WILLOW CREEK — The blank west wall of the town hall annex, a two-story expanse of white clapboard that has faced Main Street without decoration since the annex was added in 1978, will soon become a canvas for Willow Creek’s history.
The Board of Selectmen voted 3-1 (Pendelton opposed) to approve a $4,000 community mural project, to be funded from the town’s recreation fund. The mural, tentatively titled “From Sloops to Sap,” will depict Willow Creek’s evolution from shipbuilding through the mill era to the present day.
“I spend more time looking at that wall than I’d like to admit,” said Iris Beaumont, the retired art teacher who proposed the project at last month’s selectmen’s meeting. “It’s a blank space in a prominent location. It should tell the town’s story to everyone who walks or drives down Main Street.”
Beaumont has volunteered to coordinate the project and will serve as the selection committee for the artist. The call for submissions is open to artists from Aroostook County, and the deadline for proposals is July 1. The selected artist will receive a $2,000 commission, with the remaining budget covering materials and a community painting day.
The selectmen stipulated that the design must be approved by the board before painting begins. Pendelton, the lone dissenting vote, explained that he was not opposed to public art in principle but “worried about what happens if we don’t like it.”
“There’s a reason that wall has been blank since 1978,” he said. “Nobody could agree on what to put there.”
Beaumont sees it differently. “The fact that nobody could agree means it’s time to try. That’s what art does — it starts conversations.”