Four
finalists have been chosen for the
Cambridge Arts Council's project to adorn two dilapidated silos with colorful murals. As
Seven Days reported in April, the $15,000 project has not been uncontroversial: Some residents of Jeffersonville (a semiautonomous village within the Town of Cambridge) have objected to the proposal to paint the murals, likening the project to "graffiti."
Plenty of locals, however, have voiced their support of the project, taking to Front Porch Forum to endorse the beautification the silos, which many view as eyesores. The $15,000 project is funded by the Vermont Arts Council's
Animating Infrastructure grant program.
Controversy or no, the CAC has selected four finalists, all of whom will present their concepts to, and take questions from, the community on August 8. The finalists are:
- Anthill Collective, a team of muralists whose work has been exhibited at Burlington's ArtsRiot. The team also created a mural on an exterior wall of Burlington's Nectar's Bar and Lounge in tribute to the late musician Andy "A-Dog" Williams;
- Mary Hill, a Shelburne native whose work draws inspiration from Vermont's flora and fauna;
- Mary Lacy, a Jericho-based artist whose tile-like murals have adorned Burlington's Moran Plant, and who recently completed a large hummingbird mural in downtown Burlington;
- Sarah C. Rutherford, whose work is familiar to anyone who has walked the campus of the University of Vermont: She created the large mural on the school's Living and Learning Center.
At that August 8 informal gathering, community members can cast votes by placing tokens in receptacles labeled with the artists' names. Those votes, writes CAC member Justin Marsh in an email, will be taken into consideration by the council's task force for the project, the members of which have taken on the jokey nickname the Silo Sisters.
On August 17, the Silo Sisters and other community members will interview all the artists and make a final decision. Once the selection is made, the muralist will spend the better part of the next year, Marsh explains, soliciting community input and preparing the silos for installation. The murals are slated for installation and completion in summer 2016.