MONTEVIDEO, Minn. - The Montevideo Arts Project committee is inviting everyone to celebrate the completion of its railcar murals at a special dedication event.
It will be held from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Oct. 13 at the painted railcar site adjacent to the historic Milwaukee Road Depot on Main Street in downtown Montevideo.
The free event will feature music, food and an opportunity to meet the artist Lili Payne. The event will be held rain or shine.
The Montevideo Arts Project is a volunteer-driven organization made up of local citizens, business owners, city staff, elected officials and Chamber of Commerce staff. The organization has a goal of creating one public art piece per year.
A design by Lili Payne was selected and approved last February by the Montevideo Arts Project committee from a group of 15 different artist applicants. Her design was chosen to pay homage to the farming, agricultural processing and rail transportation industries that gave rise to Montevideo's establishment as an exceptional small town in the Upper Minnesota River Valley.
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Payne was born and raised in Morris, and now lives in Robbinsdale. She has completed other larger projects including a 3,000-square-foot mural for the city of St. Cloud's central bus transit station.
The Milwaukee Railroad Heritage Center donated the railroad car to the city of Montevideo to be used for the project. Over the summer, volunteers from the Montevideo Fire Department and Dan Sanborn and Jim Ruether helped to prepare the rail car by emptying it of gravel, priming, painting and undercoating and removing dangerous and unwanted protuberances from the car. Thein Moving company was hired to move the car into place in front of the historic Milwaukee Road Depot.
Meanwhile, Montevideo Arts Project committee volunteers spread out across the community to solicit donations from individuals, businesses and organizations to raise matching funds for this project and future Montevideo public art installations.
To date, close to 40 contributors have donated more than $12,000 in matching funds for the project. The names of the contributors giving more than $250 to the project will be permanently added to the rail car in November 2016. There is still time to have individual, business, organization and family names added to the rail car and there will be an opportunity at the dedication event to sign up for this donor recognition program.
The Montevideo Arts Project believes that public art can inspire economic development and a greater sense of community and belonging. The group welcomes new members and volunteers. For more information, visit the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/MontevideoArtsProject .
