Public Art of the Week

Chalk another one up

The public art season is upon us. Last weekend was Chalk of the Town in Old Town, where artists competed for the best chalk art installation. First place in the over-18 division went to Heather Wright for her illustration of a bobcat. The first-place youth winner was Markayla Marquardt for her fire-spewing dragon.

This past week we said goodbye to the fabulous mural completed by Dustin Hunt of Muralmatics on the side of the Walter Neller Building in downtown, which was demolished. Hunt and Lansing students painted it in 2021.

The mural came down amid controversy when the giant crane placed its claw on the mouth of a young woman depicted on the mural. “You Have a Voice,”  it said below the image. The deconstruction was caught on a promotional video. When it was posted on Facebook, comments lit it up asking if the claw’s position was intentional.

Noted local artist Brian Whitfield has two murals in progress. One, at the Bath location of the Greater Lansing food Bank on I-69 in Bath Township, is nearly finished. It features a bright, flashy and fun depiction of the farm-to-table movement.

Whitfield is starting a mural on the Brenke Fish Ladder at Burchard Park in Old Town. The entire Burchard Park area is being reimagined thanks to a $3.4 million grant from the Capital Region Community Foundation, which has been remaking the banks of the Grand River with imaginative new uses, such as the sandbox near the Lansing Center and the accessible playground on Grand Avenue and Saginaw street.

BILL CASTANIER

Public Art of the Week is a new feature that rotates with Eyesore of the Week. If you have an idea for either, please email eye@lansingcitypulse.com or call (517) 999-6704.