Murals - Point Pleasant Flood Walls

 

I love public art. I think more funding should be allotted for it. Public art enhances a community is a way that really lifts it up.

 

Not just that community, but all the communities that surround it. It creates a unifying positive atmosphere so  desperately needed today.

 

Went with friends to the river front town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia to enjoy the murals now painted on the flood walls built to protect the city in times the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers overflowed their banks. Point Pleasant has embraced its riverfront, making it both a protection and a really pleasant place to enjoy a summer afternoon. The murals are well done. Illustrate the area history, from both the native American perspective and the settler’s points of views, and are just for themselves beautiful works of art.

 

An afternoon enjoying the artwork and the park is time well spent. It is time we can recharge our batteries. Taking time to enjoy these public displays lets us realize just how good our lives really art. How much we have. What a rich heritage everyone has in common.

 

Today reminded me just how important public art can be to an area. Even art that is controversial, is important. I remember when the Chicago Picasso was first installed. What an uproar! but now it is an iconic symbol of that city.



Check the history books, and read the first reactions to the Statue of Liberty. Although many thought it horrible, can you imagine New York without it? Years ago we made a trip to New York and one of the things we had to do is take the ferry out to Liberty Island to see this iconic statue.

I am not discounting the many war memorials and statues. These are our history. Simply knowing why that person or this event was considered important enough to be remembered is important. But don't forget the items of pure art. The installations of fabric or large metal flowers. The statues that people look at and scratch their heads. These also are part of our heritage.

What piece of public art do you remember and think is important?