Mural program calling artists and volunteers
American Legion building at Walnut and Second street to be site of next mural
The Lansdale Mural Arts Program has its next project in its sights, and organizers are looking for artists and volunteers to help make it a reality.
By the end of the summer, work could be underway on a new mural on the outside of Lansdale’s American Legion Post 206 at the corner of Walnut and Second streets.
“It’s on the wall on Walnut Street, facing the railroad, because then the people on the train can see it,” said organizer Margie Booz.
Since early 2013, the allvolunteer mural program has coordinated local artists and volunteers to paint colorful murals on previously blank walls on the side of Chantilly Floral at Main and Walnut Streets, Wes Carver Electric at Broad Street and Jenkins Avenue, the office building that now houses The Underground at Wood and Main Streets, and most recently an American flag design at the Lansdale VFW
post on the 800 block of West Second Street.
“Every place that we go now, seems to want patriotic stuff. That’s the ‘in’ thing at the moment,” Booz said.
Each mural costs between $3,000 and $5,000, largely in the costs for roughly 30 gallons of paint and painting equipment.
Booz and co-organizer Ellen Foulke said fundraising for this year’s American Legion mural has already begun, and the legion post has given a design concept and is looking for local artists to submit their ideas.
“We asked them if they have any ideas. They wanted ‘patriotic,’ and a representation of each branch of the armed services,” Booz said.
Artists interested in submitting designs, or volunteers who can help paint, clean or donate, can contact Booz at Chantilly Floral at (215) 855-0258 or Foulke at (215) 855-6700 or Servicestbc@comcast.net, or follow or message the “Lansdale Mural Arts Program” Facebook page.
Those interested in helping out or submitting a design are asked to do so by the end of July, Booz said, so volunteer efforts can be coordinated and painting can begin in August. Scout groups, students seeking hours for volunteer projects, or parents looking for a way to get the kids off of their devices and out of the house are all welcome, she said, and the mural program is a
tangible way to show how a few hours or days of effort can leave a mark on their town for years or decades.
“We’re looking for artists, we’re looking for people to help clean up, they can donate — we need everything,” she said.
Five years after the mural program began, Booz said she’s still glad a different local business turned down the design that now decorates her building, depicting an idyllic downtown streetscape next to grassy fields, with a water downspout disguised as a tree, on what had been a plain brick wall.
“I am so happy that everybody else hated it. Nobody wanted it, so I said ‘It’s going on my building,’” she said.
“And people come — you wouldn’t imagine the people that come and stop here to look at it. They come at night, with their lights, and shine their lights on it. Kids come by and have their pictures taken by it — it’s like something special in town. It’s really great, I love it, and they all know where the flower shop is because it has the mural on the side.”
For more information or to volunteer or donate to the Lansdale Mural Arts Program, contact Margie Booz at Chantilly Floral at (215) 855-0258 or Ellen Foulke at (215) 855-6700 or Servicestbc@comcast.net, or follow or message the “Lansdale Mural Arts Program” on Facebook.