The town of Pulaski is unveiling a new mural at their Rhythm By the Rails festival on Saturday, August 8th. The town was awarded a grant to paint the mural, though the status of another mural in Galax through the same project is uncertain.
Pulaski was one of four towns awarded a grant by Round the Mountain, a nonprofit in Southwest Virginia that promotes artists.
“Public art and public murals have blown up over the past few years, of people wanting it to be a photo stop,” said Ryan Vaughan, director of marketing at Friends of Southwest Virginia, the organization that oversees Round the Mountain.
They also awarded Wytheville, Big Stone Gap and Galax a similar grant. But this summer, Galax’s city county voted to cancel their mural. The design shows four musicians, one of them a smiling Black woman playing bass. Another is a woman with brown skin playing fiddle.
According to a story reported by Cardinal News, Galax city councilmember Shane Coomes told the mural’s artist at a council meeting:
Coomes: “We need to go with people who represent the music of Galax. That doesn’t do it. That’s not musicians our town is known for.”
Radio IQ reached out to Coomes for clarity on what he meant, but did not hear back in time for this broadcast.
Jay Scott is the artist who made the Pulaski mural. He didn’t work on the Galax design, but he has been watching that debate unfold.
“Yeah, I hate to see murals canceled for people not being able to come together,” Scott said. “And it’s one of those controversial things that we just didn’t have here. You know, I mean it was such an easy process over here that I hate to see when those kinds of things happen. That being said, murals and art stir up emotion,” Scott pointed out. “And sometimes an emotion isn’t good emotion. Sometimes it’s bad. That’s what it’s meant to do. You know, great art stirs the emotion.”
It’s unclear what will happen now to the money that had been awarded to Galax, and Vaughan says their group is working on next steps.
Each town did go through a process to determine what types of images residents want to highlight.
“We went to the community and we did a survey of the community and asked them what would you like to see,” explained John Ross, president of the board of directors for the Fine Arts Center of the New River Valley, the organization that spearheaded Pulaski’s mural.
Residents shared their ideas with the artist Jay Scott, who lives in Rural Retreat. Scott said he wanted to showcase the positive things people like about living here.
“You know, the hiking, the paddle boarding, the kayaking, the biking, fishing, awesome music that you guys are getting over here with the festivals,” Scott described. “Just all the awesome things that Pulaski in particular has to offer.”
The mural is painted on the side of the Fine Arts building, and teaching the next generation to make art is at the center of the piece.
A boy is painting a landscape of a mountain. A Black girl looks intently over the boy’s shoulder and children and adults of different races are biking, paddle boarding and dancing to music in bright blue and red colors. It’s lively, beautiful ,and diverse.
Brandon Phillips is the executive director of the Fine Arts Center and says 50 people participated in the survey for the mural’s design. He said visitors will be able to see an image of a town surrounded by natural beauty and supporting children through art.
“We were so happy to be selected as one of the towns to receive one of these,” Phillips said.
Pulaski will unveil the mural this Saturday at their Rhythm By the Rails festival, which begins at 3 pm.
Wytheville also recently unveiled its new mural. Like Pulaski’s, this one was funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. A third mural in Big Stone Gap is still in development.
