Downtown Mural

You may or may not have noticed the mural on the Lil’ Hands Big Dreams building at the corner of Main St. and North Ave. This serves as the kick-off to Norwalk’s community-wide public art program.

Who painted the mural?

The awesome Norwalk High School Mural Team is a group of select students who are involved in the NHS Art Club and high school art classes. The group was developed in order to connect student artists with community projects. The Mural Team (Angela Davidson, Carolyn Klein, Chelsea Gambrel and Kathy Riemersma,Steve Davidson, Caitlin Ferden, Jaiden Rouse, Sydney Fisher, Emma Burnett, Luke Agey, Tenley Schroeder, Alli Kreider, and Callan Randall)

Who funded the project?

Norwalk Hometown Pride was granted 8 gallons of paint from Diamond Vogel Paints as part of the Paint Iowa Beautiful Grant worth over $500. This was more than enough paint for the mural team to work with.

How long did it take?

We began work on Monday, June 10. It took 8 full days (and some evenings) of painting to complete.

What is the history behind the design?

The building at 730 Main Street is the current location of Lil’ Hands Big Dreams Daycare. Mary, Brian and Caitlin Ferden helped create the design which represents the former history of the building and Norwalk. The building formerly housed a Model A dealership. The Model A Ford is coming out of what once was a garage door for the auto shop. The Model A is shown in the garage door, the “Crown Gasoline” and “Norwalk Auto Garage” are also from a reference photo. The building also sold horse buggies. Norwalk once had a train running through the town. They used the caboose that is in City Park in the mural. The daycare’s business name is painted on the windmill. The Norwalk art students did a lot to add their own voice and personal touch to the mural by adding flowers, birds and other details that further enhanced the design.

Success!!!

We had a great response from the community that passed by. Some long-time residents came by to confirm their knowledge of the area and could connect to the history of the building and corner.

This group has also painted the designs on the trash cans at Warrior Park, painted 2 hopscotches on the sidewalks of City Park and Brownie Park, 2 checkerboards on the picnic tables of Brownie Park, and painted one of the designs on a planter in City Park. Great work team!!!!