Flint Energies to Fund Mural Projects in Buena Vista and Fort Valley
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2022
Flint Energies announced today that the cities of Buena Vista and Fort Valley have won grants from the Co-op’s Rural Murals program. Flint will award $10,000 each to On the Square Holdings, LLC, and the Austin Theater Enrichment Arts Alliance, as part of a matching grant. Both groups will invest approximately $2,500 of their own funds towards their mural project.
The Marion County mural will transform the side of the building located at 111 North Broad Street in Buena Vista, on the town’s historic courthouse square. The building that will host the mural has had a storied past. Initially a general merchandise store, it has housed the Marion County Board of Education, Parker Hardware and Brady Hardware prior to several restaurants spanning over the last three decades. The proposed mural will feature the animals, plants and landscape of the local longleaf pine ecosystem, which is the basis of the area’s former turpentine industry.
The Fort Valley mural, titled “Excellence is the Standard”, will grace the east wall of 104 East Church Street. This mural will feature the portraits of several distinguished residents who have excelled in the arts, athletics and military, bringing a sense of pride to the City of Fort Valley and Peach County. The project will be the second Rural Murals project to assist with Fort Valley’s downtown revitalization efforts.
Both winning organizations have contracted with artist Chris Johnson of Columbus to paint their murals. Since 2017, Chris has painted approximately 30 murals throughout Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. In 2021, he was selected to paint three murals for Flint’s Rural Murals program. You can see examples of Chris’ mural work and community projects at his website, chrisjmfa.com.
The Rural Murals program, which began in 2019, establishes a collaboration between Flint Energies and the local, rural community to create outdoor murals that carry lasting impact, spark economic development and are the focal point of community discussion. The focus is to celebrate the unique history and diversity of our local rural communities. It is vital to establishing a strong sense of place for residents by creating suitable and recognizable murals within a community/downtown. The Rural Murals program intends to increase the number of public murals across Flint’s service territory while supporting the incredibly talented artist community within Middle Georgia. Flint Energies will identify and partially fund the projects that highlight positive images of Middle Georgia area’s history and culture through an application process.
The program’s murals are designed to bring travelers off main interstates to travel the backroads…off the beaten path to discover the vast resources our area has to offer. Money spent in the towns that host the murals will directly benefit those areas, as the funds are given by visitors and not long-time residents.
“Our intent is to positively impact the aesthetics, marketability and perception of each winner’s community; to increase property values and serve as a catalyst for continued private sector investment through visible improvements. We hope that these murals will provide visually-friendly environments for residents and visitors alike to dine, shop, work and live,” says Marian McLemore, Flint’s Vice President of Cooperative Communications. “We are excited to partner with both Buena Vista and Fort Valley on this year’s mural projects and hope they transform not only the economies but the lives of residents in each of these communities,” says McLemore.
