By Alexandra Jaffe
special to the meadville tribune
This week, a couple of outdoor lavatories at Meadville’s Shadybrook Park “disappeared.” They can now be found behind a camouflage of four hand-painted murals conceptualized and installed by Allegheny College art professor Amara Geffen, her students and members of the Meadville community.
“They were kind of one of the eyesores in the park,” said Emma Cook, a sophomore at Allegheny who helped to paint the murals as part of her summer internship with the Center for Economic and Environmental Development. “To remedy that problem, we thought it would be nice to paint murals to transform the entrance of the park.”
Located just off upper North Street not far from Meadville’s middle-high school complex, city-owned Shadybrook Park was until recently a favorite summertime playground for children. Still used for organized youth activities one day a week when school’s out, its picturesque setting also has popular picnic areas for public use.
The murals were designed by Allegheny College seniors and CEED interns Christine Wusylko and Elizabeth Duhan by integrating concept drawings from students at Meadville Area Middle School and Meadville Area Senior High School. They were painted this past summer with the help of former art teacher Pete Maruska and his son, University of Rochester senior Andrew Maruska.
The murals depict a day-and-night theme, with each of the two outhouses showcasing local birds and wildlife and the view of the stream that would otherwise be obstructed.
“We wanted to camouflage the outhouses,” Geffen said, “to show, ‘here’s what’s in this site.’ ”
In addition to the murals, Geffen and her students are working on larger projects to transform Shadybrook Park into a community center and meeting place, as it had been previously for the city of Meadville.
“Shadybrook Park is the place where people went,” Geffen said. “It was a real asset, and a place that brought community members together.”
Through a project started in the fall of 2007 with the capstone class for Allegheny’s new Arts and Environment minor, plans to renovate the park have taken shape, and the murals are the first in what Geffen expects to be many projects over the next two years. Students and community members working together will install a stormwater filtration system, a footbridge over Mill Run, and a recreation path throughout the park.
Wusylko saw more to the Shadybrook Park project than just a chance to showcase her art.
“It’s an example of students working with the community to make the community a better place,” she said.
And the renovations are part of the Not Your Run of the Mill City project, a wider effort to make Meadville a better place for industry and business to grow. Geffen describes the Not Your Run of the Mill project as “a four-point strategy for strengthening and building a sustainable Meadville.
“It focuses on economic development, community development, neighborhood revitalization and environmental development,” she explained.
Geffen and other members of the Meadville community are hoping that, through the revitalization of the areas along Mill Run Creek and through art installments in downtown Meadville, the uniqueness of the city will become a strong draw for businesses.
“We want to make this a place businesses want to come to and set up in and thrive,” Geffen said. “We have a lot of opportunities for that, despite economic challenges.”
Jaffe is an Allegheny College student and editor of the Campus newspaper.
sidebar:
The Shadybrook Park renovations are just the beginning of numerous planned projects throughout the city that will further the effort to beautify and revitalize Meadville. Ultimately, Geffen says she doesn’t see challenges, but rather the potential in Meadville’s many unique resources that will be developed through the Not Your Run of the Mill City efforts.
“Look at the incredible local talent we have, the fantastic local stream, and the wonderful downtown,” she said. “These are all local assets worth our engagement.”
Local News
Related Photos
Discussion
Shadybrook Park outhouses in style thanks to mural project
- Local News
-
-
Area communities ready to celebrate Memorial Day
Editor’s note: The following Memorial Day events have been reported for publication in The Tribune. All events are Monday, except those in Edinboro and Shermansville, which are planned for Sunday. -
Remembering Civil War Bucktails
A glimpse into daily life of the Civil War era is easy to see in Crawford County.
-
Area Memorial Day events
The following Memorial Day events have been reported for publication in The Tribune. All events are on Monday, except the one at Edinboro that is planned for Sunday.
-
Civil War soldiers highlight Meadville Memorial Day events
A courageous Meadville man — wounded three times but remaining on a Civil War battlefield until he was too weak to continue — is being remembered this Memorial Day as the Meadville Area Memorial Day Committee continues its mission of observing the 150th anniversary of the War Between the States.
-
Police: Locals admit to killing Ohio woman
Two Cochranton women were arrested and jailed on homicide charges early Thursday after allegedly admitting they killed an Ohio woman and buried her body in a shallow grave near their residence recently.
-
Reader 'Faces' are coming in
Mom's car dash, Meadville, PA
Lucy Kedzierski, 12, looks at the face every morning waiting for school bus!
She took this with a cell phone. -
North Street Project sure to be 'very disruptive'
With the preliminary traffic control plan for Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s North Street Project complete, Meadville City Manager Joe Chriest summed up the anticipated impact of the project, which is expected to span the entire 2013 construction season. “This is going to be very, very disruptive,” he said Wednesday.
-
Boat business booming in warm weather
It’s been a booming business in boats this spring, according to some area boat dealers.
-
City leaders not concerned after financial downgrade
During the past five years, Moody’s Investors Service has assigned three different ratings — all within the range of “upper medium grade” to the City of Meadville’s bonds. In 2007, the city was given a rating of A3, the lowest of the trio. In 2010, the city’s bond rating was raised to A1, the highest ranking in the “upper medium” category. Monday, Moody’s gave the city’s $10,000,000 General Obligation Bonds, Series of 2012, which went on the market Monday, the middle rating of A2.
-
Elderly, disabled and their caregivers have tremendous new local resource
The new Crawford County Link isn’t a place, but an information network to help people age 60 and older or those between 18 and 59 with disabilities stay living independently.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Area communities ready to celebrate Memorial Day
Jimmy Carter Endorses Egypt's Election Results
Biden Addresses West Point Graduating Class
Dozens of Children Killed in New Syria Attack
Raw Video: Activists Allege Massacre in Syria
NJ Man Charged With Murder in Death of Patz
Support, Fun for Kids of Fallen Soldiers at Camp
Fugitive Penguin Caught, Returned to Aquarium
50 Years Later, Underground Fire Still Burning
Light Show Transforms Sydney Opera House
Raw Video: Unruly Passenger Restrained in Miami
Raw Video: Robber Uses Drive-thru Window
Raw Video: Dragon Arrives at Space Station
Calif.'s Coronado Named Nation's Best Beach
CEO Salaries Become Sore Issue in Labor Disputes
Raw Video: Fight Erupts in Ukrainian Parliament
Texan Ranchers Remain Wary of Drought
Raw Video: Soldiers Plant Flags at Arlington
Police: Man Arrested in Etan Patz Disappearance
NYC Protests: the Revolution Will Be Scripted
Chicago U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald Resigns
