By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The latest Barton Arts Movement mural at the Barton County Health Department was over a year in the making. Misty Trudeau, financial officer at the health department, was already fond of the way the block design and colors looked on paper. She said all aspects of the project were by design and the final product has exceeded expectations.
"There are so many amazing murals going up in Great Bend," she said. "The idea was to be strategic in the colors we used, to use something that was a little friendlier, so we could feel more inviting with respect to the building itself because sometimes health things are scary for some people."
Work on the building at the intersection of Lakin and Kansas Aves. in Great Bend got underway on Sept. 26. Unlike most murals in the city, this project featured a community Paint Party on Saturday, Sept. 28. Health Department Director Karen Winkelman was pleased with the turnout.
"The artists were very pleased," she said. "They had stenciled part of the drawing on. They wished they had stenciled more because the amount of people who turned out did a great job. We had little ones there, probably two years old and four, covered in paint and loving every minute of it."
The mural was made possible by a matching funds grant from the Kansas Arts Commission in the amount of $9,250. Barton Arts Movement is a grass-roots, volunteer team dedicated to creating community pride through public art.