Flint Energies announced today that the cities of Marshallville, Roberta and Talbotton have won grants from the Co-op’s Rural Murals program. Flint will award $10,000 each to the Marshallville Foundation, Keep Roberta/Crawford Beautiful and the Talbot County Board of Commissioners, as part of a matching grant. All three groups will invest approximately $2,500 of their own funds towards their community’s mural project.

The Marshallville mural will transform the side of the Turner’s Antiques building at 101 East Main Street. The proposed mural will highlight peaches and camellias, which are indictive of the area. Marshallville is the origin of the commercial peach industry in Georgia, due to the development of the Elberta Peach around 1875 by Samuel H. Rumph. Located on the Georgia Camellia Trail, Marshallville is also located near the headquarters of the American Camellia Society at Massee Lane Gardens. The gardens are home to nine acres of camellia plantings, plus more than 20 acres devoted to specialty gardens and collections.

The Roberta mural will adorn the left side of the building located at 254 Wright Avenue. Continuing the historical theme of their previous Rural Mural, this mural will highlight Crawford County grist mills of the 1800s and early 1900s. Grist mills provided an important role in the survival of everyday living as they would grind meal, making flour and grits for local residents, a true farm to rural table process. Backed by the Keep Roberta/Crawford County Beautiful, the mural’s matching grant will be paid for by recycling income and donations.

The Talbotton mural will decorate the western side of The Peoples Bank of Georgia building, located at 50 West Monroe Street. The mural will focus on Talbot County history and is sponsored by the Talbot County Board of Commissioners. This will be the first Rural Mural located in Talbot County.

All winning organizations have contracted with premier muralist Chris Johnson of Columbus. Since 2017, Chris has painted more than 50 murals across the Southeast. View 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’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. So far, the program has installed ten murals across Flint’s service area.

“We are delighted to partner with Marshallville, Roberta and Talbotton on this year’s mural projects and hope they continue to transform not only the economies but the lives of residents in each of these communities as our other murals have done,” says Marian McLemore, Flint’s Vice President of Cooperative Communications.

Previous Rural Murals projects are located at:

• 100 North Sumter Street, Oglethorpe

• South Matthews Street, Roberta

• 4 West Main Street, Butler

• 20 South Broad Street, Butler

• 110 South Camellia Blvd., Fort Valley

• 104 East Church Street, Fort Valley

• 111 North Broad Street, Buena Vista

• 28 Church Street, Ellaville

• 115 East Main Street, Fort Valley

• 102 West Church Street, Fort Valley.

Earlier this year, Flint Energies invited rural communities located in the Co-op’s service territory to apply for the Rural Murals grant. Flint Energies’ service area encompasses parts of Bibb, Chattahoochee, Crawford, Dooly, Harris, Houston, Macon, Marion, Monroe, Muscogee, Peach, Schley, Sumter, Talbot, Taylor, Twiggs and Upson counties. In March, the Cooperative received several grant applications. The top three scoring mural ideas were funded.