EAST LANSING, Mich. — Traveling muralist and artist Lauren Asta is scheduled to begin working on the Center City Mural this week in downtown East Lansing.
Beginning on Tuesday, July 7, Asta will be working onsite to create the public art mural in the alleyway between the future location of Jolly Pumpkin and Pinball Pete’s. The mural will be located at street level on the eastern wall of the Newman Lofts building, and it will be 22 feet tall and 56 feet wide. It is expected to be completed in approximately two weeks; however, the timeline may need to be extended due to weather or other unforeseen circumstances.
To celebrate this latest addition to the City of East Lansing’s public art collection, HB BM East Lansing LLC (HB BM) – the developers of the Center City District (Center City) development - plan to host a press event when the mural is completed. Additional press event details will be announced soon.
Background
This past spring, the East Lansing City Council, with support from the East Lansing Arts Commission and East Lansing Art Selection Panel, approved entering into a partnership with HB BM to bring traveling muralist and artist Lauren Asta to East Lansing to create a public art mural on the site of the Center City development. HB BM worked closely with Chicago-based art consultant Anna Cerniglia, founder of Johalla Projects, in the selection of Lauren Asta for the mural, which is being installed in fulfillment of the City’s Percent of Art requirement.
Lauren Asta, based in Chicago, Ill., specializes in illustration, oddity art, doodle art, street art and murals. Her murals are all hand painted without any aid of a sketch, projector or traced outline. She works completely freehand.
“Public art is created to inspire and create hope. In challenging times, such as this, I am looking forward to creating a mural that will remind us of the joy and love that continuously remains around us,” said Asta.
The Center City Mural is being funded with $19,800 of HB BM’s initial payment of $25,000 to the Percent for Art program’s Public Art Fund. Instead of utilizing the balance paid to the Public Art Fund, HB BM also agreed to fund the remaining $4,700 for the mural in order to preserve the remaining funds contributed to the Public Art Fund for other art opportunities in downtown East Lansing.
East Lansing’s Percent for Art program (Ordinance No. 1339) requires developers to commit one percent of their project’s cost (with a $25,000 cap) to public art, through the installation of a piece of public art within their project, the donation of a piece of public art to the City of East Lansing or through a payment to the City’s Public Art Fund for future commissions of public art.