106 Mural Gets Selectmen Support

Town residents who show up at the spring Town Meeting will have the opportunity to decide the fate of the expansive for the upper south wall of the Route 106 underpass. The artist, MHS graduate Ian Gaudreau, was selected after a search that began in December of last year.

Mural committee member Scott Brigante told selectmen Wednesday a six-month information gathering effort within the community yielded more than 500 responses that delivered feedback both positive and negative on the draft mural design that has been on display on the Keep Mansfield Beautiful web site and various places around town. He received a conditional go-ahead from four members of the board, but not from chief critic and architect Doug Annino, who has said from the beginning he was not keen on the mural concept for such a large public space.

The five-member committee and the Keep Mansfield Beautiful group had created an online survey in May, and had hard copies available at the town hall, the Council on Aging, the library, and the Mansfield Music and Arts Society. The committee members were out in the community as well, at various town functions. Brigante said he and fellow member Nancy Wall even showed up at the train station early one morning to get feedback from MBTA commuters, both residents and out of towners.

Results of the surveys - 531 of them -- indicated an average of 60 to 75 percent positive feedback to nine specific questions that focused on the concept as a whole, future impact on the town,  and details of the proposed design.

"The primary responses were from Mansfield residents and business owners," Brigante said. "The survey was open to everyone from high school age to senior citizens." The proof of the overall positive feelings of the town toward the idea of a mural was that almost half of the positive respondents said they would volunteer to help in the planning and fundraising that will now begin. The committee and the town will have to raise about $30,000 for design, planning, materials, and Gaudreau's artistic talents.

Feedback results have been incorporated into a revised design for the mural that continues to evolve. Residents wanted more attention to Mansfield's prized natural resources, and wanted to include female student and adult athletes as well as male.

Selectman Kevin Moran said he had some doubts about the initial proposal, but added he was impressed by the hard work of the group so far. "I'm obligated to honor my commitment to you and give you guys your conditional approval," he said. He added the presence of Mansfield Music and Arts Society president Ken Butler should have been an indication that the project would be self-propelled.

"This is not going to be pictures stuck to a wall," said Butler. "This is a painting." Committee members had been assured that the project could be made graffiti-proof with a special coating, and Brigante told the board the committee itself will provide continual maintenance of the mural once it is complete.

Board members said the vote on a project that will have a lasting impression on the town should be a vote of the people in the town itself, but the suggestion by Olivier Kozlowski to present it as a referendum vote at a town election was discouraged by Town Manager Bill Ross, who said he doubted if that could be done procedurally.

Board chairman Jess Aptowitz said, "It sounds like the best shot is to take it to Town Meeting - we might want to take that route."

Annino was still not impressed, and stayed with his original opinion, voting no to the motion that the board approve the placement of a mural article on the spring warrant. "I've never been sold, and I'm still not sold," he said. "The problem is the abyss. You're not going to draw people to the downtown with this."

Brigante told the board the committee will present them with a final set of drawings, as well as a more detailed prediction of costs associated with the execution of the mural, before drafting a warrant article.

"We will raise the funding for the whole project," he promised. "The town will have no liability."

Members of the mural committee are teachers Brigante and Nancy Wall, Kevin McNatt of the Historical Society, teacher and artist Kristie Johnson of the Downtown Business Association, and Butler of MMAS.