This week’s Artwaves has two interviews connected by one topic: the city of Eureka’s multiple-year Strategic Arts Plan. The plan is all about identifying, protecting and developing Eureka’s arts and culture. And one of the projects articulated in Phase One of the plan is beautifying Opera Alley in Old Town.
And speaking of Opera Alley, internationally renowned street artist Dan Kitchener just this past week finished his mural. Kitchener speaks with Butler by phone from his hotel room in San Francisco, hours before he is due to catch a flight back to the UK.
Kitchener’s mural “Electric-City” covers the Third-Street-facing side of the historic 1884 Buhne Building at Second and G streets. Kitchener was commissioned by Kevin Bourque and his Black Faun Art Project Group to paint the mural, which Kitchener describes on his Website as his largest mural to date. It is 50 feet high and 70-feet wide and he painted it in eight days.
And as you heard on last week’s Artwaves, Eureka Cultural Arts District is one of 14 districts serving as California’s premier state-designated Cultural Districts. Kitchener’s mural is an example of current and planned arts and culture programs and events that gave Eureka a competitive advantage in securing the Cultural District designation from California Arts Council.
The Ink People Center for the Arts is the lead on the partnership that includes the city of Eureka and other organizations. Butler speaks with Libby Maynard, who has been Executive Director of The Ink People for 38 years.
