This is the Thirty-fourth article in a permanent column for Stroud Arts that appears in the Stroud American. The mission of these articles is to inform, educate and inspire you, the reader, to Make Art Happen in your life and the life of our community.
The current home of Stroud Arts is 214 West Main Street. The Building is owned by the Stroud Chamber of Commerce and as of Saturday, has a new look!
For longer than anyone can remember, the East side of the Building has hosted a Twenty-Two-foot-high by Nineteen-Foot-wide mural displaying a refreshing and welcoming bottle of – Coca Cola.
Last restored in the 1980s, the mural has slowly deteriorated into the status of ‘Ghost Mural’ and was facing further degeneration and eventual destruction until a series of conversations led to collaboration and eventually restoration.
The first conversation was in 2016 when former Stroud Arts Board Member Tina Livingstone and Stroud Arts President David Timmons were examining what was the new home of Stroud Arts at 214 West Main and Tina remarked, ’I wonder what can be done about the Coke Mural? Is there any way we can get it restored?’ At the time Stroud Arts was just getting going and with Art Classes, Stage Plays and other programs being produced, the Mural Restoration Project was placed in the ‘One of these Days‘ category of projects to do.
The next conversation occurred two years later. In 2018 former Stroud Arts Board Member Raquel LeMaster invited a Mural Artist to Stroud to look at creating a mural on a Main Street Building that would welcome travelers on Route 66 to our town. Current City Manager Bob Pearman and David Timmons were present and at the end of the conversation, Bob said something to the effect of; ‘I would like to see what can be done about restoring the old Coke Mural at the Stroud Arts Building.’ To which David Timmons replied something to the effect of; ‘I’ll look into that.’
Now we move only one year forward, to 2019, and Bob Pearman was meeting with David Timmons to discuss the next project for City Beautification. In 2018 the City had successfully applied to ‘Keep Oklahoma Beautiful’ for Roadside Beautification Funding to recreate an Ozark Trail Obelisk on Main Street and with the monument almost completed, it was time for another beautification project. The decision was made to apply for Keep Oklahoma Beautiful grant funding to restore the faded Coke Mural.
In any project like this, you have to get approval and support from all the stakeholders and assemble the team that will make it happen. Therefore in order of approval and support; The Chamber of Commerce President Kyle Anderson gave approval for the restoration, (the mural being on their building of course); the Grant Team at Keep Oklahoma Beautiful awarded some funding toward the project; a Mural Artist, Bob Palmer, was contracted (David Timmons met him at a Deep Fork Economic and Entertainment District meeting in Wellston); financial support was provided by the Stroud Regional Medical Center; the Mural surface was cleaned by members of the City of Stroud Public Works Department and finally, the restoration was undertaken by Artists Bob Palmer and his assistant Paula Ackerman.
The Mural Restoration Project took time, energy and effort, but it all came together.
And now the restoration is complete. The project is done.
What was once a fading, Ghost Mural, is now a bright, cheerful, welcoming, Restored Mural!
It stands ready to welcome the Spring and Summer travelers as they journey along Route 66. I look forward to seeing the tourist gathered in front of the refreshingly, restored, Coke Mural, as they have for decades, capturing a moment in time and making a memory of Art in Stroud Oklahoma.