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Do you have what it takes to create a new mural for the upcoming Downton Festival Park?

Suffolk Art League currently has an open call to commission an artist to help craft a mural for the new park, soon to be located at 215 W. Washington St. Approximately 2,380 square feet, the dimensions for the Festival Park Mural is set for 140 feet x 20 feet on ends with the middle wall being 14 feet. The wall itself has already been prepped and painted for the winning artist. 

A three phase process, phase one will require artists to submit their Letter of Interest by August 9 with the artist selection and notification to submit design proposals on Aug. 16. Phase two will have the deadline for design proposals by August 30 with the final selection and notification of the artist to create the mural on Sept. 13. For phase three, the timeline for the mural creation will be negotiated with the artist. Suffolk Art League Executive Director Linda Bunch reflected on how the project was brought about.

“Well there’s been a lot of discussion for years about doing some murals. As you’re aware, other cities in Hampton Roads have a lot of mural work going on. So we really wanted to do something here in Suffolk,” Bunch said.

Bunch noted discussions with the city, Keep Suffolk Beautiful, Clean Community Commission and others to create public art for Downtown Suffolk.

“It’s just such a great kick-off to revitalization and there’s things happening downtown, the Elliott Hotel is being renovated and that kind of thing, that we just felt like this was a really good time,” she said.

On the Suffolk Art League being part of the project, Bunch expressed that the arts have a huge role in revitalization efforts for any community, noting the Suffolk Center of the Cultural Arts and both Suffolk Art League and Suffolk Art Gallery efforts in the city.

“This just seemed like a natural progression and with just the interest in murals and public art and communities that it’s time Suffolk got on that bandwagon darn it!” Bunch said with a chuckle. “We need to jump on there and use the arts. There are communities that have mural tours that draw tourists there to towns because they have enough that they can put together a whole tour.”

On the mural itself, Bunch says they would like it to be relevant and significant to Suffolk but notes that the design choices are “wide-open.”

“We want something that’s going to be eye-catching, [and] colorful. The only limitation the city has put on us is we can’t have neon colors. But other than that, it’s pretty open,” she said.

The mural must not have any “political, religious, racist, or appropriated copyright images” and also must not have “sexually explicit or vulgar images or language.” Bunch hopes the Festival Park mural will be “the first of many” in the city, even talking about discussions with the city to have a mural done on the wall of the Phoenix Bank of Nansemond on East Washington St.

“So that’s probably what we would look at next,” Bunch said. “…It all comes down to money of course to see what we can afford to do after this one, and hopefully it will bring some excitement and more people will want to get involved and the money won’t be as big an issue as it could be I guess. We’re hoping it will build excitement for downtown.”

She continued.

“I just have this feeling that once they get started, property owners are going to say, ‘My building! Can we have one on my building?” Bunch laughed. “So I think the excitement will build once we get started.”

Artists submitting a proposal should email to suffolkartleague.education@gmail.com. For more information, go to suffolkartleague.com/paint-the-town.