Hamline Midway Public Art Working Group
The Hamline Midway Public Art Working Group is a group that is under the Hamline Midway Coalition. It formed after the Midway Murals the summer of 2015. The mission of the Public Art Working Group is to "enhance livability, pride, interaction and vibrancy through public art in the Midway community, in ways that foster dialogue and connection."
MIdway Murals 2.0This project is a collaboration of the Midway Public Working Group and Hamline University. It consisted of resorting a 30 year-old mural called "Picnic at Newell Park" the artist is Chris Baird and give a local emerging artist Ilana Budenosky an opportunity to create a mural and it is called "Stop Request". The reveal of the murals were apart of the Hamline Elementary Fall Festival in October. |
Midway MuralsThis project was complete in the summer of 2015 and it transformed a half-mile stretch of Snelling Ave with the commission of four public artists to collaborate with immigrant business owner and the Hamline Midway neighborhood to create murals that weave together with the theme of "starting anew." This project was created by Jonathan Oppenheimer who is a resident of the Hamline Midway neighborhood and was a winner of the Knights Arts Challenge St. Paul. |
My Work
I first got involved with public art in the Midway neighborhood in my spring semester of my first year in 2015. It was for a class project. Long story short I got connected with Jonathan Oppenheimer and throughout that summer when I was in the cities for work I would help Jonathan with some of the logistics of the Summer Celebration for the reveal of the four new murals. When there was talk about continuing putting public art in the neighborhood I jumped to be a part of it right away. My personal goal with this is/was to get Hamline University a part of get art in the neighborhood to open up conversations between the community and the University. I interned with the group when it came to the collaboration Hamline and the Working Group. I acted at a voice for students since the artist age we were aimed at was college age. I also had conversations with President Miller to get her on board with the idea of having more public art on campus.