Sprout Picks 8 Commuities

A local non-profit group will be adding murals to 8 communities this summer. The Sprout fund announced its list of “2009 Mural Communities” this week. The list includes; The Crafton Public Library, a building on West Liberty Avenue in Dormont, Hermanowski’s in the strip and buildings on Greenfield Avenue in Greenfield, Chislett Street in Morningside and Lowrie Street in Troy Hill. Along with those 6 new murals the Sprout Fund is returning to Wilkinsburg to expand a mural painted in 2003 and the Lawrenceville neighborhood where a project was postponed in 2008. The Sprout Fund received 15 applications from communities and applications from 60 artists this year. Three to five artists will be assigned to each new community and their designs will be put on display May 21 at Concept Art Gallery in Regent Square. Sprout Public Art painted its first mural in 2003 and has created 45 works since then. Sprout Fund Public Art Manager Curt Gettman says when deciding where to put the murals the fund likes to think about the “three C’s.” He says those are Coverage, (communities where there is no public art) Corridor, (placement along heavily traveled streets) and Concentration (placing several murals in one community to build an “art gallery without walls.”) Gettman says while art itself cannot transform a community, he thinks the community effort that goes into applying for and creating a mural builds better neighborhoods.