New set of murals, plus party, coming to downtown Hamilton

A new set of murals that are individual but related will be painted along Market Street in Hamilton in August, beneath the city’s George McDulin Memorial Parking Garage.

Various artists, many of them residents of the Artspace Hamilton Lofts, will paint the murals along the underside of the parking garage on the weekend of Aug. 15 and 16.

“We’re also going to make a party out of it,” said David Stark, property manager of Artspace, and also director of the non-profit Strauss Gallery and gift shop located there.

During the painting on Saturday there will be a disc jockey, on Market Street between 2nd and 3rd streets, and open to the public, Stark said.

The murals will be partially financed by $2,500 from Hamilton’s 17Strong micro-grant program. The total cost probably will be $7,500 to $8,000, said Stark, who is seeking other ways to raise funds, perhaps through crowdfunding.

Each mural will be about 25 feet long and seven feet tall. They are part of a larger project in recent months to beautify the area of the garage and also an alleyway between High Street and the garage. Strands of lights have been added to the “Artist Alley” for beauty and safety.

All the murals will have some things in common. They will be painted in black, white and a shade of color known as “obstinate orange,” Stark said.

Among the artists will be Logan Walden, who also will be painting the “Robros” mural this summer at 802 Heaton St. as part of the separate StreetSpark program.

In addition to the muralists who live at Artspace, “we’ve also got some big-name muralists from the Cincinnati area,” Stark said.

Aside from Logan, who is an Artspace resident, other artists will be Lance Miller (Artspace), David Jonathan, Dave Rickerd, Brian Beck, Melissa Lucid (Artspace), Patrick Davis (Artspace), Danielle Martin, Ben Kaczmarek, Scott Hubbard (Artspace) and Joshua Morrow (Artspace).

Morrow also is creating three large aluminum sculptures for the Artist Alley, as part of this larger project in the area.

Stark said he is thankful the city is allowing the art to be painted on its property.

“Our local motto is ‘Artists in Service to the City of Hamilton,‘” he said. “To us, Artspace and The Strauss is becoming a bigger concept than just the four walls of our building.”

About the Author