her how to scale a painting efficiently. She split the small composition into pieces, using a scaled grid format to transfer it onto the large wall. Nowadays, Grose said, many muralists will use projectors to bring their work to such a large scale.
“It was kind of an abstract process, and you step back and it becomes something decipherable,” she recalled.
Creating the painting, Grose was working mainly from images in her mind of the landscapes and wetland creatures that she had found inspiration in. The mural came to be a colorful reflection of the Nashawannuck Pond ecosystem nearby.
Grose said that she hasn’t yet seen the restored version of her mural, but that she looks forward to seeing it brought back to its original colors at the celebration this weekend.
This was Azzarello’s second time restoring a mural, but it was still no easy feat. She and other committee members worked carefully to keep the mural true to its original state, checking in periodically with Grose to ensure its authenticity.
“To see it brightened back up again is really beautiful,” said Denise Riggs, ECA Public Art Committee chair.
Throughout the restoration process, those working on the wall were delighted and surprised by the many community members who stopped by to admire their work, and to share their excitement that the mural which had been such a fixture in their lives would live on in full color. Azzarello said that the stories shared ranged from parents who took their children’s back to school photos in front of the mural every year, to newcomers who never realized how colorful the artwork had once been.
Azzarello also noted that local business owners expressed immense support for the restoration, and were excited to witness the end results.
“As our city changes, ECA’s commitment to art as a platform for meaningful community engagement and as a local economic driver to our business community remains central to our mission and our work,” said Azzarello.
Saturday’s Mural Celebration & Story Share draws from the joy Azzarello and her colleagues experienced in hearing stories from community members during the mural’s restoration. It will serve as a chance for more stories to be shared, and to celebrate the role of the mural and public art in the city’s culture.
“It was hard not to notice, so many people just kept coming up sharing their experiences with the mural, especially with their children,” said Riggs. “I think it will be a wonderful opportunity for people to share and celebrate public art and art in general.”
In the event of inclement weather, the rain date for the event is Sunday at 2 p.m.
Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.