BANGOR, Maine — Unity was the theme used this year for the new downtown Bangor wheatpaste art murals throughout downtown. 50 artists submitted their creative and unique work but only 13 pieces were chosen this year to help revitalize the downtown streets of Bangor.
The goal is to bring the community together through inspiring pieces of art and help brighten up downtown after a long and difficult pandemic year.
Jashua Gass is the managing director at Launchpad, a non-profit arts organization in Bangor that did the mural project.
“It’s a very simple process where the artwork is printed out and then we use wheat paste to adhere it to the side of the building,” said Gass.
Gass says the quality of submission this year was very good and the team had a hard time choosing the best pieces, keeping the theme of unity in mind.
"We allow people to submit artists of all different skills and backgrounds, so it's a good chance for artists to be seen, and to get their artwork out there, we had over 50 applications or 50 submissions of artwork, we took 13 I belive pieces that will go up at 10 locations across downtown,” said Gass.
The temporary installations of art will come down early fall.
Launchpad works to promote arts and culture state-wide as a core piece of community development.
“This was a project that we were really excited to take on, we thought it was a good way to work with emerging artists but also do something that was reflected in the community,” said Gass.
Click here if you want to learn more about Launchpad.